Hello,

I have a 1996 LT4 6speed. It has a low end knock and has been sitting for years. I have decided to try to pull the motor myself and fix it. I have some experience with pulling motors in older cars. I have the GM manuals for this car. It says I need to pull transmission to take the motor out. I removed the exhaust today. I was going to remove the driveshaft but the torsion bar is in the way. I cant figure out how you are supposed to get to the bolts on the top. There is no room. I went to remove the cat from the drivers side and it has a support bracket that is attached to the bell housing bolt. There is absolutely no room to get a socket on that bolt. How in the hell are you supposed to get this motor out if cant get to the bolts that hold it all together. ARRGHHH!! I might just sell this rig.. By the way I am doing this in my driveway on jack stands. I cant seem to get it high enough either.

I have everything removed from the top of the motor but the underside is defeating me!

 

It’s easy...

on the driveshaft, remove the u-joint straps. On the driver side tunnel you will see s pinch weld seam, pound that down with a hammer and the driveshaft can be removed.

at that point you will need a box wrench to hold the nut up top. The bolt drops from the bottom. 18mm at the trans and 21mm at the diff. Support the Trans before unbolting the c-beam. After getting both sides loose. Push the c-beam over to the passenger side, and my preference is to slide it forward. After you slide it forward you can start to pitch the trans and then slide the c-beam off.

 

Pull engine with bell housing attached. It's really all about how high you can get car off the ground. Impact gun is a big plus taking c beam bolts out.

 

The catalytic converters are very bulky and seemingly bracketed to everything under the sun. Be patient and get those out of there and everything gets a LOT easier once they are gone. Hang in there its worth it!

 

After a nights rest I am ready to go again. During yesterday attempt to get the driver side cat off one stud broke in the manifold. So I will need another manifold I am sure. Fun. I even tried heating the bolts.

how high does the car need to be?

will the engine come out with the bell housing on if the harmonic balancer is still on?

Oh yeah, how do you remove the stock shifter ****?

thank you
doug

 

http://www.zfdoc.com/transmission.htm

 

Stud can be drilled out and chase the threads and should be good as new.

My preference is to remove the bell housing and flywheel when removing the engine. You will need to do it anyways to mount the engine on a stand, might as well do it to give yourself more room to extract the engine.

Pull up the shift pattern, take two flat blade screw drivers and use them as levers to pull the wedge up.

 

He

here is how high the car is. Seems high but when I am under it there is no room.

 

that write up is extremely helpful!!!! Thank you so much!!!

 

At least you can keep an eye on your car from your den.

 

Todays progress. I got larger jack stands, 6 ton, and got the car about 6" higher. That has helped a ton. Getting under this car 100 times a day is hard on this 51 year old. Using the vise grips tip from the link above I was able to get the bolts loose and removed from the support beam. The hard part came next. Sliding it forward enough to clear the rear end. The original heat shield material is in place and was rubbing the tunnel as I tried to slide/pry this thing forward. After several hours of work I got ahead of the rear end. Dropped the trans on the jack and out it comes. I think getting it back in will be absolute nightmare.

Now the transmission is next. Might take the day off from it tomorrow as my son wants to go fishing. BUT I am wondering with the transmission lowered some and supported with the jack and the engine supported under the oil pan how hard is it going to be to get the transmission back in the car once I have the motor back in and ready. I am thinking of just leaving it on the jack right under the car. I can see trying to stab that thing back in being a really hard job while laying under the car. Any tips?

On bell housing removal it sounds like there are a few little tips you have to know as well. Any tips there as well?

 

There's probably more to it than I remember, but these are some of the highlights.

First pull the transmission. Disconnect the hose to the clutch slave cylinder. Disconnect the wiring harness from the transmission. Inside the car, remove shifter ****. Inside the car remove both the upper and lower transmission boots from the console and pull up and off of the shifter stalk. Undo the four bolts that hold the transmission to the bell housing. Support the trans with a jack with wheels, maneuver it to the rear and lower, the shifter stalk should clear the trans tunnel .

Remove the bell housing. This straight forward EXCEPT that this is a PULL TYPE CLUTCH (not a more common push style) and the clutch fork / throwout bearing WILL NOT disengage from the pressure plate. From the transmission side of the bell housing loosen the clutch fork pivot. IF it's original, there may still be a round locking cap screwed it atop the pivot itself, Often these are left out during clutch jobs. If the locking cap is still there unscrew it counter clockwise. Once the base of the clutch pivot is exposed, turn it CLOCKWISE to move it forward until it disengages from the bell housing.

Remove the perimeter bolts from around the bell housing.

When I pulled the engine on my 96 the radiator and a/c condenser were both out, although with the radiator pulled the a/c condendser can be maneuvered out of the way.

 

Oops; did I say that? Leave the hose connected; unbolt the slave cylinder. My bad.

 

I am starting to wonder if it would be easier to get my brother to help me pull the hood and then pull the motor with the trans connected. Will it clear with the radiator in the car?

Just wondering because it would seem once I have the cats off and as high as I have the car it should just angle right out of there..... thoughts?

 

This isn't a 55 Chevy where you have a ton of room to maneuver things around. Drop the trans and then pull the engine. I don't think you want a hole in your firewall, windshield, HVAC box, ETC.

Also, do yourself a favor, get a huge piece a plywood to be able to roll things. I think you will struggle otherwise on your current work floor.

 

I got the plywood under the car today. I did it while you were posting this. Now it is pouring rain. My work, roofing contractor, is considered essential during this time but the amount is down right now. Hopefully I can get some real headway on this project during this time.

Thanks for everyones replies to my questions. I am certain they will continue to come as this goes along.

 

I have removed the engine (less bellhousing etc.) without removing the hood. Fairly easy using a standard engine hoist. My hood fits and latches nice and I was afraid to mess up the adjustment so wanted to leave it alone.
Many years ago I worked at a shop that did Italian cars. Everything from Fiat to Ferrari. The guys who wrenched on the exotics had a certain attitude, like "it is just going to take however long it takes". It is helpful to adopt a similar approach to working on the C4. They're not terribly high tech, or even that terribly challenging from a "room to work" perspective, but if you just take your time up front, take pictures, and accept that it isn't going to be as easy as the aforementioned 'ol '55 you will do fine and it is worth it in the end.

 

Ok so I got the transmission out. Wasn’t too difficult once I got it lowered some on the jack. As I lowered it it did slip off the jack. So my plan of leaving it on the jack didn’t pan out. Getting it back on the jack will be a pain but I am far from that step and my brother will help me there.

What is this little tube? Breather? Does it connect to something?

 

Don't pull the hood. You have been warned

 

breather