Just wanted to share a new technique that worked very well to keep the axles from moving while breaking the M10 triple square bolts free. Installing the rotor and then sticking a screw driver through one of he wheel lug holes so it would stop against the spindle, worked just fine. But, it seriously reduced the angle of attack to get at the bolts.
So on the other side, instead of installing the rotor, I did this. Worked like a champ!
Ding ding! That was the awesome sauce. It practically fell off after letting it sit with PB Blaster during lunch, then hit the flange with mapp gas. Danke, herr justincredible!
Anyone have any tips on how to disconnect the coolant line at the back of the engine? I’ve got the engine pulled about 5 inches out from the bulkhead, and am having difficulty popping that coolant line off. There’s supposed to be some kind of clip on it, but I can’t see it.
I’ve been kind of poking and probing with a flathead screwdriver, but no luck yet.
Don’t take that line off. Pull the hoses off the heater core lines in the fire wall and push them down. Just notice how the top hose looks so you know the difference when you put them back on. Most of the time trying to get that coolant neck off will result in it breaking or getting a small hair line Crack that will require you to change it many months later
They won’t come off easy. So use a 90 degree pick soaked in oil. Oil up the end good and slide it in and walk it around. The hoses will just fall off. Push them down
That’s the better way and it will keep massive amounts of coolant from getting everywhere.
Now, the battle is that I’m hung up on something in the back…possibly transmission getting hung up on something. Everything on the sides on the engine are clear. Downpipes appear clear. Looking carefully at transmission now.
Ah! That’s awesome man congrats! It’s so awesome to see a son helping out his dad in the garage, that’s really heartwarming. Congrats on the pull! Looks like you did an awesome job! Now on to the fun part…
Thank you, sir. I must say, the Tiptronic transmission is even bigger in person than I imagined it was while it was in the car. It’s an incredible beast!
For tomorrow, I have to re-read my other thread so that I completely understand what justincredible wants me to do when separating the transmission from the engine. I suspect that part will mean the difference between the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.
Awesome! It is a beast for sure. It is very gratifying to get that thing out and apart.
Re:transmission. Make sure you have that jack balancing the trans! It is “front heavy” obviously. Also when you go to disconnect, don’t pull all the bolts 100% out right away, leave a couple partially in around the circumference so when you initially break it free you can tell how balanced it is without worrying about dropping it! Good luck~
I wholeheartedly agree, from the flip side (as the son). My dad stopped through on his way to Florida for a couple days to help me out a bit. Great memories. And all the time I spent with him in the garage growing up paid off in spades as I knew my way around a garage enough to tackle this job (and all the others on cars!) with a bit of confidence and knowledge. I hope to do the same with my daughter 8)
So, here’s a pic of the view window for the TC and flex plate. If I’m not mistaken, the flex plate it the thing with ribs or spokes. Is the smooth shiny thing part of the torque converter? If so, do I want to make the mark on the extreme right side of it along the edge of the window?
To support what has been said make sure the transmission is level the Jacks you have are good for now just make sure to keep on a solid surface.
You can’t see very much from that inspection whole. Remove the starter and you can see more or look from the bottom.
The flex plate has teeth for the starter to catch on and spin so yes the thing with the ridges is the flex plate. The tq converter you can’t see from that picture because it’s tucked into the transmission. Now you see why the placement of the tq converter is such a big deal. Because you can’t see it when trying to put everything together again and it’s a tight fit as it is. The last thing you want is to think it’s in all the way when it’s not and try to mate the transmission back up. If it’s wrong you’ll do serious damage.
Take your time take lots of pictures. Trust me it’s going to help
Ok, now I’m confused. I thought for sure you had said earlier that I was supposed to mark something through the view hole before separating the transmission.
Are you saying that now I should mark the position of the TC from the the hole where the starter lived? Looking through that hole, all I could really see is the flex plate and the M10 triple square bolts that connect the TC to the flex plate, when I spin the motor.
Yes you want to mark a reference mark on the inside of the transmission bell housing to help you reference how deep the tq converter is located in the transmission. With the inspection hole picture shown your not going to be able to do that. It’s probably better you use the access from removal of the starter.
That stand setup just looks sketchy as fuck to me. I just put the motor on a small pallet and had the trans on a roller dolly so I could pull it forward/back. Working up high might be a little bit nicer, but doesn’t seem worth the risk when you have that heavy trans that could fall over if the weight gets shifted just a bit wrong.
I actually have a TIP trans sitting on that same scissor jack in my garage and I would be pretty worried having it up that high on it. I never liked using it much for a 6MT, let alone the auto trans which are much heavier/bulky
Transmission detached. Now that I know what the torque converter looks like, it was easy to understand why it needs to sit on the input shaft inside the bell housing.
Woah! I thought you had to take the exhaust manifolds off to get the timing covers of… Damn, that could’ve saved me a lot of time this afternoon and having to order a few studs and new gaskets. Wish I’d have known but oh well.
Looks like you’re making great progress Slick! Nice work!
Yep, it certainly proves the old adage of "A picture is worth a thousand words. I could instantly grasp what you were saying, just by how the TC wanted to tip forward as soon as we broke the seal. Funnily enough, I thought that the back part of the flex plate was the actual TC. Much to my surprise, it was part of the flex plate itself!
It really isn’t rocket science, but I’ve got the TC marked in three places(by each triple square hole), so installing shouldn’t be too bad. I was really struggling to understand it all, but as soon as I could actually see it, everything came into place in my small brain.
Yes, I had cold start rattle of about 2-3 seconds, and intermittent warm start rattle of about the same.
The only other drama in getting everything apart was that I snapped the brittle plastic vacuum line while trying to pull the line off of the left side combi valve. I also discovered that one of the bolts on the oil filter housing was broken, which I must have done when I did the oil valves and jet job last year. I’ll need to extract that and then source a new bolt.
I also managed to strip the bottom 8 mm hex bolt on the right side engine mount. But I tapped in a T50 torx bit into there and broke it free. That was lucky! Would’ve have been a serious PITA to get that out had that trick not worked. ;D
All-in-all…for such a massive job, two bolts and a vacuum line is not such a bad casualty list. I’m going to replace many hoses while I’m in there, like the one from the IM valley to the PCV valve.
