MGW install kicking my @$$

I'm telling ya you should just do the driveshaft. It will let the trans drop several inches. The driveshaft should be marked with a paint pen from the factory. Just realign them

Evo_Rob said:

Yep, I refuse to do jackstand installs haha. Body weight is an essential tool in 90% of my installs.

Do you have a wife/gf laying around somewhere that you can put to work? Just hug that bitch, the transmission of course, and have the help wiggle the bolt in.

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How the hell are you going to help me install mine?! :lol:

Rustang said:

I am about 175lbs and hung from the tailshaft of the tranny which wasn't quite enough so I held on with my left arm and reached up with my right and pushed on the bolt as I bounced a bit which gave a moment of "lowerness" and on the 2nd or 3rd bounce it slid in.

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Sounds like it would work standing under a llft. Not much room to bounce laying on the ground. Maybe some cars but not mine.

Unbolting the DS is probably the fastest but George's 2x4 and ratcheting strap sounds better to me. I'll post how it goes after I get some wood to go between the 2x4 and frame rails so the 2x4 clears the exhaust.

I can't see any problem with that unless for some unforeseen reason the trans has to be at an exact distance from the tunnel top but I haven't seen any thing that makes me think you can't get the bolt in if the trans is even lower than needed. Because with the ratchet, the trans won't have any wiggle room. It will be where the next click of the ratchet put it.

Ha, I am not talking about swinging on it like a monkey! Just lift yourself up enough to get your body off the ground and tug up and down only moving your body a few inches. You'll get like 1/4" and that should be enough. I did this with mine on jack stands. Just thought it was worth a suggestion before you spend a bunch of time messing with straps

HoosierDaddy said:

That's a problem. I asked my GF to help me but then my wife came home, and now neither one will help. ;)

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Ugh, hate when that happens!

rj67 said:

How the hell are you going to help me install mine?! :lol:

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Special circumstances. If I have help, it's not so bad haha. I should've added that stipulation

Rustang said:

Ha, I am not talking about swinging on it like a monkey! Just lift yourself up enough to get your body off the ground and tug up and down only moving your body a few inches. You'll get like 1/4" and that should be enough. I did this with mine on jack stands. Just thought it was worth a suggestion before you spend a bunch of time messing with straps

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I've already spent hours over a few days doing what you did. I got 1/4" like you said and probably more but it wasn't enough for my car. There are manufacturing tolerances, and I think they all maxed out the wrong way in my car when it comes to room to get that bolt in. LoL

Can you use a shorter bolt? :shrug:

GTBOB said:

Can you use a shorter bolt? :shrug:

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Unfortunately, it goes thru an threaded ear in the trans casting, thru a shifter part (factory or aftermarket) and into a threaded ear on the other side. Any shortening would result in less threads being engaged. Maybe fewer would be enough but I don't know. To get it in with just the cross-member off and the trans hanging, you'd have to cut off a lot of threads. But if you pull the trans down just a little the tunnel gets massively wider. You can see it in my picture although it can be hard to see 3D aspects in a 2D picture. basically you'd have to cut off as much of the bolt as the horizontal red arrow is long.

Ah. I just read you pried with 2x4s as well, I might try the driveshaft removal trick as pulling with straps might damage something if you are that tight.

It's too easy to drop the driveshaft. Makes life really easy.

By the way please be careful if you guys intend on yanking on the trans while under the car. You don't want to break the motor mounts and have it drop on you. Or worse.. Shake the car off the jackstands

You could just dent the heat sheild a tad...

Evo_Rob said:

Ugh, hate when that happens!

Special circumstances. If I have help, it's not so bad haha. I should've added that stipulation

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Scared me for a second! Getter done!

rj67 said:

Scared me for a second! Getter done!

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We can always take it to Oceana and I can drive your car on base. It's like $5/hour for a lift

When I did my install, I put 2 short 2x4's between the tranny crossmember and the frame.
That way the tranny stayed down the whole time I did the shifter install.