I need to pull my automatic transmission (2000 3.8l camaro/4L60E) to rebuild it. is it reasonable to do it on the garage floor without a lift? any tips or tricks you would suggest? how do i get the quick connect fittings off the cooler lines? any help is appreciated? thanks

 

how good of a mechanic are you? the fastest and easiest way to get the trans out is drop the front suspension and pull the motor down with it. with a lift and appropriate jack, you can have the trans out in 2 hours. if you are doing it at home, good luck. unless you have a way to get to the bolts on the top of the trans, i dont think it would be very easy to drop.

 

this is a very easy task, and dont drop the front suspension and the motor its totally unneccesary. the easiest way to get the top bolts out of the bellhousing is by lowerin the back of the trans and using a really lone extension with a swivel socket, its actually pretty easy. i can get one out of a 4 wheel drive pick up on ramps in 2.5 hours and yours should be an easier job cause you dont have a transfer case to worry about.

 

yeah I got the top bolt out easily with long extensions by dropping the tail of the tranny....but I can't seem to the get her torque converter bolts loose...or get the tranny to separate from the motor at all.

 

You may have to get the help of a friend to put a big socket on the front of the engine with a breaker bar and hold the bolt that is on the crank pulley while you try to unbolt the torque converter. Once the torque converter bolts are loose, you should be able to slide the tranny backwards. You may have to raise it back up to level in order to seperate it from the motor. There are a couple of alignment tabs on the back of the block that might have to be persuaded to let go of the tranny.

 

Yeah, thank you for replying....we've been doing that....the problem is...apparently a previous owner has removed this transmission....and the bolts they have secured the TC with are 8mm female hex bolts, not the standard 15mm bolts, so when we use a 8mm type allen wrench the bolts are rounding off because they are so tight....service manual says they should only be torqued to 47 lbs, so someone must have gotten happy with thread locker...

I've recieved suggestions to put head on them, PB Blaster and a impact gun to break them loose...

the dows appear to be okay, one side is a bit rusted but we soaked it with wd40

 

trany should come out the bottomside same as any other, a pain. also should come out without unhooking the converter, it makes a big big mess though. converters hold allot of fluid. lol. last resort, vice grips, can u get a pair in there. so its not one of those star bolts is it? 21st century and we cant figure out the best bolt head to use. i think its the tool companies are owned by the bolt company. lol, i have used a old wood chisel or really skinny screwdriver to get between the block and trany to brake em lose initially just make triple sure theres no bolts left holdin it on. good luck.

 

Probably clutch packs are burned. Smell the fluid. You need to swap out the converter and buy new. Add about a few cans of oil into the new converter.

Replace all the seals = Means, special tools for setting the o-rings up. You need to replace the pump seal or where the converter plug pushes through to the pump gear.

You need to clean the oil lines and the cooler with a solution and pressure wash with water as the cleaner/cutter.

You need to replace the brass sleeve from the pump housing. This will give a tighter fit to the converter plug and the seal will not drop a lip down so as to pour oil out, the sleeve was too worn.

If you have the right conditions, I could pull most transmissions out in about 20 minutes if I hauled azz. I find the trans is more complicated than the engine. More tricks to know about the valve body and all that.

You might be better off just to swap out the core with a SRTA (service rebuilt trans assembly) from the factory thru the dealership. Just order a SRTA.

The rebuild on your end might cost as much in parts as to find what all is wrong with the internals. SRTA cleans all the worn parts out of the unit. You may miss some as you reassemble the trans and might be pulled out again, you missed some little part.

 

check out your clutch plates. all transmisson errors begin with the problem from clutch. there may be some haltages from ignition