I'm an old school guy. I may be 26 but i cut my teeth on cars w/ a 1967 Chevy truck and 1953 Studebakers.

I recently purchased a 95' Chevy Camaro and when i bought it the 4th gear syncro was pretty well dead. No big deal ill drive it for a while .. rev match into 4th and no real issues will come arise till i can get the trans rebuilt.

Wrong, about a 2 weeks ago reverse gate was getting hard to get through. And then it was so hard to get through reverse wasn't useable. I looked around for some local shops most were quoting me $3k to pull and rebuild the transmission... ugh. I went online and found that i could get a donor for $420 with a 6 month warranty. So i bought it .. would take a week to get here.. no big deal. As long as i don't park it where i needed to backup. That was last tuesday. It shipped thurday. For this past thursdays delivery.

Well.. Last friday on my way to work i shifted from first to second across an intersection and it let loose... wouldn't do anything ... i tried to go back into first .. really fast grind.. second.. same thing third same thing... finally it went into 4th about 15mph which took a lot of clutch but i kept it moving.

I come to a stoplight and i'm able to get it into first or second i only have a block to go for work so i opt for first and park it at work. It acts like the all the syncros detonated at the same time.

So I finally get the thing towed home ..(After the first tow truck came .. then blew a hydraulic line) it was flat bedded home.

I'm used to old style.. single driveshafts and spaces under a car. Once i finally got the car in the air. I was introduced to the split driveshaft... joy I finally got it all out.

What is with the large steel bar connecting the transmission to the rear diff?

Do I really have to pull the bell housing to get the transmission out of the car? Or can i just unbolt it from the bellhousing?

 

The big bar is the torque arm, it keeps the rear axle housing from spinning around. Without it the rear tires will stand still and the axle housing will spin around instead. If you don't like the 2 piece drive shaft, you can always replace it with a single piece one from a V8 car.

 

did you look for a 6 speed? or is that what its got? 5 speed has separate belhousing so you can pull the trans only and 6 sp is one piece so on it all has to come out. one piece is a direct fit so pick one of them up so you wont have to worry about the carrier bearing. pick up a factory service manual for the 95 camaro. only way to go.