Neat tranny jack - almost.

[DonaldSmith]

Today I pulled the tip-toe tranny (that's short for transmission, for you newbies on the forum) from my 47 DeSoto. Why? I'll get to that later.

Too "thrifty" to buy a transmission jack for a one-time job, I took a hard look at my 2-ton floor jack. It's strong, pumps up quick, and can be lowered slowly and precisely.

Only problem: the handle is too long to work under the car.

I got a 10-inch length of 1-inch pipe, and ground down the end till it fit the jack. I fitted a small bolt across the end of the pipe to work the hydraulic valve, just like the long handle does.

The jack worked OK, with a few problems.

First, there was a sawcut joint in the floor just where the small wheels of the jack fell. Had to get the BFH and pry bar to help it along.

Second, when I strapped the tranny to the jack, I snagged the parking brake cable. The tranny would only go so far back before I had to release the strap. I didn't quite get the strap tight again, so the tranny rolled off the jack. But those things are rugged (the jeck and thr tranny).

I'll really strap the tranny down when I go to reinstall it.

Why take the tranny out? As I look back on the engine rebuild of a few years ago, I am haunted by a few things:

Did I put that mythical gasket between the tranny and bell housing? (Turns out, no! There's oil all over the underside of the tranny.)

What about the broken end of that strange springy thingy on the clutch release lever/throw out bearing pullback thing? Is that why the car goes "wump, wump, wump" when the car rolls backward with the clutch engaged? (I'll still have to pull out and replace that strange spring.)

And why is it such a b*tch to remove the tranny? It fights the floor hump all the way back. Are the rear motor mounts too thick? (A quarter inch too thick would make the rear of the transmission 3/8" too high.) I have to remove the bell housing to have at the motor mounts. But I want things right.

Someday I'll be the PO (previous owner, sometimes synonymous with SOB); I don't want the new owner to have some of the problems that I have run into. I want to leave this DeSoto better than when I got it.

[oldmopar]

As for a trans jack I have a Hf one that was about $50.00 a few years ago. it is a manual up down you work it with a 1/2" ratchet I have used it 3 or 4 times works ok. I do use my own strap to hold the trans in place but there is always something nice about building your own tools or adapting one like you did.

I do understand you thinking about removing the trans more then once I have put something together that I know was not 100% correct but workable and did go back and fix it.

Ed

[DonaldSmith]

Oh, you guys probably thought I was saying something else, like fudge.

I removed the bell housing, clutch fork assembly and release bearing.

The release bearing pullback spring is broken. It may have been one piece but it now is two, neither part with enough left to hold the ends of the fork against the sleeve. I'll call some clutch places tomorrow. Also, the bearing seems wobbly. It's a BCA 1872-1.

Tomorrow I attack the motor mounts.

[dezeldoc]

HF sells an adapter for the floor jack that makes it a trans jack.