3rd and 4th gear gone.

[MoparorNocaR]

It's me again, the 18 year old (read: KID), with another problem.

car:
1987 convert GT
t-5 tranny
problem:
3rd and 4th dissapeard with the wind
drive shaft wont come out
H-pipe wont drop

I was drivin... shifted into 3rd and boom... it was gone. So i decided ill pull the tranny and find a new one or get mine rebuilt.

i put it up on jacks
get under the car, where the h-pipe and collector hooks its frozen with rust. it wont come out. temporarily bypassed i dont have money to cut my hpipe bcuz im that broke rite now
so i move to my drive shaft instead,
this is giving me the most trouble. the bolts look like a 12pt box end, do your guys drive shaft bolts look like this ? i've tried every size from metric to SAE 6pt and 12pt and nothing fit squarely on there. I heard it was supposed to be 1/2 inch and that was the closest thing that fit on there. so here i go and voila STRIPPED. So before i went on to trying to loosen the others i tried nockin em wit a hammer, apllying heat, and WD40/PBbreaker.
i stripped antoher one!!!! im tryin my best to problem solve but my car aint workin with me.

wht is the deal with these bolts on the drive shaft ?
is there a special socket?


and to all that helpd me with my Clutch quadrant problems id like to thank you. it was a great help!

 

[moonenn3186]

Its a 12mm 12 point socket.

get the other ones off - then try the stripped one.

Remember - its always better than to hit the wrench/ratchet handle with something then to just pull/push real hard. Rust and corrosion will break loose much easier than they will twist loose. Just a tip.

 

[MoparorNocaR]

12mm 12 point you say... hmmm

that is appreciated moon! do you think i should apply heat still ? or try it raw ? thankyou alot!

 

[moonenn3186]

You should not need heat. I never have - but then again I am not under your car looking up at your driveshaft. Try it with a 3/8 ratchet and a 12mm 12 point socket - with the tranny in 1st or reverse. If the bolt wont "snap" or break loose - try heating them up if you have a torch handy - just don't cut anything.

 

[ninety15.0]

I used a wrench to get mine out and a breaker bar to slide over the end of the wrench. Then do what moon recommended and hit it instead of just pullin on it. Heat never hurts when tryin to get stuborn bolts out. good luck

 

[JBeezy53]

You shouldn't need heat. But like moon said tried to break it loose rather that pushing until it loosens.

 

[1SLO306]

u might not need a rebuild. u prolly just broke/bent the shift fork

 

[Mustang5L5]

I'll second the hitting the wrench thing.

When i go to break a bolt, i usually use 2 wrenches. One goes on the bolt and then i whack it using the other wrench. It's the same concept as an impact gun. Works almost every time

 

[MoparorNocaR]

hitting it worked! thanx alot guys... now its to the exhaust!? do i really need to drop the h-pipe ? it looks to me like i could undo the 4 bolts and the crossmember and slide it out back then drop it foward towards threw the h-pipe ?

 

[RYC CUKR]

When you put the driveshaft back in make sure that you put some loctite on the driveshaft bolts. They WILL come loose if you don't.

Not sure if you can get the gear box out with the H in there. Any time I have had to pull a trans if has been for a clutch so the H has to come out. If worst came to worst you might be able to unbolt the headers, unbolt the trans from the crossmember then unbolt the crossmember from the body and see if you can't get some more room that way.

 

[Quikstang]

your definately going to have to drop the h pipe one way or another, the tranny will not drop down low enought for the shifter to come out of the shifter hole on the top of the tranny, with the h pipe connected, then you wont be able to slide the tranny back far enough for the input shaft to clear the back of the bellhousing ..

 

[86bluecobra]

try using a dead blow hammer on the h-pipe to jar it loose. basically just a rubber headed mallet of some kind then you wount be denting the thing when you are trying to break free the exhaust because of the rust.