i have the car like a foot or so high on 4 jackstands, i was just wondering if there were any tips on getting this thing stabbed by myself. i had to get the 3/4th gear shift fork replaced, no biggie though, i had my buddie do it at his shop and all i had to do was slide him $50 and wash his truck. while he was at it he kinda went through everything and made sure it was good. anyways, should i use a jack or just muscle it, any help would be great!
If youre 5'9", just shy of 150lbs you will prolly look like a **** biotch muscling it... like I did. a friend or jack would be quite a help though.
It depends how strong you are. It's probably easier to bench press it up there, but I usually put mine on a jack. I have one of those adapters to make a regular jack a trans jack. If you are having a problem getting it to line up to the clutch, you don't have to worry about it getting heavy. Just be careful though, I dropped mine last time. Another reason why I use the jack is because if it's not lining up, you can turn the output shaft until the input shaft slides through the clutch.
yeah, thats a good idea, it doesn't help i have my long tubes unbolted and flopping around in the way lol
dude.. tell me about it... when my longtube is all loose and flopping around, it seriously gets in my way... it's really just a pain in the ass.. the girls love it though.
I have remove and reinstalled t5 3 times by my self. A jack will help alot! Having a helper is the best way.
I always just put the car on jack stands and muscle it in. have someone there just in you need help or you need the out put shaft turned other than that it isn't bad, remove the shifter before install and make sure the motor mounts are loose.
If you can bench press at least 250lbs, I'd say go ahead and do it by hand. If not, you're asking for trouble. That T-5 gets real heavy when you're trying to turn the input shaft to get it to line up or when you're trying to get that first bolt in. Get a buddy, run a rope thru the shifter hole and have him support the trans that way until you can get it lined up and in. Oh, and try to put the top 2 bolts in before you let go of the tranny, that way you don't bend the input or damage anything else.
It depends on your motivation. An empty T5 is not real heavy, but extremely awkward. Not to mention it isn't just a clean bench and your done, you have to work with it, play with it, and get it in right. Now if this is your only option your best bet is to hang the cross member on one side and have the other bolt ready. Bench it up and slide it in as close as you can, and then swing up the member and slide the bolt through. I have done this in the past (did it with a full tranny once under a car about a foot in the air, nottt fun). Your best et is a jack under the back, you control the front and slide it in.
I spent about 2 hours with the thing on my chest and my bud put the bolts in. The problem I had was I had the shifter still on. And I could not get the thing to go all the way in. Just when I was going to give up my arm hit the clutch fork and the dam thing just slid in. I would use a jack this time take the shifter off and I dont see a problem with doing it yourself.
It's do-able. I did it the first time all by myself, and I'm just a scrawny out-of-shape 164-pound 5'9" shrimp of a dude. Second time, I had a buddy hold up the tail end and keep the exhaust pipes out of the way while I lifted the front and maneuvered it into place. Did about the same thing when we serviced the throwout bearing on Frankenstang's '04 V6 'stang, and she helped a lot. As I remember it, the best position for lifting it up there by yourself is to lay on your back with your head towards the front of the car and your feet right toward the back. Sort of play "airplane" with the tranny by supporting it on your hands and knees. It's not THAT heavy, really - I think a T-5 only weighs around 75 lbs., and it only holds a little over 2 quarts of fluid - and it CAN be done solo, but having a second pair of hands just makes things go a LOT easier. FWIW, I would NOT try doing things alone if you're dealing with an AOD or any other automatic. A guy I worked with tried benching up a C-4 into his car once and wound up dropping it onto his chest, cracking a couple of ribs - he was lucky to be able to roll the thing off himself, or it would've suffocated him. A tranny adapter for your jack or a dedicated transmission jack should be a minimum requirement for an AOD drop/install, and a second (or even a third) pair of hands a very strong recommendation.
well im either really strong, or i lucked out because it only took me about 2 minutes to stab. once i got it stabbed though, i threw a jack under it to take some of the pressure off the input shaft, shes all secured and bolted, tomorrow im gonna try to get the driveshaft, starter, exhaust and headers and see if i can get her going!
(about to stab my tranny on my back, any pointers) yeah tell her/him to keep its frank and beans out of the way ( i had too that title is killing me)
I built an adapter frame to turn a floor jack into a transmission jack. I didn’t have any fancy metal working tools, so I used a jigsaw, circular saw and a 7 1/4" diameter abrasive metal cut off blade for the circular saw . If you are interested, send me your email address and I will email you the pictures. The 8MB+ zip file is too big to pass through Stangnet’s email gateway. All the pieces came from Home Depot, including the metal cut off blade. There are 2x4’s, & 2x6's for the wood. You will need some 1 5/8" & 3" deck screws to fasten it together, along with some 2" angle iron. There is a piece of 7/16" threaded rod the the transmission mount pivots on. That allows you to tilt the transmission to aid aligning it up into place. I would recommend that you use some 3/4" plywood to brace the 2x6 mounts that fit the transmission curvature. I accidentally knocked off one of the transmission support upright corners and need to brace it. Oddly enough, the 2x6 will split and crack along the grain of the wood, and that is exactly what happened to me. Make a pair of cardboard templates to fit the transmission curvature and it will fit better and be easier to cut to the right shape. If you need specific dimensions, email me back and I will send them to you The outrigger wheels can be an obstacle if you don't have the jackstands as close to the front wheel ball joints as possible. There is a 5/16” bolt on each side of the outrigger rails that bolts the fore & aft rails to the jack frame. It doesn't show in any of the pictures, but it is a must have item. It is about 6” back from the ½” hole for the axle where the jack wheels used to mount. With the outrigger setup, you remove the front jack wheels and use the axle to bolt down the fore & aft outrigger rails. They do add a lot of stability to the whole thing, since the transmission is pretty high up when you have it in position to stab back into the bellhousing.
