Removing Tranny for Clutch repair

[boblyon1]

I have SPF 633 with a 351W stroker and Tremec 3550, built approx. December, 1999. I have a clutch problem but my mechanic is not sure there is enough room to remove the tranny to get to the clutch (w/o pulling the engine). Anyone have some suggestions for removal? With the driveshaft removed, is there enough tunnel room to move the tranny up, back, and then angle it down and out? Thanks.

[Got the Bug]

Bob - I think you'll need to remove the tranny from the top through the passenger compartment.

[boblyon1]

Doug - Does the tunnel have an opening at the top? It looked like it was solid fiberglass but I may be mistaken. I was reluctant to pull up the glued carpet to take a look.

[CHRIS DAMSCH]

Take out the seats and lift up the edges of the carpet around the tunnel. There are about 10 allen headed screws holding the tunnel on. Have fun with the adhesive holding the tunnel on, if its never been off.

Good luck, it's actually a pretty easy task.

[Randy Rosenberg]

Craig Hill (Top of the Hill) was able to drop my tranny to perform clutch work on my SPF. You could call him for a pointer or two...

[xlr8or]

It's possible to get the trans far enough back and twisted around to be able to replace a clutch but it's much easier to just remove the seats and tunnel. I've done it both ways on an early SPF and it's way easier to just remove the tunnel.
Get a good lock-out blade and cut the seal. It's kind of like cutting the windshield goop out.

[Great Asp]

Originally Posted by CHRIS DAMSCH

Take out the seats and lift up the edges of the carpet around the tunnel. There are about 10 allen headed screws holding the tunnel on. Have fun with the adhesive holding the tunnel on, if its never been off.

Good luck, it's actually a pretty easy task.

+1

The hard part is pealing the tunnel away from the rest of the car after the allen heads are out. There is this black "goo" that forms a sealer for the tunnel.

3M weather stripping to replace the carpet works well.

It really is easy to take the transmission out.

E

[boblyon1]

Blas came through with a step by step set of instructions for removing the transmission from an SPF Cobra. I thought I'd copy it here for posterity.

Removing a Transmission from Inside an SPF Cobra

-Car up on jack stands.
-Drain Transmission of all fluid by pulling out both the drain and filler plugs (you can let it drain while you wrestle with the tunnel if you want).
-Remove both seats (4 locknuts on drivers side, 4 bolts on passenger side).
-Remove the 2 locknuts/washers that hold the trans to the rear. trans mount.
-From underneath the car, locate the tunnel retaining screws. Different generations of cars have different numbers of them located around the tunnels perimeter; old cars have 6(?), newer ones 8-11(?)
-Get inside car and go to where you saw the tunnel screws and begin to slightly peel back the carpeting that is glued to the tunnel in these locations to expose the tunnel screws.
-Loosen and remove all tunnel screws.
-Loosen shifter boot trim ring and slide the boot up the shift lever and out of the way.
-Remove the shift lever (only) from the tranny (2 cap screws/bolts?).
-If you can get your fingers underneath the tunnel edge from inside the car do so (the tunnel is also glued in) but if not, get back under the car and push the tunnel up in one corner/edge to de-bond it there. Once you have a small tunnel portion debonded, slowly run your fingers along underneath the tunnel edge debonding the rest of the tunnel as you work you way around its' perimeter (easiest to do this from inside the car).
-Lift and remove tunnel from car.
-The trans. will be well exposed to you now, put the car in gear and start removing the 4 bolts that hold the differential yoke to the differential center section. You can take the trans out of gear and rotate the driveshaft around for better access to all the bolts from inside the car but put the trans back in gear for loosening these bolts as they are at about 90 Ft-Lbs of torque. As long as the tranny is now empty of fluid, you can remove the driveshaft by lifting up the rear section and sliding the front yoke out of the tranny (you may need to give the rear driveshaft yoke a "love tap" with a hammer to break it free of the differential input plate; no biggie)..
-Remove the 4 bolts that hold the trans. to the bell housing
-Remove the speedo shaft and the neutral lockout wires from the tranny (be careful not to bugger up the speedo gear when removing it or while it's out of the tranny). I left the lockout wires attached to the tranny and removed them from the plug that is wired into the cars electrical system....
-Get another bottle jack or use your floor jack and position it under the bellhousing just in front of the trans.
(if you haven't done so already, put the drain and filler plugs back into the tranny).
-Jack up the back side of the motor/tranny so that the 2 rear trans mount bolts will clear the chassis' crossmember bracket. If this isn't possible then you will also have to remove the crossmember bracket by loosening the 3 bolts/nuts that hold it to the frame (I personally didn't need to remove this when I took my trans. out, but I DID remove this bracket after the trans. was out so that tranny reinstallation was easier).
-Get a pair of leather gloves (tranny cooling fins can be "sharp") and get inside the car. While standing in the car and straddling the tranny (facing forward), get a good grip around the sides/underneath the tranny and while lifting slightly, pull the tranny towards the rear of the car and out of the bellhousing (A Tremec TKO weighs @105LBS so get a GOOD grip on it if you are alone).
Once the trans begins to move rearward you can add a little bit more "lift" to clear the tranny's tail section/output shaft.
-DON'T DROP THE TRANSMISSION ON YOUR FOOT!
-Voila! You have just removed your Cobra tranny. if you keep the tranny fairly "level" when you move it around it shouldn't leak any residual fluid out of the tail section. Now you can begin to work on the bellhousing/clutch slave cylinder bolts, etc....
-To reinstall the tranny, reverse the above procedure. Of course you will need the proper clutch alignment tools to get everything "straight" so the trans will re-mate to the bellhousing easily. What I found easiest when reinstalling the tranny was to get the trans input shaft just inside the clutch disc from inside the car and then rest the trans tail piece on the chassis crossmember to help hold the weight. Then, I got underneath the car and lifted/wiggled the tranny into its' final position from underneath the car (it's easier to see the final alignment/everything from underneath the car but harder to get the tranny into its' initial position from underneath). Remember the tranny is HEAVY.
If possible, get a friend to help reinstall it as that take a bit more "alignment finesse" then the removal process does.....
-It is much easier to re-fill the tranny with fluid if you remove one of the inspection covers/shifter tower from the top side of the trans after you have it all installed and the driveshaft back into the tranny tailpiece. Otherwise you will need a fluid squirter or a funnel with a length of tube to get the fluid back into the tranny filler plug hole.
If all goes well, you'll have the tranny out of the car in under 2 hours all by yourself. Reinstallation takes a little bit more time because of all the clutch aligning necessary etc....
-Even though you will have a clutch alignment tool, when you get the clutch disc to where you think it "should" be. Before tightening the pressure plate bolts 100%, pull out the alignment tool and get you head up into the tunnel area and take a look to make 100% sure that the clutch disc is perfectly centered with the hole in your pilot bearing. The alignment tools do have a "slop"
factor to them so I always visually "eyeball" the final alignment before I torque all the pressure plate bolts down.
-Definitely DO use Locktite Thread Locker on the flywheel bolts AND the pressure plate bolts and torque them to their proper specs. You do NOT want these suckers coming loose, EVER...
**
Don’t forgot to remove the emergency brake lever…

[Blas]

Bob please note:
I also mentioned that this was originally from Pat #131 I believe...with an extra note or two added maybe....
Blas

[Jim Kellogg]

Here is a photo of my SPF with the trans tunnel removed. This should help



Jim Kellogg
Breesport, NY

[boblyon1]

Blas - You are correct, I should have credited Pat, SPF #131 - You had mentioned that. Sorry.

Jim - Thanks for the picture. It really helps.