<VV> Shifting (shifty?) saga -- includes a request for info

[Kent Sullivan]

Zoltan, excellent points. The other thing I forgot to mention was that we
also removed the driver's side heater hose and the heater duct--both the
large oval hose that exits the heater plenum as well as the entire plastic
duct that goes inside the tunnel pan. (Yes, we removed the front and rear
tunnel pan covers first. :-)

--Kent
-----Original Message-----
From: Zoltan Szilagyi [mailto:starfish77 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 11:52 PM
To: Kent Sullivan; virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Shifting (shifty?) saga -- includes a request for info

A couple more comments on what we did tonight on Kent's car.

It's worth noting that this was a drive-on lift, and we did not raise the
rear wheels. The low-profile jack allowed us to jack on the transmission
with the car's weight on its wheels. Having only one lifting point made it
easier and more stable.

Also, we did not remove the body-to-crossmember mounts from the body.
We didn't want to disturb the old, rusty bolts holding the mounts to the
body. If anything were to go wrong with a particular one of the two bolts on
each side (I forget which), then the torque arm would have to be swung down
or otherwise moved to gain the clearance necessary to replace that bolt from
the correct direction. We didn't want to go that route, as moving a torque
arm would have involved a LOT more disassembly. (In fact, I once removed the
springs and swang the torque arms down on my car for this exact reason. :)

Instead, we removed the large C-shaped metal bracket that goes between the
transmission mounts and the transmission. Removing the bracket allowed the
crossmember to come rearward, out of the horizontal slot formed by the body
mounts, before being lifted out over the transmission.

-- Zoltan


On 9/22/05, Kent Sullivan <kentsu at corvairkid.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am happy to report that the rear cross member removal went very 
> well, thanks to help from my friend Zoltan Szilagyi. We started with a 
> fully-assembled car after dinner this evening and had the cross member 
> out
> 2.5 hours later.
>
> Ed--you were right about not having to drop the transmission in order 
> to get the cross member out. It would almost come out on either side 
> but did not quite clear on the driver's side. If we had removed the 
> passenger side transmission mount, it would have cleared. There was 
> enough room on the passenger side so we reversed course and took it out
that way.
>
> The "secret sauce" was a really awesome compact bottle jack obtained 
> from Griot's Garage on sale. I just checked their site in order to 
> provide a link to it but I can't find it. Maybe it was on close-out? 
> If so, bummer. That bottle jack has two features that were really 
> handy for this job in
> particular:
>
> 1) Very low saddle height: 6 1/2" minimum.
>
> 2) Nice jack stand-type top to the saddle for more sure-footed support
>
> Here are a couple of photos:
>
> <http://www.corvairkid.com/articles/images/Rear Crossmember Removal 
> 1.jpg>
>
> <http://www.corvairkid.com/articles/images/Rear Crossmember Removal 
> 2.jpg>
>
> Note the jack stand right behind the jack as a safety measure. The 
> jack is sitting on a jacking tray that spans from one rail to the other of
the lift.
> The tray slides fore and aft so it's easy to position just where you 
> want it.
>
> The mounts were so worn out that we actually used the jack to raise 
> the transmission a little, back to horizontal.
>
> As you can sort-of see in the photos, we had to remove the e-brake 
> brackets but not the cables themselves. We also removed the clevis pin 
> from the shift coupler but that was more for insurance since we 
> thought the transmission might settle a little. We also did not have 
> to remove the shifter cross-shaft, the lower control arms, or the axle
half-shafts.
>
> Of course, we removed both control rods and the shift stabilizer rod. 
> I am going to install repro rods with new bushings and put new 
> bushings in the shift stabilizer rod. Should be good as new when we're
done!
>
> I'm trading the cross member to Duane Wentlandt, who painted one that 
> Duanne Luckow had on hand. Man, those things always seem rusty. Did 
> they get any paint at all in the factory? Duanne is going to press out 
> the bushings and send them back to Clark's for a core refund. (The 
> mounts do not have a core fee, just the bushings where the cross 
> member bolts to the body on each
> end.)
>
> --Kent
> -----Original Message-----
> From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org 
> [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Ed Dowds
> Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 5:48 PM
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Subject: RE: <VV> Shifting (shifty?) saga -- includes a request for 
> info
>
> Kent-
>
> I think this job may be easier than you think:
>
> 1> Get the car up and stable on jack stands.
>
> 2> Put a jack or some other stable device under the trans.
>
> 3> Disconnect the shift coupler, clutch cable, clutch rod and clutch 
> 3> linkage cross shaft from body.
>
> 4> Remove crossmember from both trans AND body mounts.
>
> 5> Remove body mounts. This may require a "special" wrench (according 
> 5> to Clark's).
>
> Note that the trans doesn't have to be lowered enough to cause a 
> problem for
>
> the perimeter seal, battery cable or gas line. If the Corsa is a '65 
> you have to catch the shim behind one of the crossmember bolts. On a 
> '66 there should be no shim. I agree with Rick about the backup switch 
> wiring: it only
>
> takes a second to disconnect it! (or to break something if you don't!).
>
>       Ed
>
>
>