mk4 tranny swap question.

[immaturegojo]

so i dont have a bently on my car yet, but i bought a cheap haynes on the mk4 (vr6 not included ). im running into an issue dropping my transmission out. ive followed all the steps for the mk4 4 cylinder, plus removed an extra trans-engine bolt, and disconnected the front bottom sway bar. ive also separated the trans from the engine about 1 1/2 to 2 inches, but its not quite enough to clear the flywheel and clutch. now the driver side bottom of the trans is hitting the subframe and i cant squeeze it out. my question is this; is there a way to remove a vr6 tranny without removing the subframe? its an extra chunk of work but im willing to do it so putting the new one in is easier. im just trying to avoid unnecessary work. BTW im doing this with a hydrolic lift, i dont have an engine hoyer.

[transient]

You actually didn't have to pull out the sway bar, but it does add some clearance for the spindles... You don't even have to drop the subframe at all either..

Have you pulled the driveshafts off yet?
What about all linkage junk from the top of the tranny??
You also need to disconnect the hydraulic line for the power steering from the transmission (there's like 2 bolts that hold it to the tranny)

Once everything is off the outside of the tranny, you need to tilt the whole engine/tranny assembly down towards the driver tire. To help with slack, loosen the engine mount bolts a bit.

You can do all of this while holding the right most part of the oil pan with a jack to vary the engine pitch..

This really isn't too bad of a thing to pull out.. putting it back in is the hard part

[immaturegojo]

i have everything disconnected, but ill try to loosen the engine bolts. if i can get a few friends over today ill give it another shot. thanks for the advice.

[Batrugger]

I just went through this and it was binding on the driver's side axle. We pulled that real quick and it dropped right out.

[immaturegojo]

i have the driver side axle out of the way, what it still seems to be binding on is the driver side flange. the directions had me take out the passenger side one but thats not the issue. now i have no idea how im going to be able to take out the driver side one because i have no way of holding the trans from turning to unbolt it. any suggestions?

[Batrugger]

with the axle removed, stick a thin phillips head screwdriver throuogh on e of the holes so it holds the flange steady and then use a 6mm allen to loosen the flange. You really shouldn't need to remove it though