Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Topic: Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop... (Read 1287 times) previous topic - next topic

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

July 07, 2009, 05:54:04 PM

Well, I decided to swap in my 3.73 8.8" before hitting the track this weekend. From the time I pulled the car into the shop, until the time the rear was out of the car...35 minutes, no cutting, no destruction. SO EASY! The 8.8 is going in tomorrow morning.

Now, I remember when I did this swap years ago on another car in my driveway....without a proper set of jack stands or a proper jack...just a screw jack and some blocks of wood under the rear LCA's. Took me about 5hrs on a Saturday night and about another 4hrs on that Sunday morning (that includes running around for brake hardware and new drums). All I had was a few wrenches. What a PITA it was back then.

If you guys have any stories about stuff that you've done crudely in the driveway or laying in the dirt, contrasting stuff you may have done in a shop, I'd love to hear it!

-Don

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #1 – July 16, 2009, 02:00:18 AM

Does putting a T5 into a 2.3 Mustang in the yard, in about 6 inches of snow on a bitterly cold January day count? lol

What the hard stuff was, was converting from SROD to T5. Different flywheel, t/o bearing, pressure plat, etc etc. Even had to swap clutch cables...fun fun. Not.

It only took me a coupla hours though, no air tools, no lifts, just a small floor jack, and 2 10" wide truck wheels on 2 pieces of plywood so they wouldn't sink into the soft ground.

I started it about noon that day, iirc, and finished in enough time to eat, shower, hang with my grandparents for a while, and then go to work at 4 that afternoon. I HAD access to the big shop where I'm working on my Tbird right now, but no way in hell was I pushing the Stang across the yard in snow and ice.
Hell, I was 19, and fulla piss and vinegar...now, 11 years later, I think I'd use the 4 wheeler to drag into the shed...I'm not so young anymore, lol.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #2 – July 16, 2009, 09:02:33 AM

On my explorer, I hit a huge pothole in December up in Michigan's upper peninsula (Da' U-P). It destroyed the passenger sway bar link, which, on an explorer makes it drive like a dingy in high seas. I was supposed to leave for downstate that day.

I didn't have a garage or jack at the where I was staying and it was snowing truckloads. The new one wouldn't reach with the vehicle sitting level so to compress the suspension, I drove the car into a 3ft snow bank and buried the front wheel. Then I took a shovel and dug out around the wheel. An hour (the old one was rusted up) of swearing and crawling around on the ice and snow I had the new one on.

I did both sides on my cougar in my garage w/ jack and jackstands in about 30 minutes. No cussing involved.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #3 – July 16, 2009, 11:01:26 AM

I've been working on cars since I was 15 but I didn't get a proper floor jack until I was 23. Got real jack stands a few months after. I used to use a come-a-long and a chain wraped over the garage door header to pull engines. Before the floor jack I used a scissor jack to lift the car and wood or bricks to keep it up. Put the trans on old carpet and drag it under the car where I'd roll it on my chest lift & it into place. Did C4 & 4 speeds this way.Couldn't press a C6. Youth is great but it hurts getting old.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #4 – July 16, 2009, 11:11:38 AM

Quote from: Mr-Mach1;282426

Put the trans on old carpet and drag it under the car where I'd roll it on my chest lift & it into place.

Thats how I still do them :hick: Thank god all my cars are standards now. The worst was doing that to the 700R4 from my girlfriends truck. To make it worse, your only half done because the T-Case right after. I don't think I would try it with a AOD. That sucker was HEAVY.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #5 – July 16, 2009, 08:58:39 PM

I think a lot of us are familiar with the rolling the trans up on our chests deal. I dropped a NP231-J transfer case on my chest while under my buddy's old Comanche a few years back...thank God it was a y aluminum t-case...lol.

Just recently when I cut my tail-pipes off, I couldn't get them out from around the axle...I had the car up on wheel-ramps in the back. I ended up using one hand and both legs to lift the rear suspension to get both out...what felt like a rail-road spike going through my back during the operation ended up just being a tiny little rounded pebble...lol.

Beau, you're an animal, 6" of snow and I'm leaving the broken down car just the way it is...broken down...lol. I can deal with T-5's over my shoulder all day long, but tryin to wrestle one up into place on the ground isn't the easiest of tasks...especially in the frigid cold.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #6 – July 16, 2009, 09:38:19 PM

Helped a buddy put a 5 speed in his 88 mustang in the pouring rain when it was about 50 degrees outside. All we had was a set of ramps and a small plastic toolbox full of mis-match wrenches and sockets and a ratchet or two. Took about 4 hours. Oh, here is the good part...we did this on the side of the highway. 5 Lane highway with cars going by at 65-75mph. His transmission took a dump on him on the way to work. He knew I had an extra one in my garage so he called me up and I told him I had $100 in the rebuild kit that I installed so I told him to give me that and I would bring it to him and help him put it in. He didnt have much money at the time so he couldnt afford to tow it or put it in the shop and pay a mechanic. We got it in and he drove it back home in his underwear with the heat pumping! We were both sick as dogs the next couple days but there is nothing like that felling of knowing you helped someone out that needed it.

Thats my story! I am very thankful for having a nice dry shop to work in.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #7 – July 17, 2009, 02:10:39 AM

Quote from: Sick88Tbird;282495

Beau, you're an animal, 6" of snow and I'm leaving the broken down car just the way it is...broken down...lol.

Believe you me, when it's 60 degrees or cooler out, I don't wanna mess with stuff unless I just have to or want to bad enough anymore. I'm less than a month away from being 32, but , the cold makes my ankles and wrists hurt worse than I ever though it could. Add rain or snow to it, and I'll sit in the house and enjoy a mild pain pill and the 'net, lol. The car stuff can wait till April when it's warm out! :D

The Mustang was kind of a have-to ordeal...I lived with my grandparents back then, and no way in hell was she gettin out in the snow/ice to take me to work lol. Did what I had to do

Thinkin' about making a framework of some sort, maybe some stiff wire or such, and then layering some plastic sheeting over that, just enough to cover the car, and a small space heater inside that so I can tinker on it through the winter...wonder how well that would work..? It'd be inside my shop, so wind wouldn't be a concern. Kind of like a homemade, DIY bubble, lol.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #8 – July 17, 2009, 10:40:30 AM

Ely, MN 1993, January....Tcase on my truck broke the aluminum extension housing, it was my only transportation. NP203, needs to work to move, so I can't go 2wd. Used JB Weld to glue the housing back together. Imagine how heavy an NP203 is with no floor jack, as it had to be benchpressed into place, and slide perfectly onto each shaft as it is reassembled. All those little needle bearings to rebuild that tcase had to be put in with bare hands, at -30F (yes, minus), laying in 2 feet of snow, in the front yard (where it got towed to) I would cup my hands right onto the trouble-light to get enough feeling in my fingers to insert a couple more needle bearings. This went on for two days. Now that I have a garage, I've been spoiled.

Hard in the driveway, easy at the shop...

Reply #9 – July 17, 2009, 01:26:41 PM

Fordtruckfreeek,
i have done the bubble thing working on a johndeere backhoe,i used tarps and a 2x4 frame and a 150,00 btu torpedo heater in 20* temps had to rebuild the engine. i used a 120 volt thermostat my dad has to keep the temp at one level after the first day of pluging it in till it got to hot then unpluging it to cool off just to replug it in less then 5 mins. whole prodject took a week and a half to do but needed the thing remove old fence on the farm to replace it. easyier to drive fence post in the winter then the spring and summer .