Club 80-90 Forums

Took the gearbox out today - and will be replacing it with another tomorrow.

Made myself a 'homemade gearbox removal clamp' ala Aidan's neat example on the wiki
https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ge ... oval_clamp
Great little gadget and made it really easy/sturdy/safe.

Everything went swimmingly - gearbox slid away from the engine on the floorjack, no problems.
Lowered the floorjack and realised my huge mistake - nowhere near enough clearance to get the box out from under the van!!
(I had the van jacked up so the rear wheels were 3-4 inches off the ground but that was nowhere near high enough as it turns out)

The combined height of the gearbox, homemade clamp thingy, and floorjack meant that the gearbox only dropped about 4-5 inches ?!?!
Eventually managed to get it out by balancing the gearbox on blocks of wood, sliding the floorjack out from under it and then lowering the box by 'hand' until it was on the ground - so all a bit dicey and brute force-ish - which wasn't ideal.

So ...... I now have to get the new gearbox back in - obviously I can reverse what I did today but it's far from ideal ..... anyone got any other ideas ??
Do folks really jack the van up high enough that the gearbox can be slid straight out on the floorjack??
(Or it could be that my floorjack doesn't go 'down' far enough - other models I have seen are much more flush to ground when 'down' than mine is)

I jack up 4 notches on the 6 tonne axle stands at rear cross member, loads of room, that's with a 2 1/2 tonne trolley jack that has 60cm lift and fully down saddle is about 6" off the floor
end of the day there has to be enough room for me under there and I'm not petite, probably similar diameter to a gearbox

Aidan wrote:I jack up 4 notches on the 6 tonne axle stands at rear cross member, loads of room, that's with a 2 1/2 tonne trolley jack that has 60cm lift and fully down saddle is about 6" off the floor
end of the day there has to be enough room for me under there and I'm not petite, probably similar diameter to a gearbox

Been on a pre Christmas diet then Aidan?

Thanks Aidan - I think it must just be a combination of van not quite high enough, trolley jack not going quite low enough and my homemade removal tool having a few more bits of wood for strength making it a bit thicker - guess that all adds up to 'not quite enough room to get box out' !! Lesson learnt!

Here is how I removed and installed mine:



The wooden frame was securely strapped to the gearbox and it was then lowered by running the nuts down the threaded rods. The frame stood on a piece of hardboard and was removed by supporting the ends of the gearbox with pieces of wood, eventually leaving only the gearbox on the hardboard. Then I lifted the vehicle with the standard jack, can't remember if I used a block of wood to get a bit of additional height, manipulated the piece of hardboard and pulled the gearbox from under the vehicle without having to get down there. Safe and simple.

The process was reversed for installation. By adjusting the nuts and moving the piece of hardboard it was dead easy to get the gearbox at the right angle and position.

icosahedron wrote:Here is how I removed and installed mine:



.

Nifty !!!
But that must have been a lot of spanner'ing to get it up and down!!

Last time I removed the gearbox it nearly fell on me so when putting it back I used ratchet straps
I happened to have some holes for seatbelts that had been removed

If you lower it onto a tarp or large cardboard box flat packed you can drag it out with the tarp it weighs about 40kg

But that must have been a lot of spanner'ing to get it up and down!!

Not at all, on the way down you turn the nuts by hand assisted by the weight of the gearbox. On the way up you lift one leg and put a piece of wood under there. This is easy as some of the weight of the gearbox is supported on the other legs. With three legs now touching the ground you pull the fourth down and spin up the nut by hand. Remove the piece of wood from under the leg, pull it down and spin the nut. Move over to the other pair of legs and repeat the process.

I just use Mercdoctor. He holds it on his back while I undo all the nuts