A blessing in the bone yard...trans swapping a DDRace car (story+pics)

Lost a wheel stud on my L/F awhile back.
Ordered ARP wheel studs for mounting a more aggressive slick setup.

On back order for ARP wheel studs since July, I figured my transmission would explode heroically at the drag strip in the future.
With 80k miles on my stock tapshift trans' and axles, one day the transaxle sporadically started to slip it's way to a slow death instead...

The last 22k miles have been cam'd/e85, while not necessarily beating the hell out of it I say I drive more respectfully than most.
I did a filter change on the transmission at 45k, over 2 years ago. Since then all extra power has been added.

Start with the basics. I dropped the pan to change the filter, old one seemed harder to blow through. (both made in USA quality)
Same issues...slip 1st gear getting worse...sometimes completely stuck, shift into R and back into D or M and it'll slip but move.

2nd gear slips as well when opening the throttle farther and engine will free rev high quickly.
3rd & 4th gear seem to operate fine as does reverse.



This time I dropped the pan and took down the accumulator housing.
Upon inspection, channel gasket and accumulator piston seals were okay.
Shift kit bushings were mushroom'd about 2cm, but normal.
Put it back together, same issues...3rd+ gear is fine.
Car sat for a week.

My good friend calls me one day after work saying I am one lucky MF'r.
He found the only 2004+ GP in the junkyard and it is also a 2004 CompG.
With a production date of 5/03, this car had an L67. Most likely valve cover leaked oil onto the exhaust and it had a wiring harness fire that appeared to have lasted only 10 minutes or so.
Not surprising that insurance totaled the car, despite this it is definitely not it's trans to blame for it's current whereabouts.
Side cover on the transaxle was painted black, indicating it had been recently removed/rebuilt.
Dropped the cradle out of the burn victim, the torque converter was painted black too further leading me to believe it was in good condition.
The yard let the engine and transaxle go for $250, and away it went into the back of my Toyota minivan.



The next day, I pressure washed the trans at work.
It was at this point that I noticed it had a rebuild date stamped on the front case.
6/15/11, it read.
When I got home from work, guess what was in the mail?
The ARP wheel studs arrived, too late though.



So here I am currently...unfortunately driving the van to work daily and swapping the trans in my garage in my spare time.
I will be posting more pictures as I progress. I may do a write up as well...who knows?

My 1/2" drive 18v took both axle nut's off effortlessly, and they've never been removed before.
However even my air hammer cannot knock either of these axle's out of their knuckle, need better air compressor or larger hammer...
Also need to grab standard size socket/wrench for header bolts, 6mm for ign coil connector, hex allen key for the last throttlebody turndown bolt (can't fit a hex socket) and other misc. things for other bull**** from my toolbox at my other home.
I figure while I am balls deep into this, I might as well replace PS rack (R/F boot leaks grease ****), engine radiator, subframe bushings and install cradle spacers that I've had sitting around for 2+ years.
...check back tomorrow for more progress.

I leave the nut on like you have it on the axle and smack it with the 3-5lb hammer.
Your ICM bolt is a 7mm.

And you are the luckiest SOB in the universe on that trans. When Drunkie see's this..it will make him cry.

there's a comp g trans in the yard a few towns over and they yard doesnt't even know its special. I've been meaning to scoop it up before someone else does but they told me 250 as well j.yards are sweeeet

Sent using my Galaxy SIII on Tapatalk

So whats a CompG trans worth? I'm tearing an 04 apart for the motor, and was planning on pulling the Diff for my GT trans. Should I keep this thing whole and sell it as is?

-Rob

Scoop that other trans and sell to Drunkie. I know he is looking.

The Comp G has the paddle shifting. From my understanding most of the guts are the same, but the valve body and channel plate are likely different.

tried chasing down a p0171

I'm going to very picky about the tranny I pick up bill. Can't have sat around since 2006, less than 25,000 miles or remanufactured. Basically what he just picked up would be perfect.

So preproduction Comp G's had L67's, because my GP was built in 07/03, but I have an L32

I thought there were shorter gears in the comp G's...

Sent using my Galaxy SIII on Tapatalk

Not much got done today, fell behind on time, nothing new that is picture worthy. Got the headers off, wiring harness completely out of the way, A/C compressor off, drained the I/C.
I Just need to remove the '***** bolt' along with the other bell-housing bolts, and the engine will be ready to come out.
Worth mentioning that I got the hood off and rested it carefully on top of the roof without scratching anything, all by myself.
#beast

HUH? You are taking the engine out seperately to swap a trans? I can see taking them out the top if you don't want to drop just the trans out the bottom. But but but.. there's no need to seperate them in the car to take them out seperately. Seems like extra work.

I've read your write up, Bill. I was originally going to use your method but then I decided that while it was all apart, I may as well replace the radiator and steering rack.
So, to be safer I decided to pull the engine out and clean/re-paint, double check head stud torques, etc.

After forgetting to bring home a can of rust penetrate and coat hangers from work 3 days in a row, I finally made sure to do so yesterday in order to proceed.
Once I got some spray in to the axle splines they finally popped out of the knuckles with a good swing. Pried between the cradle and axle "back plate" to remove them from the trans.
I removed the R/F strut in order to give me more room for removing the 8*TCH bolt.
I used four 1/2" extensions with a breaker bar to crack that final bellhousing bolt loose.
Then I attached my 18v drill to reel the threads out, and fished it out with an extending magnet.
I hung up the power steering pump with a coat hanger, up and out of the way against the R/F strut tower.
Pulled the engine up and now its on a stand, awaiting some paint touch ups here and there.
I'll be replacing the radiator, steering rack, and throwing in these cradle spacers I've had for over 2 years.
Also throwing on new hubs/bearings w/ the ARP wheel studs before it's all put together.
Still got a bit of work ahead of me. I need some rest for now. Here are the pictures.

Good work.

Just leave the ***** bolt out when you go to re-install the motor, its not needed, makes things go a tad faster.

^^That 110%.

Removed the valve covers to re-paint them.
Removed all the supercharger bolts intending to remove the blower to re-paint.
The blower was very stubborn and did not budge, considering how the aluminum gasket is less than 10k old and sealant was used I decided to leave it in place.
Pulled the blower snout and changed the S/C coupler.



Masked off the intercooler plates and re-painted the blower.



Yanked the trans out the top.



*tumbleweed*







Next up after work tomorrow, I will clean the cradle, power steering rack and every other part going back until everything is fresh.
Other things left to do : Install cradle spacers & cradle - R&R radiator - Drop in junkyard trans - Drop in engine - Re-paint valve covers - Paint lower control arms - ARP studs in new Timken hub bearings. etc.

why not bolt the engine and trans together then drop them in as one?

The transmission did come out a lil awkward, seems like it would be a two man job lining it back up on the cradle/trans mount, unless they were together.
Can you link me to pictures of someone doing that? I've searched for both engine and trans out the top together and found nothing but text info.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

Just leave the ***** bolt out when you go to re-install the motor, its not needed, makes things go a tad faster.

Which bolt are you talking about. The backward bolt removed from the passenger side wheel well? Just dropped my trans for a swap and if that bolt doesn't really need to go back, then that's 1 bit of good news for the re-install.

Originally Posted by Bandit1228

Which bolt are you talking about. The backward bolt removed from the passenger side wheel well? Just dropped my trans for a swap and if that bolt doesn't really need to go back, then that's 1 bit of good news for the re-install.

You know there aren't many posts in here at all. If you follow my pictures of removing that specific bolt and the post text, you can easily tell when him and I both called it so. Yes, that one. I'm putting mine back in anyway, because race car not hack job.