On 22/09/2017 3:44 AM, Chaya Eve wrote:
On Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:50:05 -0400, wrote:

One question I have is "will the fluid leak out"?
I think not - but I know that the gearshift lever is open to the fluid.
So if you tip it over, the fluid will certainly come out.

Drain the fluid. Otherwize unless you have a "dummy shaft" to fit in
the tailstock it WILL leak when you get the tail end low

Thanks for confirming that it will leak more than I want it to.
The only reason it matters is that I put in very expensive (for what it is)
Red Line MT-90 which was about 20 bucks a quart, so, that's 60 bucks that I
don't want to waste.

The second question is whether a transmission lift is really needed when
you're in a jackstand situation (so you don't need ten feet of lift).

Can't a floor jack hold the transmission?

It can hold it but good luck getting the tilt right - more important
putting back in than pulling out. It's a 3 man job with a simple floor
jack - and the air will be blue. With a proper trans jack it's a
pretty simple one man job.

This is a good point that I had not thought of so thank you for pointing
out that I was mostly thinking of removal for the jack where all I had to
do was support the weight, but replacement is where "tilt" may matter (I
never thought about "tilt" before).

I didn't even know transmission jacks "tilt".
I thought they had two things only:
. A flat plate
. A ten-foot lift
and a threaded rod or some other form of adjustment for the tilt. I also
find that having a second adjustment on the tilt plate to be useful -
tilt at 90 degrees to the first - so that you can align dowels on the
bell housing. Necessary when the gearbox weighs a ton or so.

I didn't know that "tilt" was a spec that mattered!

It is the *critical spec*. Without it you can easily end up with a
buckled clutch plate or difficulty getting the shafts aligned. The
tractor I did recently had a dual clutch, one plate was for the PTO, so
there were two splines to line up plus a pilot shaft. Flexibility is key.

This is why it is often cheaper to pay someone with the right
equipment. You can likely get the labor to change the clutch for the
cost of a decent transmission jack - and if you drop the trans on your
hand, paying a pro to do the job would be CHEAP in comparison.

I understand your perspective which is that it is "sometimes" best to let
the pro's do the jobs where the risk it that you hurt yourself. People make
this argument all the time on compression of springs around the shocks.

You know what?

For years, I had AAMCO replace my shocks because I was afraid of dying, but
then one day I rented (for free) the spring compressor from an auto parts
store and wouldn't you know it. It's a trivial job to do. All these years I
was scared of nothing. Now I realize you're gonna say I'm a fool but I did
take safety into account, and, in fact, I rented two sets of springs, so I
had them double locked.

Safety is always something that has to be weighed proportionately.
A chain saw is just about the opposite of safe right?
A lawn mower is just as bad depending on the terrain, right?
And don't even think of going on the roof for anything, right?

Sometimes we have to take reasonable precautions, so I am leaning toward a
"cheap" transmission jack. Now, I know what you're going to say which is
that sometimes a cheap tool is more dangerous than a good tool, but I
assume the $150 transmission jack I found in my first google hit would be
ok for a single transmission job.

If the jack isn't Ok for 100 jobs, it isn't Ok for 1.

I called AAMCO who quoted 4 hours at $600 for labor alone, and then $1200
for the job (estimated over the phone), so at *those* prices, a
transmission jack is cheap!



--

Xeno