PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

you dont have to seperate the pump, valvebody and channel plate it can be removed together as one. I had the bolts memorized but i dont think i would be able to do it right off the top of my head now. It sucks taking it apart and putting it together a million times.

Lets make sure we are on track here..

Are you at the current going to swap the 2.84 diff in your original trans for the 3.06?

If I go with the 2.84 diff Iam going backwards and I need a custom burn. If I go with the 3.06 same thing, If I go with the HD's original diff I have a 2.97 and need a custom burn. My hope is that tomorrow when old trans is out I'll pull the side case on the OLD trans and see If I think I can do do a drive and driven sprocket swap on the HD. The manual's pretty clear and you guys have all the answers If I don't think I can I'll go with the original HD diff for 2.97 and custom burn. So Jr, basically it'll be tomorrow untill I can answer your question.


I am most of the way through the trans removal. I just basically have to pull the left half shaft out of the trans. And support the engine, loosen the mounts, and lower the trans out. It has gone really well today, slow but well. It's amazing how much easier things are when the car is 2' off the ground rather than 1 ft. I'd like to know if removing the frame members is truly needed. Or lowering the suspension rack. I got a pic or two from early today. Later I was unable to get good picks of eng comaprtment and undercarriage parts.

It was a nice day to turn some wrenches and learn about FWD transmissions. I'd do it again tomorrow.

This is what came up from Albany. It looks in fine condition. There is drip pen writing on the side case reading "3-19-05"' I assume that's shortly after the date the Junk yard got it and that it's been sitting there since then not gaining miles and wear.





Here's the engine compartment. Plug wires are sloppy. I need High performance wires with stock lengths instead of these cut to size MSD's. It is a releief that the motor stays in. I just use the hoist to take the engine to Trans load off.




Here's a front profile. Taking the struts off allows removal the half shafts without dissasembling the ball joints.

There is some good involved in this from what I can see...


The Trans you have looks to be a Reman.. The Converter being painted Blue is a dead giveaway, The trans also appears to be painted silver.. This is a dead ringer for a rebuilt unit... I'll bet that date was the date of the rebuild, not the amount of time it was there...

your dropping the cradle right? You are going to have a bitch of a time getting the trans back in. If that engine moves at all its going to be very hard to get the mounts to line up. And trust me it will move.

Let me say a second set of hands always helps.. Replacing a trans in an H Body is not that bad.. Even my 95 Transport sub frame is set up similar to the bonneville in that you can remove a section of the sub frame and yank the trans, it takes a little bit to get the mounts lined back up but its not that bad....

Thanks JR, a little encouragement go's a hecka long way at this end. I t looked like I could clear the subframe without removing it. But the manual said to do it and I stopped there tonight because I didn't detach the steering gear and the subframe got hung up on it. It's supported with tie downs right now. I couldn't get the big 18mm steering bracket bolt loose to drop it the rest of the way. I'll have to cut a shorter cheater bar to get more torque on it.

I was pretty surprised with myself to get all the way recessed and block bolts off

What slowed me down was trying to locate all the bolts and brackets for trans mounts. THe FSM didn't help a lot and neither did the Chilton.

Anyway tomorrow it's the rest of the steering gear brakets and then seperate the engine from the transaxle,

One thing is, how do you keep the torque converter and flywheel alignment good when you are installing a different torque converter?

dirtracr I think Iknow what you mean by the difficulty of moving 400 lbs around on a floor jack on wavy ashphalt trying to align a bunch small holes that require precise alignment.

see you tomorrow


Oh, I did want to say that the pic of the HD lies. It's stripped down to the bare metal except for the torque converter. I badly painted it Hemi Orange.

willwren wrote:After you swap diffs, the right side axle won't be able to be HD. It won't mate to the 3.06, as it's spline count is higher, and will only mate with a 3.33 HD diff which gives an overall final drive of 2.97....

I am unclear here. will my original right side axle mate with the 3.06 diff? It seemed that it was said it would, I am confused,

willwren wrote:The only way to SAFELY use an HD trans in your car is to get both the trans AND both axles from the donor car, and swap diffs. The EASIEST way is to run your stock right axle and diff in the HD, and the HD axle on the left, but that's over-simplifying the problem. As Sandrock has pointed out, there are many other differences and you can end up over your head very quickly. I agree 100% that it's much better to rebuild or use a non-HD trans. Your car doesn't need an HD trans for any reason.

After rereading this it's seems that I overlooked that If I switch diffs then I need both HD half shafts. Am I right? At this point my "no biggie, its only $70-$80 for half shaft" is pretty ridiculous. I am gonna hae to use some ingenuity to fix this. Do I have any realistic answers to avoid buying another expensive part?

I am one bolt away from dropping the trans. It is THE last step to drop the trans. It is between the trans and the eng block. It is the last of the five bell housing to engine block bolts. The others all face into the eng and trans assy and this one faces out. You can just get a fleeting look at it from above. From underneath it cant be seen and just half tip of an index finger touch if you strain from the rear side of the trans and up and over. The exhaust system blocks tool acces from the top and bottom.

I tried a very long extension from the wheel well at the other end. I can get easily all the way there and could remove it save that is recessed down a half inch. Meaning I can't get a socket to the bolt head.

I sure could use a hint from someone whos done this before. Even just the bolt head size.

The only thing that came to me after I quit for the day was to try a universal (wobbly).




My new left side HD replacement half shaft fits it yoke and into the case side axle socket.

The right side original non HD half shaft also fits its' yoke and it's differential axle socket. Is that good enough or do I still need to do some looking?

The pic below points to the bolt location.

Bolt: 18mm

Use a 3/8 size 18mm socket. A fatter (aka impact) socket might not fit. Use a 3/8 extension, and then put a 3/8 to 1/2 adaptor on the end. Nail it with an impact. Should come out.

you dont need an inpact and i didnt need to use a swivel. Its just sorta a pain in the ass to get the socket on the bolt. I wouldnt use the impact until you break the bolt because thats not one you want to round off. If you round it off then i promise you the engine and trans will be coming out unless you can get it with a bolt out.

Trans out! The torque converter fell out and spilled and the the rest of the trans fell slowly about 8". I had the trans tied to the jack but it was unbalanced and gravity won. Aside from embarassment all is fine. BREAK TIME! Thanks you guys. I wouldn't be attempting this w/o the forumn.

Trans is out and with dirtracrs help I pulled the pump, valve body, and channel plate in about 20 mins AND 35:35 DRIVE and driven in about another 15.

There are two last obstacles. 1) I'd like to know what axle to use on the right. HD Bonneville or HD other non HD Bonneville?

And less important can someone give me a technique for aligning the torque converter bolt holes and the bolt holes of the flywheel?

There is no trick to aligning the holes. Put the trans in, bolt it to the block. Once that is done, get underneath it, and you can rotate both the converter AND the flywheel until you can get one of the bolt holes aligned. Put a bolt in it, then from there, just rotate the crankshaft every 90* and put another bolt in place, until you have them all in there.

spoiledred94 wrote:Trans is out and with dirtracrs help I pulled the pump, valve body, and channel plate in about 20 mins AND 35:35 DRIVE and driven in about another 15.

There are two last obstacles. 1) I'd like to know what axle to use on the right. HD Bonneville or HD other non HD Bonneville?

And less important can someone give me a technique for aligning the torque converter bolt holes and the bolt holes of the flywheel?

sandrock wrote:There is no trick to aligning the holes. Put the trans in, bolt it to the block. Once that is done, get underneath it, and you can rotate both the converter AND the flywheel until you can get one of the bolt holes aligned. Put a bolt in it, then from there, just rotate the crankshaft every 90* and put another bolt in place, until you have them all in there.

Did you take the pump, valvebody and channel plate off as one?

Sandrock is right
Make sure when your putting the trans back up that the torque converter is ALL the way on the input and oil pump shaft (it likes to get stuck on the oil pump shaft). Make sure you have both bellhousing alignment dowels are either in the trans or in the engine block. Get the trans up there then put the bellhousing bolts in then all you gotta do is spin the crank and line up all the TQ converter bolts to the flexplate.

I originally started to pull them 1 at a time. Then I thought better of it and checked here for your instructions. I pulled each bolt and measured it's length to see if it passed through all three components. Came off pretty easy at that point. I did end up taking it back apart like 3 more times to check on or fix post assembly worries. I am glad I did too. The pump plates are different between the HD and the Non HD. The HD trans had like brand new fluid in it as well as an apparently new filter as well as having an adj. modulator installed. My old trans had a whole river of metal shavings sludge. The HD was devoid of any shavings. The biggest problem I ran into when swapping the drive and driven was getting C clips on and off. 1/2 hr per clip was strandard. Don't ask me why they just were The other problem of note was the plastic spacers. I got them mixed up and finally just consulted the FSM. One of those plastic washers is, as it turns out, not position specific to the gear side but was to the channel plate side. I had to dab two tiny drops of gasket cement on the washer and attach in place to the channel plate before assembly.

The differential did not take so long. The sun gears were of different size between the HD diff and the 3.06, so I guess that must be where I get more torque. Again the c clip was a torment. I have a clip tool but it wan't much help. Anyway the 3.06 and the 35:35 are installed. My final drive endplay 0.005". If I strongly forced it up it was like 0.02" So that is okay

I replaced the filter and I was happy to find a factory made gasket for the trans oil pan. If you get one with your kit is is a cheapy. The one's from the factory are $30 +.

Any suggestions on how to hold the trans on the jack? I've got some tie downs to use if I can put them together right. It's so heavy and even placing it right on the jack (board in between) so it's balanced moving the jack around makes it very unstable. Where do I tie tie downs too? The jack support face is way small to use as an anchoring point.

I had a transmission jack and a lift when I had to do my R&R. I just pulled the engine and trans out of my 87 Lesabre today. pretty easy other than trying to get the axles out without taking the suspension apart

I hope that goes well for you dirtracr95. Really do ya know. You gotta take apart the frame to even get axles out?? That's just mean. Should I be looking for a thread on your project?



My trans is all complete and strapped with tie downs to the jack and platform. Didn't get anything else done today. I had a Birthday party to attend. Tomorrow early! Chrysler HR called me today. They want me to interview for a parts dept job tomorrow via phone. Whattya think?


Here's the 35:35 gear set just pulled


The donor trans with the side case off as well as the pump, valve body and channel plate assy. That little yellow ring part on drive gear is a keyed fit piece and it has to mesh with the underside of the channel plate and there's nothing to hold it up there in place (I used 2 drops of gasket cement)



The smaller parts that were removed

yea for the thrust washers your suppose to use a trans assembly lube to hold it in place.