engine and drivetrain How stupid and crazy does this sound, uh, seriously...

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm trying to remove the transmission output shaft

off the transmission while it's still in the car (up on

jackstands). Here's where the stupid and crazy

idea comes:

Can I put my breaker bar and 30mm impact socket

on the flange, wedge it against the floor, start the

car, put it in gear and slowly let out the clutch, or

maybe start it in gear? In theory the nut should

break loose, and maybe spin off and fall to the

ground. Or I could end up doing something really

stupid, and making this an even bigger problem.

I've got the car car jacked up high enough so that I

could get plenty of torque on it (250 ft/lbs+ by my

torque wrench). This nut *should* have 108 ft/lbs

by my haynes manual, but it aint budging.

Any suggestions, outside of using air tools?

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

Sounds pretty dangerous to me. You might find someone who has an electric impact or you might rent one. You can also try an absurdly long cheater bar, or get a big hammer and bang on the end of a breaker bar (essentially making a manual impact wrench).

Good luck!

Jeff C.

70 Granada 2002 Sunroof, Mega-Squirt EFI

66 Turf 2000 Automatic

[Guest Anonymous]

can't evaluate how much resistance you'd meet with it on, but your post doesn't address it's existence. i gather it's function is to prevent the nut backing off under usage.

done this several times, without impact. wedge a piece of hardwood between the flange and the rear mount recess then get your cheater bar and push. maybe two people would be good. i've never had success trying to beat on a cheater bar, brute strength seems more efficacious.

hth

robert

[Guest Anonymous]

sometimes there are very few safe alternatives to the proper tools.

Who knows, maybe a bar lodged against the ground, a running engine and the proper gear may work... I would seek out an electric impact as others have suggested.

[Guest Anonymous]

In 1973, there was a "hidden recall" on the trans outupt flange nut - it seems they weren't torqued properly (don't know what year your car is). The fix was to put an air wrench on the nut and take a lunch break. So it may be on there at some huge torque setting. The best solution would be to loosen it with an air wrench.

[Guest Anonymous]

the coarse splines on the flange to work loose. Poor heat treating on the flange caused the output shaft splines to wear the splines off the flange. Design was changed to fine splines in early 1974, solving the problem.

My 73's flange failed around 1979 at arond 50k--got nothing from BMW (parts or labor) even tho the car had been in a dealer for clutch replacement (PO's wife couldn't drive stick) and they didn't check the nut for proper torque. It failed two weeks after the clutch replacement. Why my 02 hasn't darkened the dealer's door since 1979...

Mike

[Guest Anonymous]

But w/ over 250lbs of torque, I'm a little weary.

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

...don't expect that thing to be accurate ever again.

You should be able to get that thing loose with a 1/2" drive socket, breaker bar, and MAYBE an extension. Or use compressed air.

Marty

'73 malaga

balto, md

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

The propane torch trick did it, nut came *right* off

w/ some pressure from the breaker bar. Thanks

again for the suggestions.

Rob