Dropping Gearbox -- getting nowhere w/ guibo bolts

[Guest Anonymous]

Bolts/nuts to guibo are frozen(73tii 4-speed) and can't get at 'em around driveshaft. Front of car is on stands--do I lower car or raise rear end to turn the shaft?? If I raise the back end...will a pipe wrench keep the shaft from turning?? I'm guessing heat is next step and I have no prior with this. Will a propane torch do the trick and what is the "technique"? Appreciate the help.

[Guest Anonymous]

I think that raising the back of the car is basically required. It would be really tough to get those bolts on the top. However, once you do do that, you don't need a pipe wrench to keep the driveshaft from turning. Try the parking brake:)

Eddy

[Guest Anonymous]

You just need to raise one rear wheel enough to turn it part of a revolution, and then lower it again so that the next guibo bolt is in a position you get to. You have to lower the rear wheel so that while you tug on the bolts the driveshaft will stay put.

Get the longest wrench you can find, some thick gloves, and maybe some kind of cheater bar (I usually just take a big box-end wrench and interlock it with the wrench I'm using to make a longer lever). Get under the car and brace your feet against something because you have to have a really good grip on the bolts.

It just takes a couple of hours and some muscle. I remember letting the bolts sit in 3-in-1 oil for half an hour or so before trying to remove them.

HTH.

-Ben

[Guest Anonymous]

bolts/nuts. I keep the car on stands so the shaft can rotate, and then use a box or open-end wrench on the nut and lock the wrench against something under there (it depend on the length of the wrench, and I use the toolkit curved one sometimes) and then undo the bolt end with a longer breaker-bar/short-extension/socket for the leverage. It never takes more than two or three minutes that way on an '02 or 533i. I don't think the nuts are frozen at all, just normal tight and you're not getting leverage with your method. I can have an '02 gearbox on the ground in 15 minutes without even sweating. The upper tranny bolt is hard to get to unless you use a two-foot extension (along with a few more) and a swivel. I find that working slowly and methodically makes repairs go faster.

[Guest Anonymous]

dent or egg shape the shaft.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for the help--I'll get after 'em this weekend

[Guest Anonymous]

For ease of removal, keep the guibo on the driveshaft. You don't even need to slacken those bolts. Slacken only the 4 bolts that attach the guibo to the output flange. I have removed my tranny 4 times this summer.