Pulling Transmission. Hold up Trans?

[chevyefi]

I promised my nephew a transmission for his high school shop class. The TH350-C in the 83 SS is bad and I wouldn't ever fix it when I could almost as easily put a 200-4R in. So I'll probably pull it tomorrow.

Now, if I let the engine sag in back, it would eventually junk the 30 year old engine mounts as it's my "haven't done much with it in a long time" project. I guess I could stab a 200-4R or 700-R4 core in and prop it up with the crossmember (don't have a correct crossmember right now since the 83 lacks the frame support for it.)

Or should I just use a strip of steel and hang a bellhousing bolt off a bolt at the firewall?

Hmm.

[chevyefi]

Hold up *Engine*

[Skandolis]

Just opinion, but if the mounts are bad enough to let the engine "sag" to the rear, they should probably be replaced anyways, mounts are cheap. but a block of wood between the oilpan and crossmember works well.

[Keyser Sose]

Put a 8-10 inch length of 2 X 6 or 8 between engine bellhousing and the firewall and let engine lean back and rest against it (pull the wiring out of the way). My elkie rode on a trailer like that for 2.5 hrs when Matty came and got it with no problems, yours can sit around like that ok.

[TrannyMike]

Normally if your mounts and exhaust are in good shape, all you do is remove the distributor cap and lower the trans slowly, The exhaust holds the trans up more than the mounts unless you had to disconnect the exhaust to remove the trans. Keysers way is another way you can keep the trans up too. As mentioned by Skandolis you really should replace the motor mounts..... they're cheap!

[steelybill]

Things can get interesting on some cars, when a mount fails..like jamming the gas pedal and shift linkage etc....