Is there an easy way to get the tranny pan off?

[yeary03SS]

Well, to take mine off I have to unbolt the exhaust, remove the crossmember, jack up the tranny, and pull and twist like hell to work the pan out. There is a cable bracked mounted to the top of the tranny that curls around the pan that keeps the pan from dropping straight down. The valve body and such inside the pan are pretty tight around the corner with the bracket, so it doesn't give much play. The bracket has two torx-head screws on top, but I can't work a ratchet up there because of my front driveshaft. Anyone know any tricks to this? So far i've managed to cut up the boot around the linkage cable pretty good from the pan.

[RedHeartbeat]

Damn, that sucks. Mine all I have to do is unbolt it and it's off. I guess that's one of the benefits of a custom installation, you can plan ahead and make things fit instead of just piling everything on top of each other. I do have to admit swapping the transmission was a little work but as easy as easy other vehicle I have swapped trannies in. I have to remove the crossmember, take the exhaust off, unbolt the shifter cable from the pan, drop the driveshaft, unbolt the Torque Convertor, unbolt the bell housing and then on the ground it sits.

Do your exhausts run under the tranny pan? Sounds like a good way to heat up the fluid. Could the exhaust be lengthened and moved to get the heat off the trans? I haven't been under a NBS truck so I am unsure where things are located.

if it's like my Astro, you have to unbolt the exhaust hangers to drop the pipes if you want to replace the doughnut gaskets at the manifolds. if you unbolt the hangers, the pipes would hang down lower.

[yeary03SS]

Yes, the exhaust runs under the tranny pan. It's an awful design!! My transfer case takes up a lot of room behind that. It's that damn cable bracket that is causing all the trouble I could take the exhaust totally out...right now I can only move it as far as the o2 sensor wiring will let me, which isn't enough.

[RedHeartbeat]

Just unplug the sensors. Shouldn't be too hard to reach the connectors.

[yeary03SS]

Never thought of that. The wires at the sensor are hard wired, i'll check the other end for the plug tomorrow.

[RedHeartbeat]

LOL....2 funny. All O2s are hard wired. You just go a few inches or feet up the wire to the connector. I almost had to unplug the Astro's to change the doughnut gaskets out, barely got them in. Bad thing is that if you don't unplug them when you should have you end up with $80 trot-line weights when you break a wire internally.

[czbperf]

I had the same problem trying to change the transmission fluid on my '01 Suburban. I ended up stripping the head on one of those torx screws that hold the bracket. At that point I was pretty upset and wasn't thinking rationally, so I just cut the bracket with a reciprocating saw enough to get the pan off. After I was done changing the fluid I welded the bracket back together. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way though. When I was loosening those screws I was able to break one of them free using a 1/4" rachet and the torx socket. Had I taken a little more time with the other screw by positiong myself, so the socket was seated properly on the screw I probably could have loosened it. I tried all different kinds of ways of removing it after I stripped it, but there just wasn't enough room to work. I even removed that connectors that go to that park, neutral, reverse switch that is part of the linkage. That was not a good idea because those connectors are epoxyed inside the connector. I was afraid I was going to pull the wires out of the connector. If you can get those screws out I would definitely change them with some regulat 6 sided hex head metric bolts. I didn't have to remove the "Y" pipe because the pan will slide backwards enough to clear the pipe. I did have to remove the front drive shaft to get more room to work. Make sure you mark the relationship of the u-joint and the yoke, so you can put it back the same way. Good Luck.

[yeary03SS]

Dammit! What's wrong with gm engineers? How do they do this stuff at the stealership? Oh well, how critical is that boot on the cable? I wrapped mine in electrical tape after I cut several holes in it.

[RedHeartbeat]

They are massochists. To change the thermostat on my GrandAm 3.1 V6 you have to disassemble the entire top half of the motor. What a pig that one is to change.