Does it come off like a normal auto trans or is there something funky to do with that adapter looking piece ?
There's a little sheet metal cover on the adapter, you remove that then you can get to the converter nuts (one at a time as you turn the crank). Then remove the transmission from the adapter, then remove the flex plate, then remove the adapter from the engine.
Unbolting it is the easy part, dropping it down is the hard part, that is one heavy MFer of a tranny. I did one on my back on a '61 Belair using a floor jack. Bob
Yup.. inspection cover.. torque converter.. bell housing .. flex plate.. bell housing adapter.. I have a hard time doing it in my '62.. i usually just pull the motor/trans.. do it outside the car. (i dont like laying under cars.. hurts my pencil neck) plus i can hardly pick one of them suckers up.
Not only is that a heavy MF, but it has no pan, therefore no flat surface for a floor jack to lift at, so you had better strap that SLIDE to the floor or trans jack when removing in the car. Outside the car, much easier, still heavy!
The motor/trans combo is out but.......the crank doesn't turn a full revolutioin yet. I was hoping I could drop the trans off the back some how via that adapter. Looks like I'll have to see how far I can get to removing the converter bolts. This looks like it'll end up in more work than I want...lol I pulled one head and checked out the cylinder bores to see why it wouldn't spin free, it had some surface rust in one hole. I had been letting it soak with a combo of Keroseen and BP blaster mix for a week now.
I had one that wouldn't free up. Ended up taking a 5lb hammer to the adaptor and breaking it to gain access to the TQ bolts.
Pull the pan and do the same from the bottom of the cylinders. Use something that dissolves rust, (naval jelly possibly).
I dont know about the cast iron PG but I have taken trannys off of stuck motors by leaving the torque converter attached to the flywheel and pulling the tranny then unbolting the convertor. Makes a mess since fluid runs out of the TC when you do it this way.
Can't do it that way on a Cast Iron Power Glide. The TQ is a 2 piece unit half is bolted to the tranny input shaft the other half is the flexplate bolted to the crank. The 2 halves are bolted together with I believe 36 bolts and only about 10 bolts are accessible at the cover. You must rotate the crank to gain access to the remaining. Reall shitty design if the Motor or tranny is frozen. If you can't free either the motor or tranny the only choice you have is sacrifice the block bellhousing, the adaptor ring, or the tranny housing to gain access to all the bolts. Sometimes a BFH is your best friend
What year is it? The converter is not retained on the input shaft after the first few years in the early 50s, so you can just pull the trans off the converter.
Should be able to pull the trans right off after you unbolt the bellhousing from the adapter. I will probably make a mess though.
I'll give it a shot, maybe I could rotate the trans around to get to all the bolts if that doesn't work..lol
Yeah, kinda remember someone removing the converter in my high school machine shop by just yanking on it (not attached to engine). Both auto and machine shop teachers had a fit with all that type A all over the floor. The class assignment that day (minus myself and my good friend, we were seniors) was to clean up that mess.
Well this motor is still stuck, a couple of the pistons were pretty coroded in the block. I was able to pull the trans out of the converter, but can't get this thing to rotate at all. I gave the bad pistons a couple whacks with a 5 lb. sledge and they didn't break free. I'm begining to wonder if it's worth the aggrevation to even mess with it.........
I've told this story before, but it's a good one. My dad used to work for a Chevy agency in the early 50's. Every once in a while a kid would come in with his "Granma's car" that he had killed the powerglide on and wanted a 3 speed. The mechanics would send the kid to my dad and he would have them order all the parts for the swap. Then my dad would limp the car home and do the swap in his garage over the weekend. Here's the kicker- he would unbolt the powerglide, LOWER IT ONTO HIS CHEST and roll out from under the car!
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