OP
OP
mjreynolds928
Member
Yes. I am fairly certain my jack stand would not support both transmission and transfer case. So I had my rolling floor jack aligned from front to back under the transmission pan. The transfer case was supported by transmission jack, that was only because the t-case was difficult to balance. Maybe my biggest fear was the transmission falling on me.
If you want to remove the t-case just to get more room, that’s not necessary. The thing that limits the movement back are the electrical wiring harnesses and not disconnecting the coolant tubes. If you disconnect the coolant tubes you might be able to stretch it back to 6”-8”. The Tahoe has a welded crossmember at the back of the t-case that could get in the way of your jack. So be mindful of that. The two video the guys dropped in this post, the goofy funny guy shows you how to heat the electrical connectors to release the factory sealed glue.
Once the flex plate was swapped out, pushing the tranny and t-case back was fairly simple, it took maybe 30 minutes to get it lined back up. I wanted to take a bolt down to the hardware store buy some threaded rod with the same pitch and diameter but about 6-8” long. The engine block only has one 1/2” long stud that helps with lining the tranny up with the engine. That was my target and then lining up the bottom driver side bolt. The worst part was slowly tightening each bolt to make sure I got it lined up. The last bolt I installed was the hardest two, the top left and right. After that, the torque converter bolts. (Remember you can use the harmonic balancer to turn the flex plate to line up the holes on the torque converter.)
I actually didn’t bleep at all, which rather shocking. I think I got that out the week before when I found the crack and was trying to get pictures or a video. I allowed myself two separate weekends to do the work. I removed the drive shafts and lubed my exhaust bolts (just in case) in about 1 hour and set up everything the night before. The next day, a friend of mine who knows nothing about cars laid under the car with me for about seven hours. We took a break for lunch. Once I had the tranny mounted we stopped. The next day, I spent about two hours the next day bolting the starter back on, crossmember, drive shafts and connecting the battery and cleaning up was another hour. So all around about 11 hours. BUT....for the life of me, can’t figure out why I didn’t hit any problems. That never happens. I hope it goes as easy for you. If I can do this work, you can too Larryjb!
Best of luck!
