It sounds like thats where the disconnect is then. You worked on cars before 1980, I worked on them past 1982 or so. lol. They *are* a pain in the butt now. I'm sure what you say about the pre '80 cars are true.
Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > The engine and transmission of all the FWD cars I've worked on was > most easily removed by pulling them up out of the engine compartment. > Some come out most easily as a unit. Others require they be separated > in the car. It's been relatively straightforward to do. I have also > changed the clutch on a few of them without removing them from the > car. It was easy on the SAAB 99 and Austin Mini, a bit of a pain on > the FIAT 128, and you have to remove the engine to get to it on the > SAAB 96. > > I think you're making a much bigger deal out of the job through > unfamiliarity than it actually is. Disconnection from the front > wheels has generally been quite easy. You don't have to take the > suspension completely apart except in the rare instances of an > atrocious design. It's often a matter of unbolting a suspension > upright to allow some movement, slide the half-shafts off the > transmission unit, and you're done. > > I haven't done much work on anything newer than 1980 because *all* > cars got to be too much of a pain to work on to be worth my time, and > because I stopped doing auto/motorcycle mechanics for a living in > 1980 when I moved to California. > > That said, I've had the clutch replaced on both my Alfa Romeo Spider > (front engine, rear drive) and Toyota MR2 (midengine drive unit > lifted from a Corolla FWD car) within the past eight years. > Discounting cost of parts (the Alfa was cheaper), the labor charged > to do the jobs was identical. No other car I've owned since 1980 > (about seven different ones) has ever required any service to the > transmission or driveline components, and they've all cost roughly > the same thing to service otherwise. > > G > > On Jul 25, 2006, at 8:38 AM, Gonz wrote: > > >>Sure, but on FWD, you still cant do that easily, it has to come out >>the >>bottom, and on most of the ones I've seen, you have to still remove >>alot >>of stuff before you can do that. Again, its because the two half >>shafts >>are connected to the transaxle and the front wheels, which in turn is >>connected to a bunch of suspension stuff. And the ones I've seen also >>cant go down without taking some frame members off because the >>transaxle >>sticks out the side too much. I dont claim to have seen them all, and >>as Godfrey points out, there are exceptions to both sides, but >>generally >>speaking most of the FWD drive trains have the same rough removal >>procedure. > > > -- Someone handed me a picture and said, "This is a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture of you is when you were younger. "...Here's a picture of me when I'm older." Where'd you get that camera man? - Mitch Hedberg -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
