Transmission will not separate from engine.

[drummer343]

I am doing a replacement on my 1995 Explorer XLT 4.0 4wd. I've followed every step from every list of instructions I could find, including the list on this site. I've checked a dozen time to ensure all of the bell housing bolts have been removed. Including the studs for the starter.

Despite this, the transmission will not separate from the engine. It won't even budge. We did have to cut the two bottom bolts off, as they were so rusted and seized that we rounded them off trying to get them loose. Since I'm throwing away the old transmission, I saw no issue with cutting into the transmission a bit to get those bolts off.

We've tried pry bars, jacking the transmission up and down, wiggling it and even using ratchet straps wrapped around the rear axle to try to pull it off.

What could I be missing? Has anyone run into this issue? I'm at my whit's end with this and desperately need to get this vehicle back on the road.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PopRichie77]

If you have the replacement trans, count the bolt holes in the bell hsg. and be sure you removed that many.

 

[imp]

As a last resort, sharpen a good cold chisel to a narrow "vee" point, maybe chisel about 3/4" wide, don't overheat it while grinding, cannot allow it to turn blue, that's too hot.

Drive it between the bellhousing/engine juncture, somewhere where it's easy to get at, preferably near the guide pins; once separation begins to occur, the whole trans. may loosen up.

The chisel will damage the aluminum housing more than the engine, if the engine is cast iron. At any rate, any damage to the mating surface of the engine will have to be carefully filed flat. imp

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Did you unbolt the lower transmission mount?

 

[drummer343]

We've counted the holes on the bell housing of the replacement so many times... I've lost count. There are definitely not any more bell housing bolts left to pull. We've also unbolted all of the mounts. The only thing holding it to the engine are the guide pins and the rements of the two bolts we had to cut. That's why we are so confused as to why it won't budge.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you remove the transfer case, CV axles, and the rear driveshaft?

 

[Bruces expo]

The Stock Trans to Motor Bolts , At the end of the Thread they have a larger Point under the bolt head to line up the bolt in the center of the bell housing case , if those bottom 2 bolts were so tight it stripped, I'm assuming that they are causing your issue of the trans not wanting to separating from the motor , also , Did you go through the starter hole location and remove all 4 of the Torque converter to flex plate nuts ?. You should never remove a trans without the Torque converter seated into the trans bushing , you could end up with a mess of fluid from doing so .

 

[drummer343]

We have removed the transfer case and drive shafts. The only thing left intact anywhere around the transmission is the exhaust. We can't really remove that. It's all rusted together.

Any solution for those two bolts causing the problem? I'm at the point where I break out a BFH.

 

[BrooklynBay]

What about heating up the area where the two broken bolt remnant are? The case should expand to slide over the bolts with missing heads.

 

[drummer343]

That may be a good idea. Thank you. And, to clarify, we have removed the torque converter/ flex plate nuts.

 

[Bruces expo]

well you should be able to manage something with either heat or BFH lol , Hope to hear it works out for you , I did 2 trans swaps by myself , was not fun nor easy , but a helper to keep it stable would be nice ! .

 

[drummer343]

I've got heat, a helper, a hammer, and a cutting wheel (God forbid). I'll let you all know how it goes this week. Thanks for all of the advice!

 

[Bruces expo]

I've got heat, a helper, a hammer, and a cutting wheel (God forbid). I'll let you all know how it goes this week. Thanks for all of the advice!

No Problem , You may have to cut into the bell housing a little further for the bell housing to make it past the studs , also , do you have something holding the motor in place while doing this , if not , that could be a problem , the motor mounts will not hold the motor in one place and it will tilt back , that could cause the weight of the motor to be on the trans bell housing bolts and could be another reason the trans will not separate . good luck and will be waiting to hear the outcome .

 

[Bruces expo]

Here is how I kept my motor from shifting , I used a jack stand and some random blocks under the oil pan , and a Wedge shapped block up top to keep the motor from tilting backwards and causing a kink when trying to remove the trans from motor ,,

 

[drummer343]

We were able to get the top half to start to separate. But, the bottom is still holding tight. I think the last resort is to start cutting. Seems that we're simply hung up on the two lower bolts that we had to cut the bolthead off of.