Just thought I'd vent on here a bit. Fitted a new diff this weekend, filled it with fluids to check for leaks and all was good. Today I thought I'd get it in with the trolley jack. Of course things turned out more complicated than planned. First of all, the car wasn't high enough to get the boxs and jack in together, so I settled for having the thing on the floor and trying to lift it onto the jack from underneath (lol). Of course it half worked for a bit until the whole thing fell off the jack 7 times.

I realised I had to take the mounting bar off to get the thing over the handbrake cable (no idea how i got the thing out), and then struggled to get the mounting bar attached to the gearbox again. At this point it dropped off the jack for the 8th time on my head.

Perhaps I'm dreaming big that this is a one man job. It's a pain in the arse and the whole thing weighs about 100 kilos. At least it's sunny this time around though

Anyone else done this really crappy job by themselves?

Am I just being a whiny bitch?

Speedy88 wrote:Am I just being a whiny bitch?

i'd say yes, the CVT gearbox is about twice as heavy (and not to forget about 3 times bigger) as the manual 5 speed and i did that all by myself a few weeks ago with just a jack and a pair of axle stands

you want to get the rear axle high enough for jack + gearbox to slide under it, that's the easyest way. i've also kept the car lower once to put the box on the jack from under the car but that resulted in a sore back a day later, it's not a pleasent position for heavy lifting.

about the handbrake cable, on your car you can simply undo the nut where the single cable goes further into 2 cables to each rear wheel, this is located right above the center of the gearbox. you can indeed disassemble the subframe if your rattle is low enough (and with use of a high socket) to clear the cars flour but, in the end that's more of a bitch to do..

a good trick is a piece of strong plywood to put the gearbox on and get it level, finding the balance on the jack is much easyer after that, that way it won't fall off that often

ok thanks for that! Confidence boost for tomorrow. Handbrake cable bolt is rounded off on the inside, it just spins but I'll try and get the thing up and over that. The thing that gets in the way mostly is the new exhaust which I really don't fancy taking off. Ah well, I've got an extra hand tomorrow so shouldn't be too bad.

volvodspec wrote:

Speedy88 wrote:Am I just being a whiny bitch?

i'd say yes, the CVT gearbox is about twice as heavy (and not to forget about 3 times bigger) as the manual 5 speed and i did that all by myself a few weeks ago with just a jack and a pair of axle stands

I'd say so too. Whiny bitch!

(I've done a Vario complete back in too.)

Bump!

To be fair...if you're using a girl-sized jack, that *really* doesn't help. My man-sized jack is probably the best tool I've ever bought.

cheers

James

Yep, new one will be on the list for the future.

yes big trolley definitely helps but I've had help with a 360 twice before. The 940 I changed the clutch recently by myself and went quite well with a bit of thought, hardboard to slide the gearbox in, lift it onto the jack end by end under the car, then balance on jack and jack into place.