Cracked bellhousing

Cracked bellhousing
J

jeremycj5

Jeeper
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Location
Fairhope, Al
Vehicle(s)
1983 CJ-5, 2001 BMW 323i
I have a 1983 CJ5 with a cracked bellhousing, just got a new one in the mail today, I'm getting alot of different advice from my mechanic buddys (I work at a dealership) one says take off the grille and fenders and remove the engine, another says I don't have to do that, in fact he says I dont even have to completely remove the tranny. AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l engine, T-18 1B tranny. Looks like alot of you guys here know about an old Jeep, which one is correct? Thanks in advance men.
 
I replaced a clutch in my 95 the transmition is easy as could be to drop, but you work at a dealer you already know that lol, but I would just drop it and swap the housing.
Also Welcome to the site!
These guys know alot! Trust me they've helped me out ALOT!
 
jeremycj5 said:
I have a 1983 CJ5 with a cracked bellhousing, just got a new one in the mail today, I'm getting alot of different advice from my mechanic buddys (I work at a dealership) one says take off the grille and fenders and remove the engine, another says I don't have to do that, in fact he says I dont even have to completely remove the tranny. AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l engine, T-18 1B tranny. Looks like alot of you guys here know about an old Jeep, which one is correct? Thanks in advance men.
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You can do it without removing the whole front end.
Wow, no wonder dealerships charge so much labor!:laugh:
That's a good part of all that ground clearance is there's plenty of room to work.;)
 
I do work at a dealership, but I am no mechanic, I can do some small things mechanically, I put a radiator in the wifes maxima the other day, but I don't have a clue when it comes to pulling engines or transmissions. In fact, I've never done anything to a Transmission but tear one up!!
 
jeremycj5 said:
I do work at a dealership, but I am no mechanic, I can do some small things mechanically, I put a radiator in the wifes maxima the other day, but I don't have a clue when it comes to pulling engines or transmissions. In fact, I've never done anything to a Transmission but tear one up!!
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Most of the guy's on this forum were not mechanics before the bought a Jeep.:rolleyes:
 
A point of advice A Borg Warner Gear T-18 Transmission is a beauty to behold, but the sucker weighs over AMC 150 pounds + Transfer Case .
Obviously a quality jack is important. You don't want it to fall on you.;)
 
The benefit of working at a dealership is, I get to use a lift. Will I have to disconnect the Transfer Case and remove it as well as the Transmission ? I have been under the impression that I would be able to just take the bolts out of the tranny and move it back and down and then replace the bellhousing. I'm definately not going to do it alone, I'm trying to find someone to pay to help me do it because I'd like to be able to work on my Jeep by myself in the future, these things are worse than boats!! Always workin' on them! But I love it dearly and have huge plans for it.
 
jeremycj5 said:
The benefit of working at a dealership is, I get to use a lift. Will I have to disconnect the Transfer Case and remove it as well as the Transmission ? I have been under the impression that I would be able to just take the bolts out of the tranny and move it back and down and then replace the bellhousing. I'm definately not going to do it alone, I'm trying to find someone to pay to help me do it because I'd like to be able to work on my Jeep by myself in the future, these things are worse than boats!! Always workin' on them! But I love it dearly and have huge plans for it.
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A lift is great, but you'll need a tall Transmission jack to go with it.
No on splitting your Transfer Case . You leave in on the Transmission .
 
I mean, you can do it with out a Transmission jack. It sure makes it easier though.:D
 
The Horn is right, as usual. You can leave the Transmission and Transfer Case in one piece and drop the whole thing, but as mentioned the T-18 is a chunk, hell, any Transmission is heavy! IMHO take the Transfer Case off then remove the Transmission . The biggest problem I have with Transmission Transfer Case in one piece is that it does not balance well on a jack. Having a lift is great and standing is easier than sitting/laying but it is a lot farther to drop things as well. When I was twenty years old I didn’t give it a second thought, now I give a lot more thought to the easy way. Of course I have never had a real honest to goodness Transmission jack and that will make a lot of difference, I am sure. Good luck, can't wait to see how this comes out.:popcorn:
 
I really have to agree with Horn, get a tranny jack and drop the Transmission /tcase combo and then change the bell housing. I have done it before and that will be the easiest way.
now what kept me stumped for a while is why guys at the dealership would say you had to pull the front this and that turning it into a nightmare. Then it hit me, they work in the modern dealership world working on modern vehicles that have no room whatsoever and are also mainly front wheel drive. I changed the clutch in a front wheel drive once, I do not own nay front wheel dives anymore that are manual, just to hard. Now why would they not know an 83 is not like that. Well that is a 36 year old vehicle, most those guys never have ever seen the under hood of one.
So I thought I would pipe in and agree with Master Horn. It is just to easy.
 
what I am wondering is how does one crack a bell housing?:dunno:
 
Old Dog said:
Thats the easy way.

Have a good Transmission jack and use the chains and life will be good.:)
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BajaEdition said:
I really have to agree with Horn, get a tranny jack and drop the Transmission /tcase combo and then change the bell housing. I have done it before and that will be the easiest way.
now what kept me stumped for a while is why guys at the dealership would say you had to pull the front this and that turning it into a nightmare. Then it hit me, they work in the modern dealership world working on modern vehicles that have no room whatsoever and are also mainly front wheel drive. I changed the clutch in a front wheel drive once, I do not own nay front wheel dives anymore that are manual, just to hard. Now why would they not know an 83 is not like that. Well that is a 36 year old vehicle, most those guys never have ever seen the under hood of one.
So I thought I would pipe in and agree with Master Horn. It is just to easy.
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Its like I said "Horn is right , as usual".:cool:
and I'm just a big old girl.:eek:
but I'm still going to do it in two pieces.:chug:
because I'm a gray haired old fat man!:laugh:
 
Wow, thanks guys, I love this site! I do have a new hydraulic Transmission . jack (the shop has a new one). So, with the help of a friend, we're gonna try to drop the tranny and t.case together, if it looks like it'll be too much I'll seperate them. Thanks so much for the help men. I'll let yall know how it turns out, can't wait to start driving my Jeep again, I'm driving my BMW now but when the Jeep is fixed, my 16 year old gets the Beemer and I'll gladly drive the CJ5 ! My friends don't understand that I would rather drive the Jeep, guess they wont til they get one.....
 
jeremycj5 said:
Wow, thanks guys, I love this site! I do have a new hydraulic Transmission . jack (the shop has a new one). So, with the help of a friend, we're gonna try to drop the tranny and t.case together, if it looks like it'll be too much I'll seperate them. Thanks so much for the help men. I'll let yall know how it turns out, can't wait to start driving my Jeep again, I'm driving my BMW now but when the Jeep is fixed, my 16 year old gets the Beemer and I'll gladly drive the CJ5 ! My friends don't understand that I would rather drive the Jeep, guess they wont til they get one.....
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X10,000 on that one!!!!;)
 
jeremycj5 said:
Wow, thanks guys, I love this site! I do have a new hydraulic Transmission . jack (the shop has a new one). So, with the help of a friend, we're gonna try to drop the tranny and t.case together, if it looks like it'll be too much I'll seperate them. Thanks so much for the help men. I'll let yall know how it turns out, can't wait to start driving my Jeep again, I'm driving my BMW now but when the Jeep is fixed, my 16 year old gets the Beemer and I'll gladly drive the CJ5 ! My friends don't understand that I would rather drive the Jeep, guess they wont til they get one.....
Click to expand...

Don't bother trying to explain, it doesn't work.
"Its a Jeep thing, if I have to explain, you won't understand.":cool:
 
IOPort51 said:
what I am wondering is how does one crack a bell housing?:dunno:
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I'm really not sure how it cracked, but it's all the way across the middle. When the clutch is depressed, it opens up at the crack almost 3/8 of an inch! While driving, the wheel fell off on me twice, wheel, tire, axle shaft and all. So maybe when the back end hit the pavement both times, it formed a crack, then over a little time it just cracked all the way. It took me a week to find the wheel, tire and axle shaft the first time it flew off!!
I let some jack-leg fix it the first time, two days later it flew off again. I found a guy who had the wide track complete rear end locally, and I had a real mechanic install that.
 
Please elaborate on the red text. :D This sounds like a good story.
jeremycj5 said:
I'm really not sure how it cracked, but it's all the way across the middle. When the clutch is depressed, it opens up at the crack almost 3/8 of an inch! While driving, the wheel fell off on me twice, wheel, tire, axle shaft and all. So maybe when the back end hit the pavement both times, it formed a crack, then over a little time it just cracked all the way. It took me a week to find the wheel, tire and axle shaft the first time it flew off!!
I let some jack-leg fix it the first time, two days later it flew off again. I found a guy who had the wide track complete rear end locally, and I had a real mechanic install that.
Click to expand...
 
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