Ok, so after a long time I've finally got round to having a go at replacing the gearbox bearings and clutch/bearing and I've got everything else off (I think) following the Haynes manual* and pollyp's post about it.
* so vague lol, no need to undo the bloody trackrod end ball-joint! Had a go and it didn't come out, but the nut is stuck halfway down on the broken remains of the split pin, so just spins the bolt lol... I might be able to get the nut off using some snipe nose mole grips on the bolt, might just limp it to a garage and get a new ball joint or track rod end + ball joint!
I haven't managed to pull the gearbox bell housing off the engine, despite removing the main 4 bolts (9, 11, and 1 o'clock, and the rear engine mount bolt) and the two little ones on the bottom, as well as the 3 bolts off the front gearbox bracket.
First question: do I have to remove the actual rear engine mount bracket (looks like a humpback bridge with a doughnut in it)? It looks like there's next to no clearance around the bolt heads, top one has the steering rack above it and the bottom one has the gear selector end (from the gearbox) in the way. So I'm not sure how to get those off, maybe it will be more obvious when I have some light tomorrow... but it looked really tight in near darkness. I couldn't make out what sits either side of the mount, is it connected to the engine or the gearbox?
Second question: how on earth do you get the gearbox housing off the engine?! It was admittedly pretty dark when I got to the point with all the bolts off, but I tried:
- prying it with a small crowbar against the centre support
- the whole gearbox and engine shifted side to side, as one
- using a length of wood and hammer, smacking it from the top at different angles
- similar technique with a flat piece of wood and hammer, smacking it from the bottom
- grabbing the gearbox from the top and shaking it up and down, back and forth, like a crazy monkey
- probably got some laughs off the neighbours
- grabbing the gearbox from underneath and shaking it forward and back
- nothing, or possibly some more laughs
- jacking the gearbox up with a trolley jack fairly high and then letting the jack down until it wasn't supporting the gearbox, did this maybe 3 times
- gearbox and engine moved as one
There doesn't appear to be any decent pry points for getting the gearbox housing off the engine. Everywhere I tried just moved the whole engine+gearbox around. Everywhere I didn't try looked like I'd probably end up bending a bracket.
I've searched the forums and found a few threads where people seem to have just pryed it off, or lifted it with a crane/pulley. I don't have a crane/pulley, and I only have small crowbars which seem to flex loads (it was, however, sufficient a pry to pull the driveshaft out by turning it and prying it all around). Do I need to hammer in the crowbar to try to break the seal?
