93 Lesabre Transmission Replacement

[mcqueary]

Over the Christmas break I'm planning on replacing the 4T60E transmission on my 93 Lesabre Limited. I plan to back the back wheels of the car on ramps, use a floor jack and jackstands on the front and use a transmission jack to help remove and replace the transmission. I have the factory service manual and plan to closely follow all steps. Are there any gotchas that I need to know about from someone who's done this? I plan to use a salvage yard or recycled transmission as a replacement, hopefully spending about 300 - 500 dollars for the used transmission.

Thanks,
Tom

[LeSabre97mint]

Originally Posted by mcqueary

Over the Christmas break I'm planning on replacing the 4T60E transmission on my 93 Lesabre Limited. I plan to back the back wheels of the car on ramps, use a floor jack and jackstands on the front and use a transmission jack to help remove and replace the transmission. I have the factory service manual and plan to closely follow all steps. Are there any gotchas that I need to know about from someone who's done this? I plan to use a salvage yard or recycled transmission as a replacement, hopefully spending about 300 - 500 dollars for the used transmission.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom

First off, please forgive my spelling.

I just did this on my 97. I got a used tranny from a bone yard for 425.00 with 101 miles on it. You should devise some way to support the engine from the top. I removed my hood (I used spray paint to mark where the hinge alignment (I didn't want to scratch the paint)) and built a wood beam to support the engine (would bulid this stronger the second time around). I only removed half of the subframe (on my 97 it comes appart in back on the drives side and on the front on the pass side. I'm not sure on the 93) All of the bolts come from the tranny side but one. That one is on the back side of the engine above the differenal of the transaxel. There is a bracket that holds the tranny on the pass side. Take this bracket off to get at this bolt with a long extension from the pass wheel well. It's also a pain to get back in. I did it by putting a bit of paper in the socket (to creat resistence so the bolt would not fall out of the socket)

I didn't pull my CV axels from the hubs (why would someone want to have to replace the axel nut). I removed the pich bolt on the drives side balljoint and poped the CVaxel out of the tranny. I poped the pass out just a bit when the tranny was in place. I came out as I removed the tranny. Have some wire around to hang the axels on. I belive I had to pull the caliper on the drivers side. I'm not really sure why I had to right now.... It may of been an issue with the brake hose length. Make sure you have a wire handy to hang the caliper on. This is a good time to lube your caliper slides with the caliper grease. They do get sticky and hang up causing pad wear and rotor to over heat and warp.

Remove your dipstick tube. You won't have to lift your car as high. Make sure you plug the replacement trannys dipstick hole so dirt doesn't get init.

Take your mag out of your old tranny pan and use it in your replacement so you will have two. (can't hurt) Do change your filter. The pan gasket on my 97 was reuseable. Do change the three seals. I went to a hardware store with the new seals and found pipe/pipefittings that were the correct size to work to install the seals.

Do put as many bolts back where you got them from. Get some containers for bolts from different locations that you can't put back. It's a lot easier than digging through one container with all of the bolts.
I would take a piece of cardboard and make a diagram of the bolts on the bellhousing. Punch holes where the bolts go and put the bolts in the holes. No guessing what length bolt goes where.

You should plan on an alignment after the work is done. The subframe doesn't always go back in the same spot so the wheels will be in a different location.

I'm doing this from memory at work in between tasks (waiting on my computer).

I took pics. Let me know if you would like to see them.

I hope this helps you. Reply here if you have more questions or send me a Privet message/email.

Regards

Dan

[imidazol97]

I'd like for you to post or link to the pictures when you get them ready> I'm sure others would like to see them here too.

[mcqueary]

I'm sure this info will be very useful when I start the job. And yes the pictures would be a plus. Thanks a lot.

Tom

[LeSabre97mint]

Originally Posted by mcqueary

I'm sure this info will be very useful when I start the job. And yes the pictures would be a plus. Thanks a lot.

Tom

I went to the photo Gal but couldn't figure out how to get my pics uploaded. I must be missing something. Do I need to sign in? If I have to sign in is it my same user and pass? On one of the post on this forum someone gave instructions how to do this. Would someone be so kind to either tell me how to post pics or guide me to the instructions?

Tranny repacement is easy. Uploading pics.....that's another thing!

Thanks

Dan

[HotZ28]

I gave the instructions for how to post in the PA forum, however that whole post disappeared! If you have a lot of pics to post, it might be better to use Photobucket and just post the link to your "bucket". You could post some in your gallery here and just copy the link to your gallery. Putting a lot of pics on the post tends to bog down the system during downloads.

If you want to do it in the gallery, click on gallery, and then sign in with your user name and password (same as the one you sign in here with). You will see a button to upload photos, click on that and follow the instructions.

If you have the pics on your computer, use the browse button and find your pics in the folder you have them stored and select one at a time. You may have to crop and resize the pic if it is too large.

Good luck, and let me know if you need any further help. You can PM me also.

Here is the link for photobucket; you can use it free for awhile if you choose to use it.

http://www.photobucket.com/
www.photobucket.com