On the way home from work yesterday the Bonnie decided not to shift out of first gear. I took to a tranny shop today that has done some work for me in the past to try and determine what the problem is (after seaching the forums for a couple hours last night ) I was told that something has failed with 2nd gear but upon their diaganosis everything else seems ok.

I'm not sure what to do. They said it will cost $800 - $1000 to fix with $450 of that being the removal and reinstallation of the transmision. For another $500 I can get the entire transmission rebuilt.

I'm debating taking the tranny out myself and dropping it off to have the internal work done. I have never removed a tranny from a front wheel drive car before and after searching the forums I was unable to get an idea of how tuff it really is. How long should I expet it to take me? Are there any secrets? I am a fairly competent mechanic so I do not doubt my abilities, but I am wondering how much of a PIA it would be. Or is it worth the money to have someone else do it?

I do not do my own tranmission work so that will definitely be left up to the shop, but if I can save $450 on the R+R that will help me alot with my other bills.

The thing that really pisses me off id this car had the tranny rebuilt before I bought it, I have the receipt, only 2 years and 20,000 miles ago. Agrhhhhhh..... I apologize for the rant.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the reply. I actually have a GM manual for the 92. I haven't looked at it yet as far as the removal I was mainly reading it for troubleshooting last night. I will have to read up on the removal tonight. I imagine that would have the information you are referring to.

2 of you can have one out in a hour so if I set aside 3 hours for taking it out that should be adequate? I talked with a friend, who is also a very competent mechanic, and it took him and a friend over a day to R+R the transmission on a Dodge Intrepid. That really made me think the $450 was worth it but perhaps those cars are much harder to deal with?

What about supporting the engine. Is there an easy way to do that?

Thanks for the info.

I have decided to tackle the removal myself. Any other suggestions that may make this job easier?

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend

I have removed two transmissions out of Bonnevilles. One was a 88 and the other was an 87. On the 88 I removed just the transmission. Because it was such a PITA, and took nearly 7 hours with two guys, I removed the engine and transmission as one assembly on the 87. Removing the engine and transmission as one assembly was less work time wise, however, it gave me good opportunity to change transmission mounts and do a good inspection on the whole engine. Breaking the engine from the transmission once out of the car is a piece of cake! On the 88, it was a PITA to get the splined shaft to line up with the engine that was already sitting in the car.

Just some advice there on how I did it!