Is it possible to pull the engine out from the top on a 1988 SSE. I have a bad torque converter on the transmission and would like to replace it. Dropping the subframe is out of the question for me. I would scrap the car before I did that. I have a factory service manual and there is no mention of pulling the engine anywhere. I have to believe it can be done but at what difficulties.

It is actually pretty easy.

I haven't done it for a long time. But I think it'* bascially the same as the Series 2'* in that there'* a bolt on the backside fo the motor to trans you get through the wheel well. Otherwise it shoudl be straight forward.

very easy, you have one motor mount and 5 or 6 bolts on the intake side and one behind the engin, its easy to get in by the oil filter for that last bolt. then the tourque converter bolts and get every thing out of the way. ive done this 14 times to my 88 sse

Thanks Gregr906.

This is encouraging. My plan is to leave as much on the engine as possible and pull it out as a whole, minus the tranny. I want to leave the tranny in, then change the converter. Which brings me to the converter. Where would be a good source for one? The Oem one appears to be discontinuued. It'* an ME9 transmission
(440-t4) with overdrive and lock up converter. The lock up function was going bad and I kept running it. Now I disconnected the harness to the transmission and all is fine except it has a constant grinding sound (like a rotor being turned down on a brake lathe. ) Occassionally I can hear what sounds like the clutch springs fluttering inside under hard accelleration. The transmission shifts perfectly. I just don't know if driving it like this will cause other problems inside the trans. I don't know if the trans is getting contaminated by the failing converter.

try a junk yard you can get them kinda cheap, im not a tranny guy so its hard to tell whats up but i know the grinding sound your talking about. ive always pulled the trans and motor and replaced the trans. i tryed to fix it once but with a month of no luck ive just got a used trans from a junk yard, maybe thats why i had to do it 14 times

I don't know if you have fixed it yet, but I could put you in touch with the best source for converters there is. Probably about $100 for the most reliable converter you can get.