Do you really have to do that? I remember just hangin on the lower control arm?? while a friend took a pried it appart. Mind you the car was 6ft in the air on a lift so It wasnt very difficult. You might have to try different posions with the steering wheel to get the driveshafts out.

The t frame idea would work better than the engine hoist I used....When we did my trans we left the CV shafts in the spindles....marked the spindle/strut mount bolts....and disconnected the sway links and the spindle from the strut, pried the shafts out and dropped everything. We couldn't get the shafts out of the hubs....so we worked around them....it went well actually.....A lil less work to deal with on reassembly. But now my ball joints are shot...and so is my left shaft....so either way I gotta get back in there...but I got 200K out of OEM ball joints...I'M IMPRESSED!

Trofeo: Well, occasionally, I can convince my sweet wife to come out and help me a bit, like when I'm bleeding brakes, or to help with the cherry picker when I'm teasing in an engine. But for the heavy stuff, I'm pretty much on my own. So, I prefer a way that I can do with one man, and that little tool I hope will work on the 95 SLE. I sure won't be 6 feet in the air, either. I don't want to be any higher than absolutely necessary to sneak that slippin' tranny out under the driver'* wheelwell.

Lakeville, I have had good results getting shafts out of hubs by soaking the splines with PB for a while before I give them a little "tap" with a block of wood between the end of the shaft and a very heavy hammer. You don't have to hit 'em very hard, but it helps a lot to have a significant mass to "get its attention". I know, they say you should tap them gently with a rubber hammer, and that might work, too, if the rubber hammer head weighed about 10 pounds and had a copper face. I've done a bunch of halfshafts fhis way and haven't damaged them in any way that I've been able to tell.

I guess you got the necessary extension to undo the halfshalft by undoing the strut and the sway bar from the spindle. I would like to avoid undoing the strut, so that I might get away without another $50 for an alignment when I am done. I'll probably do it anyway, having "disturbed" the front end to such a degree. But at least if I leave the strut connected to the spindle, I shouldn't have to be in a big hurry to get it done when I put it back together.

I guess I will try poppin' the joints first and if I have trouble getting the shafts out, may try your trick.

Thanks for the tip.

When I changed the left axle on the 93 and removed both from the parts car, I only broke the ball joint loose (I was replacing the sway bar bushings at the same time so these were off too). No messing with the struts or the subframe.

The hub nut was removed and with light outward pulling on the spindle assembly, I tapped the axle with a wooden hammer. All of them came loose right away. To remove the axle, I used a large screwdriver to pry against the tripot. If you remove the left axle (drivers side) you will not loose tranny fluid. If you are doing the right, have a pan under the car and a couple quarts of new fluid to finish the job.

Yeah, randman, I think I'll just drain the trans fluid before I start. It'll be bad enough to be in the cold underneath without sliding around on a gallon of transfluid and oil-zorb. I have had some halfshafts that just slide right out of the hub on their splines with only hand pressure or a light tap, the way they are supposed to. But I have had others that were rusted in. I always clean the splines and put anti-seize on them before I re-install. I may check with O'Reilly'* to see if they loan out a wheel puller tool. I think they do. That would be the perfect thing to use to push out a stuck shaft so that there is little possibility of damage. But maybe I will luck out and they will come easily. It could happen that way!

Anyway, the purpose in undoing the left and front side section of the subframe is to make it easy to drop the transmission out. I have heard that some transmission shops drop the whole subframe to get the trans, and I have done that on a Sable, but it was a lot of work, because of the steering rack. I've never done one this way, but it seems like it should be easier and it is described pretty clearly in Chilton'* 28200 for the 86-99 H-bodies. I am planning on taking pix to help out the next guy.

Thanks for the "head'* up."

I obviously missed you mention the trans replacement in your first post. That would be a good reason to remove part of the subframe.

Where ore you getting the T-frame engine support you speak of? I was thinking that I would need something like this when it comes time for my project. Initially, I was just going to use steel stock and weld it together. Do you know of one that is rentable?

Never considered renting one. Maybe I should?

I have a six-foot piece of 3" x 2" rectangular steel tubing with 3/16" wall thickness that I plan to fashion into my "T" fixture. I want to use some kind of heavy all-thread so that I can hook into the engine lifting rings and then just run a nut with a washer down on the all-thread to lift the engine to take the weight of the engine and trans off of the mounts. I would like to keep the whole deal low and close to the engine so that I can almost close the hood when I am not working on it. I have to work in my driveway, and even though it is set way back from the street, up against my teensy garage, I don't like to have cars up higher than need be, or sitting with the hoods up. When possible, I put them down on their wheels when I am not actually working on them. Don't want to give the neighbors more reason than they already have to complain.

That'* why you mark the bolt placement with a paint pen or scribe before removing the strut bolts.....so you can get your original aligntment set up back.....Of course I didn't do the because I knew my alignment was trashed anyways so I didn't care and inadvertantly made it better some how lol

Yeah, Lakeville, I know you are supposed to be able to do it that way. Scribe the position of the cam bolts and put the strut and the knuckle back just the way they were. Trouble is, I can never get the lines to quite match up when I put 'em back together and always end up getting it aligned. I shouldn't be so damned cheap; just resign myself to an alignment when I'm done. I'll save money on tires in the long run, anyway.

Ya....Just don't do what I did, and this really f'd up my line up the last time......Don't turn the key on and have the ELC on, that messed some **** up and really make it hard to put back together.....lol