Quick and Dirty Floor Jack Trans Adaptor

I had to pull the 4R44E transmission out of my 2000 Ranger. I called around to rent a trans jack to find the local rental places weren't open on weekends. Like they say necessity is the mother of adventure, I started looking at my floor jack and what I had laying around in the garage. The result isn't pretty but it worked perfectly, completely stable on a flat concrete surface.

The saddle for the jack just slides into a bore in the yoke. I had some scraps of 3/4" plywood and some short pieces of 2x4. I spaced the 2x4s to catch the flange on the pan. This allowed the trans to be lifted by the pan bolt heads. The 2x4s are screwed to the plywood with long deck screws and even though I didn't have long enough pieces of 2x4 to screw them together in the corners, it was still rock solid with the trans on it. Only put the 2x4s on three sides. leave the back open so you can clear the cross member. It will also make it easier to maneuver the holder in-place with the arc of the jack arm.

To adapt it to the jack, I used a carriage bolt and an aluminum sleeve that roughly matched the diameter of the bore in the jack yoke. It also served as a compression sleeve that allowed the nut on the carriage bolt to be tightened while allowing clearance to let it swivel. A reinforced washer from a shock absorber worked perfectly to hold everything together. I also used a scrap of sheet metal to give it a kind of bearing surface to match the contact point on the jack yoke.

Originally, I centered the carriage bolt in the center of the pan but when I put the holder up against the transmission pan, I could see the trans would be front heavy with the weight of the torque converter so I move it back.

Here are some pictures. Like I said, it ain't pretty.



- Pete

whatever works bro........

Heres what I used.

^^

Nothing wrong with that. We've all mcguyver'd something here and there.

I have cut and bent wrenches to work for me (using a flame of course), I've welded sockets to things....Whatever works in a pinch.

I will say though; the right tool is always best but in your case, I think you made out awesome.

I like it! It belongs in the homemade tools thread.

Richard

I bought a trans jack from harbor freight for my M50D. But after pulling it in and out 3 times, I ended up just bench pressing it in and out of the truck. Wasn't that heavy. An automatic trans would probably be much heavier.

tx3nc said:

I ended up just bench pressing it in and out of the truck.

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X2

tx3nc said:

An automatic trans would probably be much heavier.

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They can be, I usually get a friend to help me with them. But I did bench press a 700R4 with little assistance once.

dangerranger83 said:

Heres what I used.

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I was going to use this but though better of it.



I've also tried bench pressing them but the last time the bell-housing hit me in the nose on the way down. Knocked me silly.

- Pete

With my truck having 5 inches of lift in the fron and 6 in the rear, a floor jack let alone the motorcycle jack shown under it was going to do the job. Plus it got in the way of putting the trans crossmember in too. The engine hoist actually cut the time in half and allowed for me to put the crossmsmber in plus align the input shaft into the pilot bearing too and did this myself vs the other way took two people and had the danger of the trans falling on somebody. Also I had the transfercase still attached too so bench pressing it up into place an extra 5 inches plus having the transfercase on it still wasnt going to happen anytime soon. You seperate the two and you will have fluid everywhere plus more money replacing the fluid too.

Also my injury while doing that was getting my finger smashed between the trasfercase and the frame as the bottom setup collapsed as I was getting it from under the truck too.

And yes at the time, I wanted to take some dynamite to the transmission as that was the second time I had pulled it in a month due to the bolts backing out of the bellhousing that hold it to the transmission. JB weld fixed that problem. Down side, to replace the internal slave, you have to somehow get the bolts out. But hopefully soon I will be doing a v8 swap and wont have to worry.

dangerranger83 said:

Heres what I used.

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Dude! My brother did the same thing!

Are you dropping the chain through the shifter opening in the tunnel and then just sliging it down to the ground?

- Pete

Its actually a 12,000lbs+ strap that was holding the trans up off the ground. Yes it was going through the shifter hole. As far as jacking it all the way to and from the ground, I got it up as far as I could with the motorcycle jack then used the engine hoist to lift it the rest of the way.

I just lay on my back and use my feet to lift the tail and my hands on bell. I normally chop the heads off some old tranny bolts and thread them into the motor to use as alignment dowells then just thread them out when I get the other bolts in.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

Lining my input shaft up to my pilot bearing last time sucked, took me 20 minutes of non stop wrestling but once it slid in then it went smooth from there. I used my legs to push the input into the pilot bearing while wiggling it around till it slid in.

It took half the time and effort with the engine hoist plus was able to do it by myself vs the old way I was doing it.