Transmission jack

[Rich Z]

The transmission jack that I ordered from Home Depot came in yesterday, so after meeting the Estes truck at the Walmart parking lot and loading the pallet into Connie's truck bed, we brought it home and parking in the garage. Later that day I used the engine hoist to lift the jack in the wooden crate it came in from the pallet onto the garage floor so we could put it together.

Pretty nice wooden box that it came in....

Putting it together was very easy and it seems like an extremely sturdy jack. The transmission adapter head on it only tilts in one direction, with another knob that will move the head laterally. Seems to me that the lateral adjustment is kind of a waste, because if you wanted to move whatever is on the lift that way, you could just as easily just move the entire jack itself. But maybe I am just missing the idea here.

Everything I have read about doing a clutch install on a C6 vette indicates that having two jacks would be best to do. One for the differential cradle and suspension to come out as a unit, and the other to handle the actual drivetrain (differential, transmission, and torque tube). I'm thinking I may actually remove the differential/transmission from the torque tube and treat them as two units. My guess is that putting the torque tube back in will be a LOT easier to do that way. But we'll see, I guess.

Been raining a LOT lately, so I haven't had the car out lately to see if the drivetrain squeal is just going through a temporary quiet spell, or if it is going to behave for a while. I'm in no hurry to pull all that stuff out, but I guess I do need to think about replacing those Pfadt motor mounts with something else pretty shortly. But I would like to do this all at the same time, since the headers will have to come off, or at least just loosened enough to be out of the way, no matter what. Besides, I am considering getting 1 7/8 inch headers to replace the 1 3/4 inch primary ones that are on the car right now. So going to be a lot of parts being slung around when that time comes.

Anyway, snapped some pics of that transmission jack, which is going to be 1 of 2. The other one I want to have an adapter head on it that tilts in both planes instead of just one like this one does, however.

 

[Rich Z]

Been reading over the service manual looking at the procedures for a clutch replacement, and a particular tool is mentioned to hold the transmission onto the transmission jack. Kent Moore J-42055. But I really can't find any info on what exactly it does or how it is used. One shop I talked to mentioned that they will not do drivetrain work without it. Anyone ever used this thing? If it will make things easier I'll buy one, but right at the moment I can't even figure out how it would be mounted to a transmission jack.... :shrug01:

 

[Rich Z]

Well, I've been scouring the internet looking for information on how that J-42055 transmission adapter is supposed to work, and found a few pics that are centered around Greg at AntiVenom. I have also been asking him about the thing, and he sent me a pic too. It looks like where I have gotten confused is that I was thinking ALL of the pieces shown in the above pic needed to be used to attached to the transmission to support and stabilize it. But looking at the pics of how Greg uses it, my guess is that the J-42055 is actually a KIT. Some parts are used with the manual transmission, and others are used with the automatic

I was also over in the garage staring at the transmission on the C5Z while the car is up on the lift, and I noted that the transmission is not actually fitted exactly straight. It is actually twisted slightly to the right. So even with the Kent Moore adapter, the head of the transmission jack has to be tilted slightly to the side in order for the J-42055 to be able to properly match up with the underside of the transmission. I took some pics of the underside of the transmission that I will post later to show what I mean.

Meanwhile, I took what pics I could find on the net, and the one that Greg sent me, and cropped them to try to isolate the Kent Moore J-42055 and how it is being used. Those are posted below.

 

[Rich Z]

Here's the pics I took of the underside of the transmission showing the sideways tilt I mentioned earlier. Just looks to me that it would be kind of tough putting a jack underneath that transmission and keep it stable when the drivetrain has been disconnected from everything. Don't really want to spend the money for that Kent Moore transmission adapter, but I think it will make things a lot easier when I pull all that stuff out.

 

[Rich Z]

I got the Kent Moore J-42055 transmission adapter in that I found on Ebay. Being sold as "used", but it looks like it has hardly been used at all. Certainly don't see any signs that it was ever mounted on a transmission jack, and some of the threaded holes even still have paint in them, showing that bolts have never been threaded into them. The straps have NO wear on them at all, that I can see.

Now I just have to get the main transmission jack that I want and drill and tap some holes in it's own adapter plate in order to mount this adapter to the jack.

 

[Rich Z]

Kent Moore J-42055 instruction manual

I looked all over the internet for something like this, as I just could not figure out how all the parts I saw in photographs were supposed to work together to hold a transmission. Well, come to find out that it is sort of a kit. Two pieces are used only with the automated transmission, and the other two pieces are only used with the manual transmission. The base and straps are used with both sets of adapter plates. So anyway, I'm posting images of that manual here just in case I lose the darn thing or perhaps someone else wants to take a look at it. This adapter isn't particularly cheap, so it's best to know what it does before buying it....

 

[Rich Z]

Was taking a closer look at the new transmission jack yesterday, and noticed that the adapter head (or I believe it is called a "saddle") had some play with the tilt adjustment as well as the lateral movement adjustment. There are adjustment nuts on both threaded portions of the saddle, so I ran them as tight as they would go, and there was still a noticeable gap between the locking nut and the washers. So I just added another washer or two to take up the slack and that seemed to remove just about all of the play.

Now I did notice that whereas the lateral adjuster had thrust bearings on both sides of the shaft that actually moves the platform, the tilt adjuster lacks a bearing on the top side. Not sure if that is intentional or not, as there really doesn't look like there is enough space to put another bearing there anyway. I put oil on the bearings and the sliding surfaces, and it seemed to work smooth enough.

 

[mrr23]

so when are you going to put this to work?

 

[Rich Z]

Well, the last couple of times I took the C5Z out it behaved beautifully. The drivetrain was quiet as a mouse. I think maybe it's because I have parked the transmission jack in front of it, and made sure it sees the surgical tools and transplant organs I have been getting in for it.

So until and unless that drivetrain noise acts up and gets on my nerves, I really don't have any reason to rush into it. I can take my time and research clutches more, and maybe even research some 2 inch primary headers to replace those 1 3/4s that are on the engine now. Then keep my eye out for someone running a good sale on what I decide on.

The second transmission jack should be showing up next Friday, so I'll be setting it up to accept that Kent Moore adapter I already have. When the time comes to do the surgery, I'll have everything I need right here.

Of course, I do have that bum driver's side engine mount that needs to be replaced. Wonder why someone hasn't made one that BOLTS in from the top and the bottom instead of having those embedded studs? Would be a LOT easier to replace the suckers that way. Wouldn't have to lift the engine so much or remove the mount brackets from the block.

 

[85vette]

Do like Chevy did on the 67-69 cars and strap it down with a chain!

 

[Rich Z]

Do like Chevy did on the 67-69 cars and strap it down with a chain!

LOL! That's exactly what I did with my '66 GTO.

But the problem here is that the vibration from the engine is being fed to the frame through the metal to metal contact. I wondered why the videos I had been taking using my Panasonic camcorders got REAL fuzzy sometimes when I was driving the C5Z and bearing down on it a bit.

 

[Rich Z]

Got the second transmission jack in a while back.

Honestly I wasn't all that thrilled with the head that came on it, as it had a lot more play than I was comfortable with. So I contacted BendPak and expressed as much. After passing emails back and forth with the senior VP of sales, the guy checked out what I was talking about, then went and BOUGHT me a new head after checking with his staff and also going to a few transmission places to check on what other models were doing. His shop staff had to cut the mount off of one of their heads and weld it onto the replacement they sent me. I have to tell you, I was blown away by how far BendPak went to keep me a happy customer.

So anyway, I got in the new head, and it is a LOT better than the original one. Today I drilled and tapped holes into the plate on the head so I could mount the GM transmission adapter I bought earlier. It looks like that adapter was designed with this transmission jack head in mind, as the holes went into places perfectly that did not impact anything else underneath the head. I only had to do a little bit of "minor fitment", and that was because one of the holes I drilled was a little off. Not sure how that happened, but no big deal, fortunately. I also added the grab ring around the jack body, as I liked that style better than what came stock with the TransJack. This will allow me to more easily move the jack no matter where I am in relation to it.

Anyway, ON to the pics!

 

[Rich Z]

Last group of pics:

 

[mrr23]

That's a whole lot of jack.

 

[Rich Z]

That's a whole lot of jack.

Yeah, I do tend to go into overkill mode when it comes to tools.... :hehehe:

 

[navy2kcoupe]

Waiting to see pix of the jack with the C5Z transmission on it! :yesnod::yesnod:
Andy :wavey:

 

[Rich Z]

Waiting to see pix of the jack with the C5Z transmission on it! :yesnod::yesnod:
Andy :wavey:

Well, I'm not in any hurry since the clutch noise has pretty much gone away the last few times I've taken the car out for a ride. But I do want to change out that starter and the motor mounts, though. Especially the starter. Since I read about that problem with a starter breaking, and then taking out part of the block with it, I'm scared of tempting Murphy's Law now.