Tranny or no tranny
 

I have my motor ready to pull and have come to the point where I have to decide if I am going to pull the transmission out with the motor or not. I thought I had made the decision to pull it with the motor, as recommended by the Rotary Resurrection "how to" document, until I mentioned it to Sean at A-Spec. He recommends not pulling it. He says it is easier to leave it in. So now I have two knowledgeable sources with different positions. I have less than 500 miles on a new clutch and lightweight flywheel, so there is not a concern as far as possibly needing to replace any of that stuff. I am a little concerned however when I read the transmission pull "how to" regarding disengaging the clutch. Also I am not sure how difficult it is to line the motor back into the motor mount holes and get lined up to the transmission at the same time.

Ok, so you’re probably wondering how you can help! I am glad you asked. I would like to hear from members who have done motor pulls. Which way do you guys do it and why. Oh, I didn't mention, I have pulled small block V-8s in the past, but never an RX7. My car is a 93 touring and the car is on jack stands in my garage. No fancy power lifts or anything like that.

Even if no one takes the time to respond to this question, I want to thanks a bunch of you guys who take the time to post how to info on this site. I would not have wanted to try this without the info I was able to find here. As you can see by my post count, I don't post much, but I sure have learned a lot. Thanks RD

RotaryResurrection does not pull the trannies, I think he put that in the writeup just as a how to or something he did years ago. Unless you need to rebuild the 5th gear syncro there is no reason to pull the tranny, leave it in.

I've done it many times both ways and I've decided I like no tranny best

Thanks for the reponse. It helps to here from someone that does this stuff all the time.

heh pulling WITH the tranny is a pain in the ass, but if your not fixing it? dont bother... more trouble than its worth, TRUST me.

IMO, if you are keeping stock motor mounts, pull the tranny with the motor. It's much easier with the stock motor mounts to mate the tranny outside the car. If you are going to use aftermarket motor mounts when the engine goes back in, leave the tranny in the car.

Hows it going? I recently did a pull and install this past summer/fall, pulled it w/o the trans. You can get to the transmission bolts between the UIM and the firewall, it's not hard at all! When your ready to pull it, jack up the front of the transmission so its tilted upward so sliding out the motor is easier. I tried to separate the motor from the transmission without jacking up the front of the transmission and it was a PITA. Now I know, so on reinstall I did jack up the trans and it slided right in easily!
As for the motor mounts leave them in the subframe, take out the 3 bolts to each of the mount, but loosen the main nut thats at the bottom of the subframe so when you go to line up the motor with the mounts you can tilt and turn them till the 3 bolt holes line up.
I took off the trans inspection plate(2 bolts) and took off the 6 pressure plate bolts so I could pull the motor then remove the disc and PP later.
Hope this helps...