So i decided to go the route of building my 7at for a transmission upgrade and I'm starting to remove the transmission. Never pulled a transmission before, pulled the engine on my buddies 6mt coupe and did a valve body in my 5at charger. I have an awd sedan. A few questions, do i need to disconnect the transfer case driveshaft, do i need to remove the cross member or would it make it easier if i did, should the transmission be in park or neutral or does it matter, any tips or tricks i should know? Planning on getting the level 10 valve body, torque converter, and fast intentions flex plate.

 

Disconnect xfer case driveshaft
Remove the cross member
Park or probably doesn't matter.
It's surprisingly easy/straight forward, Just a little time consuming and back breaking. but nothing too challenging overall.

Are you FI or planning on FI?

VR30 trans swap is about as easy of a bolt on as a swap can be. and will probably hold as much power stock as any level10 build trans.

I did VR30 swap with IPT valve body, and torque converter, with FI flex plate.

 

Got it out a few minutes ago, wasn't bad at all really. Biggest pain in *** was actually removing the transmission and getting out out from under the car.
At some point i might put a stillen on it but mostly my trans has been slipping here and there so i figured I'd upgrade before anything breaks completely. Got bolt ons and a tune right now. Haven't been on a dyno so i don't know how much power I'm pushing. I drive it pretty hard too so it'll be nice to know the transmission can take the abuse.

 

So, maybe a stupid question but how do i remove the torque converter? I didn't see any bolts directly on it. pry bar or am i missing something?

 

There are four (4) bolts where it attaches to the flywheel:


They are only accessible from the flywheel side.

Important, you will have to rotate the flywheel (crankshaft) to get access to the bolts. ONLY ROTATE THE CRANK CLOCKWISE AS VIEWED FROM THE FRONT (COUNTER-CLOCK FROM THE REAR)!