Seems that there are alot of questions about removing one of these and you are still going to have to do some searching to make sure which Hydramatic you have as I was told a few things which did't align up with mine. I thought I would post a few pics in case anyone is ever looking (and bothers to search) in the future. Mine was leaking pretty bad (which will lead to my question later). The car had sat outside with the front clip off for awhile and really needed cleaned up so I decided to do it the hard/easy way. If you just want to remove the tranny, this will still show you what to do. If you are going to pull everything it's a ton easier dissasembled (yeah, no kidding right). I still wasn't able to get it to clear without removing the starter which required moving the exhaust pipe out of the way also. There are 6 bolts around the face of the tranny cradle (which also has it own bolts which you do not have to remove). I was told up to 30 nuts on the flywheel. Mine only has 12. First pic is the cradle. You can see where the flywheel remains attached to the engine. In the second pic you can see the studs that attach the Torus/TC to the flywheel. These can be accessed simply by removing the flywheel cover and rotating the engine as you go around. IF you remove the whole thing it's far, far, far easier to access them through the hole where the starter goes. Once they are removed you can slide the tranny back and then down. It won't come straight out because of the cradle it sits up in. From there you just pop the cover that you see on the third pic and start removing things. Now my question as I've not replaced anything yet. The tranny looks like it had been out not all that long ago. The seal that is supposed to be the source of most leaks doesn't appear to have been leaking and actually looks fairly recent. The one where the shaft comes out of the tranny itself. BUT before I ever got around to draining the Torus/TC I was getting leaking. I'm thinking the TC is the source of my leak. What is the experience here on that possibility. The large round ring gasket was in place but is there not something else that seals it all up? I read something about a paper seal but I'm not sure if that applies to mine. In the below pic it appears like there may have been a seal around the edge where it bolts together but there wasn't one there. Also, the face of the surface where the shaft goes through is pretty uneven. Is this how it's supposed to be? Thanks and I hope this helps someone.
There were two hydramatics for Pontiac and Olds for 56. Dual range single coupling hydramatic (which were used prior to 56) and dual coupling jetaway/stratoflight hydramatic (which was used from 56 to 64). You have a dual coupling type (which has a Park position on the shift quadrant, the earlier transmissions had no real Park on the quadrant but you could put the trans in R with the engine off and it would double as a Park). As far as removing the transmission, it is not necessary to remove the torus front cover to remove the transmission. You need to remove only the 6 nuts that hold the torus to the flexplate. The earlier trans had either 30 bolts (used a gasket to seal) or 18 bolts (used an O-ring to seal) to hold the torus to the flywheel. The flywheel sealed the front of the torus. Hope this helps you out. As far as a gasket around the torus cover, I remember that there is an O-ring that does the sealing. If you don't have this chances are that someone had re-assembled with just some RTV and omitted the O-ring. Get the O-ring, use some Vasoline to keep in place and install the torus front cover, torqueing the nuts properly. While you have the trans out I would replace the front seal (behind the torus cover). You won't regret it.
Look close at where the BIG O-ring (torus cover seal?) is supposed to go. When I pulled mine out of my Olds, it was so messed up from the heat cycles that it resembled a tiny plastic ring which ran around the outside of the trans. It took a razor blade to get it out...
I'm going to replace the front seal but as I noted, it doesn't seem to be the source of the leak. It could be that I just can't tell with everything drained but I've seen no sign of it leaking. The O ring was in place and if that is all there is, perhaps they didn't get it snug enough. I ordered the seal kit from Fatsco. Jeez, is all I get for $75 is two seals?
Check out autotran.us. I bought a front seal up kit for my 57 from him. It was 3 or 4 seals for like $28. All his parts/kits are listed online and pricing appears to be fairly reasonable. That big o-ring apparently is a common leak source. I was talking with our transmission guy at work about my car, he asked what trans I had, I told him and he couldn't get it out fast enough that I need to replace the giant o-ring.
wvenfield - did your flywheel have a cover over the bottom of it? I don't see one in the pic but you may have removed it. I have a 56 with the same trans, and I can lay under the car and look straight up at the flywheel. Was there a cover on there stock?
Yes, there is a cover. It had been removed earlier. Without the starter removed it has to be removed to get to the flywheel bolts.
When I pulled a '56 Hydro from a stuck motor, I was able to remove it with the engine crank attached (!) but it was pretty straightforward otherwise, on a motor that turns you unbolt the 8 or so bolts to the flexplate, pull the starter, disconnect the shift linkage and speedo cable, the driveshaft, and so on. Then it's just the bell to block bolts and the mount bolts. I forget now if the mounts attach to the bolts that hold the trans to the bell, or the bell to the block. If the motor's stuck, you have to pull both together, and hope it's stuck so you can get to all the rod ends - take all the caps off, slide all the rod bolts out, take the damper off, then you have to play to get the bellhousing off the locator pins - but once you do, the whole works comes out. Unboltng the bell from the trans you can remove it or rotate it to get to all the flexplate bolts. If you weren't already planning it, put all new mounts in. The front chin mount anyhow is just a chunk of rubber bonded to metal on top and bottom, the rubber deteriorates, cracks, and a lot of times you just lift the front of the motor it comes right out. It's been too long now but I don't remember the side mounts putting up any fight either.
That's what has me concerned with the leaking. All three mounts are fairly new and solid. This all has been apart not all that long ago. All the bolts holding the side mounts in place were still shiney. I just want to make sure to get it all buttoned back up with the least possibility of it leaking again any time soon.
I was just curious as to when i had posted this thread. One year ago today. LOL Here it is exactly one year later and it's finally back on the road again. It's dark and raining so no pics of the clean up but under the hood looks better and best of all the transmission isn't leaking.
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