Ok so I am trying to pull apart a T5 that someone had rebuilt at some point. When they reassembled it they glued that darn thing back together using silicone. I cannot get it apart. I have used heat and a hammer..nothing, pulled and pryed , nothing... anybody have any suggestions?
I bought a '79 Camaro years ago for the trans (a just rebuilt TH350) ... the clowns glued the trans to the engine (I had never come across that before or since) ... ended up breaking a large chunk off of the trans case while trying to separate the two . May your luck be better than mine .
thats exactly what I am trying to avoid, there is no room to get anything between the tail and main case not even a razor, and I am really trying to aviod chipping marring and cracking the aluminum. I spread paint thinner around the seams last night...no luck am I going to destroy anything by filling the trans with solvent and letting it soke?
Yes, there are plastic parts in there. The solvent will probably melt them. Are you sure you've got all the bolts out? Is the speedo stuff out? Is all the shifter stuff removed to the tail can slide off?
Any silicone type sealers will not bond that tight. I think you will find that type of sealer was used when the trans was made. I have split numerious M/C case and trans etc. using the knife blade taped into the joint . Do it at a bolt lug in several places. A bit of common sense helps also.
Must be more than silicone holding it together. That's exactly what the rebuild manuals say to use - there are no gaskets. I've had mine apart after my rebuild and had no trouble popping off the tail housing. Mine is from an S10 and I was able to place a large screwdriver between the shifter mount and the top cover of the trans. Gentle prying separated the cases enough to slide a putty knife around the remaining surfaces. If you're using a different model T5 with the shifter mount to the rear, my method wouldn't work of course.
I would suggest that you NOT assume the sealer used is silicone based ... common sense would "suggest" that it is (or at least what it SHOULD be) BUT you really have no idea what product they happened to have sitting around the shop that got used that day. As mentioned before, I destroyed a TH350 by using too much force to separate the trans from the engine ... every mechanical fastener was removed from between the engine and trans and I know for a fact that the "glue" they used was not a rubbery silicone product. (in my case, I have no idea why someone would glue the two together).
I just pulled the bearing retainer off a T5, I used a paint scraper that I introduced to my belt sander a while back..... I sanded a scraper as thin as I could get it on the edge. That and my plastic mallet made short work of the silicone. As someone else pointed out, it IS what the manual says to use.
" A bit of common sense helps also." what are you suggesting!? by the way all the bolts are out and the shifter is out as well as the pin that connects the shift mech to the rest of the it. the stuff is rubbery so at least its not some kind of hard epoxy or something but it feels like the trans is still bolted together..... and its not ive checked over and over again.
you could tie a strap with a ratchet to each end and tie the other ends to a parked truck and/or a pillar and slowly tight both straps. That should pull it apart.
I thinking I'd be trying some heat from a propane torch (not too much heat) and the razor blade idea. I am not a chemist (meaning I don't know what solvents react with glue) and sense isn't very common around my parts but that's what I would try.
a very large rubber mallet with a wood block as a hitting surface. Shit its only a T5, if you fuck up the tail shaft housing just go to your local trans shop. I can almost guarantee they have at least one core there.
ok, I got it apart. there was NO room for a box cutter or anything at all. I used a "come along" a torch and a hammer and after alot of heat hammering and more tension than I would have liked using, they started coming apart. now I need find that mini reverse shifter fork thats not broken...how I broke a steel shifter fork i have no idea...
ok, after some welding, reassembly went just fine, and she is back together with permatex!!!! and yes the manual does say to use silicone.
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