99 Transaxle Removal

[artbuc]

Have 70k and so far no indication of sludge, tranny failure or rear oil seal leak. However, I am beginning to think about what I will do if/when these things happen.

My service manual says you remove tranny with engine but it looks like I can remove tranny by itself. Can someone confirm that?

Also, looks like inboard axles have to be pried out of transaxle. Service manual shows a snap ring on the splined section of axle shaft going into transaxle. I can't tell exactly what that snap ring is doing. Has anyone removed axles? Looks like I could perhaps disconnect outboard shafts from wheel hubs and remove tranny without disconnecting inboard shafts. Is this possible/practical?

I don't know if I will tackle replacing the rear oil seal by myself. I have done jobs of this magnitude before but that was when I didn't have so much gray hair.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[RX in NC]

Yes, you can remove the transmission without removing the engine. That's true for nearly all vehicles these days. If you decide to replace the rear main oil seal yourself, be aware that you must drop your transmission to get to it. You are now reaching the mileage point where the poorly-designed original mail oil seal often begins to fail. Good luck and let's hope that in your case, it doesn't....

[artbuc]

Yes, you can remove the transmission without removing the engine. That's true for nearly all vehicles these days. If you decide to replace the rear main oil seal yourself, be aware that you must drop your transmission to get to it. You are now reaching the mileage point where the poorly-designed original mail oil seal often begins to fail. Good luck and let's hope that in your case, it doesn't....

Thanks RX. Can you also answer my questions about axle removal. Thanks.

[wwest]

Yes, you can remove the transmission without removing the engine. That's true for nearly all vehicles these days. If you decide to replace the rear main oil seal yourself, be aware that you must drop your transmission to get to it. You are now reaching the mileage point where the poorly-designed original mail oil seal often begins to fail. Good luck and let's hope that in your case, it doesn't....

Thanks RX. Can you also answer my questions about axle removal. Thanks.

That "special tool" shown in the shop/repair manual looks to be a "slide" hammer, in which case extracting the halfshaft from the transaxle would/should be a simple matter. The "snap ring" is likely of the "wire" type and the internal retaining "sleeve" is therefore probably sloped/chamferred to allow a quick application of force/torque to compress the snap ring and out she comes.

My 2001 AWD RX300 hasn't had any transaxle problems other than the burned ATF at 40,000 miles but I haven't given up on converting it to SOLID rear drive and then having the front driven ONLY by the VC.