xB Tranny Removal (Crossmember? Engine Hooks?)
 

I have a 2005 Scion xB and I am currently in the process of swapping out my Clutch. According to my manual, it says that I should remove the Crossmember (I would assume to make room for dropping the transmission.)

The manual also says I need Engine hangers from Toyota/Scion. (Part # 12281-21010) And bolt # 91642-81025. I called them and the hangers run $25 each, and around $2 for the bolts.

My questions, for you people who have swapped your own clutch or dropped your transmission before:

1) Can I avoid the removal of the Crossmember? (It just seems like a huge pain in the as. Although I am sure it might be an even bigger pain trying to remove the trans. with the Crossmember still in place.)

2) What ideas do you have as far as some other type of Engine hangers. I'd like to use something else, instead of spending over $50. In the drawing they just look like metal hooks.

Any help would be appreciated...

use blocks of wood to keep the engine in place underneath other then that idk about the crossmember

Even if you bought the hangers, they are still no good cause they need to be attached to an engine support member. This item will hold the engine in place while you remove the crossmember, to remove the tranny, to do your clutch.
I recently did a clutch on a tC and luckily I work at a dealership, so I have these useful tools handy... :relief:

I have an engine hoist / cherry picker (whatever you would like to call it)

But the manual advises against "chaining" to anything other than the $50 hooks.

On any other car I would just chain up through the exhaust and intake manifolds, but this won't work here considering our intake mani. is plastic.

Anyone else?

Yes it has to come out. There are two engine mounts that are mounted to the trans, front and back that are connected to the crossmember.

The engine needs to be supported due to the fact that you have to disconnect two out of the three engine mounts.

Yeah, you got to remove the crossmember just to get to that engine mount near the firewall. Which sucks because if they changed the design to the mount slightly, you could take out the trans without dropping the crossmember.

xB's only have 3 mounts, two of them have to be removed; one on the trans to driver side frame rail, and the crossmember to motor/trans. If youre doing this job in your drive way get two jack stands that will hold the car up pretty high, and use another jack stand or some wood to support the motor. Changing the clutch on the xB is no fun. If you need any more tips or info PM me.

Power tools and a car lift are my best friends! I hate working with hand tools and jacks... :tap:

Alright, so tomorrow I am going to attempt to remove the transmission without removing the crossmember...

I have removed the front bumper and radiator to allow room to angle the trans forward a little, hopefully allowing room to drop it out.

I refuse to remove the crossmember, steering rack and steering column the way the Scion manual says to do it, especially whenever only around 4 inches of the trans is above the crossmember.

i am swapping my clutch today . my trans is out. the cross member and bumpers are on the car. I also did not do anything to the exhaust. All this in a gravel drive using jacks and manual tools

Charles...just curious on how you accomplished this. Any pointers?

crossmember update I had someone else replace my clutch and the dill weed failed to put in one of the motor mount bolts and another was loose. comes out easy goes in not so easy. I hade to lower the cross member about one and a half inches. and i reached the bolts leaning over the top of the engine. this is taking me a long time due to the summer thunder storms and other auto failurs that require my time.

Decided not to use the engine hoist and got the transmission out with nothing other than a friend and a floor jack...

I gave up on following the Scion repair manual.... Removing the cross member would have been a completely pointless waste of time. I have no idea why Toyota/Scion even suggested doing it that way to begin with.

Basically I just put a jack under the engine and took out the rear and drivers side motor mount bolts.
Then rolled the engine forward (towards the front bumper) on the jack to completely remove the rear motor mount bracket.

after that i lowered the jack a little and had a friend hold the trans.

Then I broke the trans loose a little with a flat head, grabbed it from the top and pulled it straight out.

It was the lightest transmission I have ever dealt with with any car.... I'd say probably 50 lbs or so.

Anyways, so now that that is done with...

It turns out that my release bearing is just fine, but the "clutch release fork support" had broken off... So needless to say this is why my clutch fork was just dangling around inside the transmission the way it was.

Time to drill out what's left of it and call toyota for a replacement part.

Thanks to all.

^^^Awesome! Any pics of the work performed?

Need help
 

we are working on taking the tranny out to change the clutch and as far as we can tell all bolts are out but the top of the tranny seems still "bolted" to the top of the engine... Any thoughts?

wiggle wiggle wiggle. You can use a pry bar to ease the transmission off.