I am in the process of pulling the c4 out from under my 71 swb flareside. When I put it in it was attached to my 300 six.
I remember pulling the original 3 speed and it wasn't too bad. This transmission seems a bit more challenging.
I have a manual and pretty much following the instructions.
I am at the point of draining the converter. At this point the front is lifted and rear wheels are on the ground. I was planning on lowering the wheels back to the ground for draining the converter and for getting the tranny loose from the engine and attach it to my cheap transmission stand. Once attached i was going to then lifted the truck on stands to get it high enough to roll the c4 out from the truck.
Is this a good approach?


Probably doesn't show much

 

Get plugs for the tail shaft and speedo.

That plan sounds ok.

Secure blocking, secure stands etc are all part of coming out alive.

Make sure wires, linkages, vacuum line, cooler lines are secured out of the way as well.

 

sounds like you are on the right path

 

Thanks for the support. I plan on releasing the engine from the engine with a four tires on the ground.
Forgot about plugging the tailshaft.
Drive shaft is off. Starter is pulled. Spark plugs are out. Battery is disconnected. Drained the transmission via the fill tube opening. Disconnected the cooler lines at the cooler to drain it. Hooked them back up. Disconnected speedometer cable and shift linkage. Pulled the inspection cover.

 

Guess my converter doesn't have a drain plug just the four attaching nuts.
Pulled them and disconnected the cooling lines from the transmission. Supported the tail of the transmission with a stand and removed the crossmember at the back of the transmission. Attached my the tranny lift to it.
Then I started questioning whether or not the transmission would clear the crossmember joining my radius arms.
So I left it at that stage while I ponder some more.

 

I had to remove both cross supports when I pulled the C4 in my truck.

 

I know there are rivets near the radius arms are the same above?

 

Both my supports are bolted in. I didn't have to remove any rivets.

 

My 68 was originally a 3 speed and the crossmember was riveted in. There are 2 bolts on the top on each side, you are going to have to remove the rivets. I used a pneumatic chisel and made a lot of noise. Safety glasses and ear plugs.
The neighbors will just love you when start, just for fun wait until midnight.

 

Hopefully I can get the grinder/cutoff wheel on to the heads on mine. Hope you are right about the topside being bolts.

 

If there's enough room, in cases where I've had to remove rivets, I center punch the heads and take a small diameter drill bit and drill just enough to go slightly deeper than the thickness of the rivet head. I follow this with about a 3/8" drill bit then take a chisel and with a few whacks of the hammer, the heads come flying off. By drilling some of the material away, you aren't having to cut through nearly as much metal to remove the rivet.

 

thanks for the technique. Will be giving it a shot this week.

 

Now that I think about this, it was evident that as some point in the past my transmission had been taken out --probably to rebuild it. This would explain why my cross supports had bolts in them and that somebody else (initially) would have to have contended with removing the rivets.

At any rate, the method I described is simple if you have the room to get a drill in there and cuts down on the amount of effort you have to exert to cut through the rivet heads to remove them.

 

X2 on Ultra's method. I was able to do it that way to remove the radius arm supports. If you have a right angle drill you should be able to drill them out.

 

Went back and zoomed on the pictures and the upper mounts look like they could be bolts. That would be nice only having to drill out/grind out four bolts.
As to my torque converter am I missing something or did some TCs not come with drain plugs?
By the way, a co-worker suggested an approach for "controlling" the transmission when one is working alone and/or of limited space. He said he uses ratcheting straps to help hold and steady the transmission, by building a sling or support with each end connected to the frame (probably not a very good description).