It's a pretty straight-forward job. I suggest removing the front crank pulley (small bolts) to give you that extra room needed. It can all be done with 10, 12, and 14MM sockets, wrenches and if you got a strong buddy, you do not need a hoist.

 

Ok, thanks. Any special alignment tool needed to get it hooked back up to the trans? Is it best to pull the trans with the engine, or leave it in the car?

Not sure yet if I need to replace the engine. Going to try some other stuff first, but in case it comes to it.

 

You will have to remove the drive axels in order to remove the tranny. If their are any issues with the tranny, now would be the time to fix it. Tranny rebuilt are not diffilcult and kits are cheap.

Good luck!

 

First off, what is wrong with your engine? These are easily rebuilt while in-car.

 

I think the block is cracked. I haven't gotten it cleaned up good to get a good look at it, but I can see what looks like a crack just below where the oil filter screws in.

I am also having an increase in the intermitent tapping noise that used to go away after a few minutes of running. I think it is a valve tappet or lifter (not sure what these engines have) going bad.

 

I just pulled an engine/tranny out of a geo this weekend... not bad at all. That is the beauty of these cars: 10, 12 and 14 mm are you are set to go. Before you jack the car up, block the wheels and loosen the center wheel nuts on both sides...also, for reference, removing the head bolts are much much easier with the engine in the vehicle as the engine can't go anywhere when you put a bunch of torque to loosen them... i pulled the engine out, then tried to take the head bolts loose and the engine was so small it just wants to rotate so i had to use my legs to hold it and a cheater bar and get the right position to get enough torque to break them loose.....

 

....Before you jack the car up, block the wheels and loosen the center wheel nuts on both sides....

Why do you need to do this?

 

B/c in order to remove the transaxles, you need to loosen the nut that is attached to the spindle on each wheel. If you don't do this and have the wheels removed already, you'll need to have someone step on the brake when you break that nut loose.... so it does not turn as you loosen the nut..