Dropping the tans in a 2zr swapped Vios

[tmontague]

Figured I'd throw this on a new thread in case anyone in the future wants to drop the trans for any reason in the swapped Yaris. Others have pulled the trans by either pulling the whole engine and trans together or by dropping the whole sub frame.


PSA: When draining the trans fluid keep the fill bolt still semi screwed in. If not the flow when draining it will splash all over the sub frame and go everywhere...ask me how I know.

The 2zr moves the drain hole much closer to the sub frame so there is no room for the fluid to shoot out and into a catch basin like in the 1nz. Keeping the upper bolt in the hole slows the flow down so that is won't go all over the sub frame.


The 2zr is a fairly wider than the 1nz so the normal clearance you have to pull and maneuver the trans around the sub frame is no longer there with the 2zr. I wanted to see if it was possible to drop the trans without dropping the sub frame so I could install my light weight flywheel. Short answer - yes, but it isn't easy and you want to have a buddy near by and an engine hoist, or a trans jack. I would highly recommend having a trans jack to make this easier.

My car has a 2zr engine but still has the Yaris trans and axles. I was able to do the job by lowering the engine on the passenger side mount and removing the 2 other (trans) mounts. I had 2 jack stands and a block of wood under the oil pan and then put my jack under the trans.

Just unbolt the ball joints so you can move the knuckle enough to pull the axles out of the knuckle and then the trans


The biggest obstacle is the rear trans "ear" where the axles attach to, it hits the sub frame and stops the trans from coming down further. You cannot pull the trans away from the engine like you can with the 1nz since thre 2zr is too wide and the trans sits about 3/4" form the crash bar.

I just had to man handle and wiggle the trans around until I was able to get a prybar behind the trans and lower it while keeping it off of the sub frame. I then wiggled the trans enough that it separated from the engine and with half of it on the jack i was able to balance it and lower the jack. Removing it is the "easy" part, getting it installed is by far the most grueling.

I just let the starter hang down


The trans weighs around 100 lbs iirc and it's one thing to lift it straight off the ground, but it's a completely different story trying to bench press it into place on the engine with the subframe blocking it. After a couple hours of almost badly hurting myself and the help of my wife leading to no progress. I ended up assembling my engine hoist and chained it to 2 points on the trans to hold it in place. Another hour went by and I was able to get the shaft mated up. Once the shaft was mated up I then "spun" the trans so the bolt holes lined up.

How I kept the engine from dropping too low


I kept the top of the trans mount bolted to the frame - you can see the polyurethane filling up the voids in the mount


You cannot mate up the shaft and bolt holes at once due to the sub frame. First get the output (?) shaft mated to the clutch and once that is good then spin the engine with both hands so the trans is in the proper orientation and all the correct bolt holes line up. The slowly tighten them all down.

The above situation would have been made easier with having started with the hoist from the beginning, or using a trans jack to keep it in place. The trans jack would've been the best as the hoist angles the trans a funny way that is never how you want it.

New flywheel installed and properly torqued down - hence the white paint marks on the bolts and flywheel as you have to turn them 90 degrees after torquing them down to 34ft/lbs (I don't remember the exact torque spec). Use an impact gun to get them to turn 90 degrees so you don't have to worry about the flywheel spinning


Clutch installed


Dropping the sub frame would fix the clearance issue, but then you need an alignment (i just had one) and I didn't want to have more large parts dissembled form my car that I needed to worry about. This is my dd and only car that I need to use almost everyday. If this was my second car or had access to use another, then I'd either pull the engine or drop the sub frame since I would have had more time and it would've made everything simpler.

You can see part of the sub frame that is very thin and that gets in the way


Close up after I hammered it down


Once the transmission is bolted back in, you just finish it off by assembling everything back together that you removed. There are only 2 connectors on the trans (at the back) that you had to remove, and 1 grounding bolt on the front.

If you are doing the 2zr swap and plan on eventually getting a lightweight flywheel, do yourself a favor and do it when the engine is out of the car before you put the 2zr in. Its a huge hassle to do it later, unless you have 2 cars or you have a lift and trans stand.

If you are doing this in your driveway like I was then go out and buy a trans jack. A car jack won't cut it as the trans will constantly be trying to fall on you. Ask me how I know...a 100lb trans can seriously hurt you.

I ended up installing some Amsoil MTG GL-4 75w90 trans oil and got rid of my Redline MT-90. so far the shifts are smooth, it's in the winter I'll hopefully notice a difference. The Amsoil poured much thinner and easier than the Redline. The cold weather shifting of the Redline would deteriorate after 10k km or so of using it.

As a side note, w/ the 2zr and Yaris trans/axles, you may noticed that when the suspension is unweighted the left (driver side) axle as it turns will force the trans/engine to move back and forth. This is likely due to the axle being slightly too long as the 2zr is wider than the 1nz. This leads to the cv joint maxing out it's compression at a certain part of the rotation and it therefore pushes the engine over. If you put it in gear while lifted, the engine (when running) will make a banging noise.

Once the suspension is loaded, the axle is at a better angle and this no longer is an issue as the cv joints are no longer maxed out.

Just something to keep in mind.

I would also recommend that you take a BFH or air hammer and flatten, flip down part of the thin edge of metal on the drivers side of the sub frame. This will give you 1/4" more room of sub frame clearance and only take a minute to do. Ideally you could use a cut off wheel and remove part of the sub frame that is in the way as it is only flat/thin metal at that part. Only issue is I didn't want to cut into the sub frame for fear of rust as well as I wasn't too sure how structurally important that part is for flex of the sub frame.

I'll post a review of the Monkey Wrench Racing light weight flywheel once I get some more km's on it.

[LTHatch]

Cant wait for the flywheel review, what are your initial impressions of it driving to work etc?

[tmontague]

I have only done quick errand type trips and so far my thoughts were:
-wow heel toeing is much better as you don't have to hit the throttle as much
-under very mild throttle the car wants to rev higher
-car wants to jump to 4k rpm's like it's going out of style
-the concerns of having to rev high to avoid stalling it or how difficult it would be in stop and go traffic seem way blown out of proportion
- under about 50% throttle my thoughts were "Damn this thing wants to pull hard"
-revs settle down much quicker between shifts making quick shifting as smooth as butter compared to the oem flywheel where you either wait for decades to put the car into the next gear or have a bucking type rough shift
Not much different really at highway speeds (although I haven't really driven it hard on the highway)