Resolved 2G Front Diff Cover Removal

[Jovie]

Hello, I am currently attempting to rebuild my w4a33 transmission from my Eclipse GSX, due to current constraints I am only able to access the car for a few weeks every few months or so. I originally started disassembling my transmission around winter to replace the output shaft seal and only stopped due to the front differential cover appearing very stuck.

I have tried around 5 or so different ways of removing this cover and still don't seem to be making progress.

So far I have tried using multiple pry bars ( multiple sizes and lengths ) on the different tabs, but that does not seem to help. I have also used different btushed and PB Blaster multiple times to attempt to get some more progress going, still nothing.

The tabs are also slightly damaged, but still provide a adiquate surface for prying.

I have a handfull of photos that I took today right before posting this which I will leave below, I was able to find one video on youtube regarding this process but even while attempting to push seperate it with multiple pry bars ( 2 above 1 below pushing the gear downwards ) I was not able to get it.

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I am just one person and am working on the floor for this project so that may be part of the reason this is being so difficult but I wouldn't be too surprised if I simply have not removed the right thing yet either as the main assembly with the valve body and main gearset are still in place.

Any help finding similar resolved posts, or any suggestions would be greatly apriciated!

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[Jovie]

Alright, went back at it again last night after this post, I have yet to pull the plate off but did make some minor progress, using metal zipties, a lot of pn blaster and alot of patience i was able to clear most of the debris and corrossion that was holding it down. I now have enough room to slip metal zipties into all 4 holes and plan to use something to pull directly up on the cover evenly across the four bolt holes.

Something I did notice while re checking procedures was that all procedures located through all data, and diffrent service manuals icluded a procedure for removing the manual control level and pnp switch, is this needed before removal ?

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[Jovie]

I've finally gotten the parts separated and wanted to share my method incase anyone happens to stumble across this with a similar issue.

The two things that helped me the most during this were heat, force and patience.

I did end up removing the valve body as well as the pnp / manual control shaft lever, although I now know this did nothing to help.

Warning !! - Although I am not personally worried about this method damaging the sealing surface / bore, their was a fair amount of marring and scraping that I occurred.


I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 2 inch quinn putty knife which had a surface to use a hammer on, I then proceeded to tap the putty knife into the small pocket wear the trans case and diff cover meet. ( where you would typically place a pry bar )

This allowed me to created a wide enough gap to insert more PB Blaster and allow that to start working its magic on the inner bore which contained a fair amount of corrosion / rust buildup. I then used a rubber mallet in order to tap the diff cover back down multiple times, pausing to tap the putty knife in between.


I also purchased a 4 inch steel brick masonry tool which I used in the same manor once I felt that the buildup was starting to loosen, I would suggest getting a smaller size if possible, 1 inch seems ideal in terms of the front blade width as I often had to angle the tool in awkward ways as to not damage the bolt inserts / ears of the diff cover.

Once I had around a half an inch gap I then used a sharpened metal rod and tapped that into the area between the aluminum case and diff cover, slowly working my way around the case until the cover came off.

I also bought the above mentioned tool at Harbor Freight, the Pittsburgh prybar set and gradually went up in size as to cause the least damage possible.

I did have to use quite a lot of force and have definitely caused some minor damage so try this at you own risk, but it did work and I believe with a Brillo pad, a razor blade and some brake clean it'll be fine.

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