I finally got around to start pulling the automatic transmission in my car, also known as the auto tragic, or slush box.

But the bmw isn't my only project that I'm looking to complete this summer. In fact I've got more than I can handle, and the only way to get it done is to work in phases and hack away at pieces at a time.

The backyard mechanics work order list

1. Replace the transmission in my 1990 bmw
2. Rebuild my 2006 ducati because the frame is rusted and the bike is in severe need of a tune.
3. Replace the ignition and clutch on my dad's 1966 Mercedes 230 and get it road worthy
4. Rewire my friend's 1974 Honda cb200.

Its a long list that will take, by my calculation..... 140 hours of work. And going by my previous count of 25 hours a week of available time, that's nearly 6 weeks of straight work! Guess I'll be sleeping less or giving up some of my hobbies for a little bit.

Here is how the first project starts:

step 1: get the bmw high enough to work under it

I tried to jack the car as high as my stands would allow (16"), but there still isn't enough clearance for my head and the creeper I'm using (a creeper is a flat piece of plastic with wheels so you can easily get under the car), so I'm going to rig up several wood boards to lift the stands themselves. In total, I'll need about 24in to work comfortably.

Despite the low clearance I managed to squeeze my head under the car to perform step 2.

step 2, get the exhuast off

Every car is going to vary, but for the bmw e30, the exhaust is in the way of removing the drive shaft, which is bolted to the auto tragic transmission.

Unfortunately, the previous owner did a dickbag move and welded the whole exhaust together for some God forsaken reason. So I'm left with trying to remove a 50lb exhaust that's over 8 feet long with my face about 4 inches from the underside of the car.

Here's the exhaust on the floor, which starts from the header at the front of the car, all the way to the exhaust tip.

I'm not sure if I should cut the exhaust and turn it back into 2 pieces or if I should just leave it alone. If I don't, the reinstallation might be more than I can handle without helping hands...

Of course I fired up my motor without the exhuast and yes, it sounded bad ass.

step 3: drop the drive shaft

The drive shaft is the portion of the car that transmits the output of the transmission to the differential (which transmits power to the rear wheels). Unfortunately this is also where I got stuck because the bolts were holding on for dear life. My 8 year old air impact gun wasn't able to free them loose and I lost my breaker bar (an overly long bar that gives you a mechanical advantage via a very long handle). Here's a photo of the transmission side of the output shaft.

You can see the rubber deteriorating, all of which lead to vibration during driving.

Here's a wider shot of the area, looking at the front wheels.

Now I'm on the search for either a bigger, more badass air impact gun, or a new breaker bar. The problem with a breaker bar is that I don't have much space to use one since it's rather long. My current air impact needs to be retired and replaced after 8 years of faithful service so buying a new air impact gun makes sense right now.

Next time I post up about this project, I'll be moving to step 4, removing the transmission and step 5, replacing bearings and seals.

Then the most important step, acquiring the replacement transmission! Im still on the edge between replacement with an auto or a swap to manual. I found a full swap kit for the manual transmission for $1300 and a replacement auto for $300. So there is a $1000 difference between the two. It's more money than I want to spend right now, but at the same time, having a manual would make this car much higher in value to enthusiasts when reselling and it would make the fun significantly more fun to drive. The money is with the 5 speed swap, but my time is already packed with everything I want to do this year.

The install time between the two would be approximately 30 hours for the manual swap and 5 hours for the auto replacement. If you compound that, it translates to a lot of work!

Stay tuned next time when the slush box comes out!