s13 Crossmember

[RidgeRacer]

I took my 92 hatchback to the alignment shop and was told they couldn't align it because the transmission crossmember has a big dent in it and it's throwing everything off.

Assuming that's true and I need a new crossmember, how difficult is it to remove and replace one? My car is a 5-speed if that makes any difference.

Thank you!

[MAGILLA]

it should take about 20min if you don't know what you are doing and about 10 if you do.

1 lift the car from the side. insert jack stands for safety.

2 put a jack under the rear of the trans for support.

3 remove the 2 nuts into the trans

4 remove the 4 bolts into the under body

5 remove the old cross member and insert new cross then follow the directions in reverse order.

there you go. You can definately do it yourself.

[spindrift187]

How would your transmission crossmember affect your alignment???

I wonder if they meant your subframe?

[RidgeRacer]

I think I might be wrong about it being the transmission crossmember. I shot some pics today while I had it jacked up to change the oil.

There is a decent dent close to the end on the driver's side. I'm guessing that's what they were talking about, but hell - they might have just not wanted to mess with the alignment and were trying to get me out of there...

Here are some pics:





If other pics would help, let me know and I will get back under there.

Thank you!

Modified by RidgeRacer at 9:17 AM 8/11/2008
Modified by RidgeRacer at 9:28 AM 8/11/2008

[spindrift187]

Yea that's your subframe. The dent doesn't look terrible, but then again im not sure if it's just the pics. The job of swapping it out isn't terrible but it's no fun either. Try taking it somewhere else and see what they think.