Engine ticky-ticky-ticky sound at idle (2007 Tahoe 5.3L, 135,000 miles)

iamdub said:

I used two 15mm combination wrenches hooked together and applied a solid 4-4.5 grunts of force.


Like this:

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He had to do only one grunt.

Fless said:

He had to do only one grunt.

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I heard that- and on a 10mm bolt, in a car interior. ***.

Torque converter-to-flexplate bolts earn their grunts!

donjetman said:

Mike, your amazing. Necessity is the mother of invention. It took me like a week to do my rear main seal, and I have a nice climate controlled shop with painted smooth floors and a lift. You da man!!!

I have to ask? what did you use to loosen and tighten the torque converter bolts? I had to buy a stubby 1/2" drive air impact and a swivel socket. The torque converter bolts had lock-tite on them from the factory. I used the blue lock-tite when I went back together.

I think another day or two of driving it with the broke flexplate and things were gonna get interesting.

Good save

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Hey pal, after I removed the starter dust cover, I put a 3/8” extension in the extra hole of the flex plate to lock it down. I took a standard 3/8” ratchet with a 24” breaker bar extension and they broke free. It seemed like alignment had to be absolutely perfect to “seat” the head of the ratchet between the transmission and engine block while turning so it would not slip or strip off the bolt head.
I had more trouble getting the flex plate bolts out with the lock-time on them

From what I can tell, you did have room for a torque wrench if you had one available. Did you have room?

I just looked at my flex plate and it appeared just fine. Whew!

I have a small drip coming from the rear main seal area. It looks like most of it would be caught by the skid plate so as long as I clean the skid plate each oil change I should be drip "free".

mjreynolds928 said:

Hey pal, after I removed the starter dust cover, I put a 3/8” extension in the extra hole of the flex plate to lock it down. I took a standard 3/8” ratchet with a 24” breaker bar extension and they broke free. It seemed like alignment had to be absolutely perfect to “seat” the head of the ratchet between the transmission and engine block while turning so it would not slip or strip off the bolt head.
I had more trouble getting the flex plate bolts out with the lock-time on them

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Very impressive job.

mjreynolds928 said:

So I watched these videos and it was rather painful... I am wondering if I can unbolt the transmission and slide it back about 2” and replace the flex plate in stead of completely removing the tranny and transfer case???

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Holy shit... [emoji15]

Larryjb said:

From what I can tell, you did have room for a torque wrench if you had one available. Did you have room?

I just looked at my flex plate and it appeared just fine. Whew!

I have a small drip coming from the rear main seal area. It looks like most of it would be caught by the skid plate so as long as I clean the skid plate each oil change I should be drip "free".

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Yes, torque wrench would have been great. I put that as a “tools I wish I had” in the comments of the YouTube video. The head might be a little large, but should be okay.

Did you check that two bolt gasket and cover above the oil filter to see if that was the culprit for the oil leak?


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Thanks Mike, I have wondered about that leak, and it may be leaking from there. I do have oil above that point and believe that I need to replace the oil pan gasket at the very least. The oil drip that I saw was through that little pop out inspection plate of the transmission bell housing case. The drip was on the back of the block behind the flex plate.

Larryjb said:

Thanks Mike, I have wondered about that leak, and it may be leaking from there. I do have oil above that point and believe that I need to replace the oil pan gasket at the very least. The oil drip that I saw was through that little pop out inspection plate of the transmission bell housing case. The drip was on the back of the block behind the flex plate.

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ah yay....that might be rear main seal. the good thing is, you have plenty of space to slide everything back, I didn’t remove any oil from either transmission or transfer case. Slid them back long enough to replace flex plate. And it looked like you don’t have to drop the oil pan. I was nervous about that since you have to drop the front axle to do so (at least for 4x4).

I just took another look at your video. My hat goes off to you Mike! Uneven ground, HF transmission jack, I noticed the toque so it wasn't a nice warm day either. IF I take this on, I think I'd get this:

https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/1-100-lb-low-lift-transmission-jack/A-p8667875e

Did you have to support the transfer case as well? If so, how was it pulling the transmission jack and whatever you used to support the transfer case at the same time? I'm thinking I might be better off removing the transfer case anyway if I have to do the rear main seal.

If I were to undo the transmission lines as well, do you think I'd be able to wiggle the transmission back 6-8 inches? How far back do you think you would want to shove the transmission to get enough room to clean up the gasket surfaces?

How was it getting the transmission lined up again to get the bolts in again?

How many bleep words did it take to get that top bell housing nut back on?

Were you able to get this done in a day? (My bench mark is whatever it takes anyone else 1 hour, it takes me 4 hours. If it took you 1 day, it would take me 4 days.)