Just a few shots to document removing the transaxle on my Esprit S4s. This is in no way intended to be a comprehensive description. The service notes provide that.

The work begins. Remove the wing, exhaust, and trunk floor. Notice the multipurpose BMW. It serves as a radio and an Esprit wing storage area! We really should drive it once in a while.

 

Remove the muffler bracket. It weighs nearly 10 lbs! Then the access panel and shifter cables.

 

 

Turbo intake hose removed. This is where I started getting bogged down cleaning everything!

Now the wheels are off and the back of the car is on stands. After removing the incredibly annoying rollpins that keep the CV joints positioned, the upper control arm is disconnected and the hub pulled back enough to disengage the CV joint from the transaxle.

The crank sensor can't come out until the top trans mounting bolt is removed.

 

Pull the charcoal canister too. It was my only casualty during the removal.

 

No picture, but here was where I hit my only snag. One of the trans bracket bolts on the passenger side was a 6mm allen. Are they all like that? I have no idea. Anyway, it rounded nicely as soon as I put my socket on it so I had to remove the lower rear suspension control arm and drop the bolt that goes through the mount.

Almost ready to go now! Put a little upwards force on the trans then put a support under the engine and remove the mounting brackets.

And one transaxle out of the car. Sorry, no action shots. I didn't even start breathing again until it had cleared the back of the car.

And that is that. Everything looks very nice in the engine compartment. The point of this whole escapade was to get the transaxle up to Ralph Stechow for a limited slip installation. Next stop is installation. I hope it goes as smoothly as removal.