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Transmission Tear Down table

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Jagmandave

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I wonder if you could buy an actual transmission teardown table? The ones I've seen have are metal workbenches and have a trough along the front to catch the oil and run it to a catch pan or bucket.

Here's a new one on Ebay for only $300.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/280770797541?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

$(KGrHqN,!jME5br+kQchBOZrCVCqTQ~~60_1.JPG


A further look finds the same exact table on Amazon for $229.

http://www.amazon.com/300LB-Transmission-Mechanic-Table-Bench/dp/B002Q6XQ98
 
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bobcatdan

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The Handy pictured above is a very nice unit. Northern has a knockoff of Handy's old design. Both of those are moble benches. Shure make a beast called the Transmax. 6ft long and about 40" high. We had these in school. What really impressed me about them was we could hang ford E4ODs of the front of these bench with the holding fixture and bench didn't move. They wern't bolt to the floor. Very well built and heavy as all holy hell, we had to move the thinngs to clean the floor. I plan on buying one for the garage someday.
 
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bad_idea

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i used an undercar drip pan on top of a workbench saturday to rebuild the 5 speed in my father's jeep. worked good. if you wanna get fancy drill a hole in the corner of the drip pan and attach a hose run down to a bucket.
 

tcsalvage

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brogue, pa
morgue examination table, stainless steel with a lip and drain. just don't let the bodies it held bother you.
 

kv501

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morgue examination table, stainless steel with a lip and drain. just don't let the bodies it held bother you.

I hate to say it, but I've looked at those things before and imagined the same thing. I am tearing down a snowblower right now that would be perfect on one of those.
 

tcsalvage

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it works great, totally stainless steel and pretty heavy so trannys don't bother it at all. plus it's on casters that roll great loaded or unloaded with brakes included at no extra cost. it also already has a removable screen in the drain in case you drop something.
 
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Reitwagen

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Another thought is to find a old multi spindle drill press table. They come up cheap on CL all the time. Make sure someone never drilled thru the table and close the spindle mounting holes with some set screws or use one set to mount a vice or a holding fixture and your good.

The coolant trough usally has a threaded hole that you can use to run a drain in a bucket.
They are quite heavy.The top is usally a thick cast iron web, so it's not like you have to worry if you need to take a hammer or some heat to something.
 

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Bobf

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Poway, CA
When I do an automatic (C4/TH350/400) I use a piece of 3X4 ft aluminum sheet I had left over from something. Just ran the edge thru a 1/2" bead roller and turned it over on a old table. Obviously drain the pan 1st, and keep a roll of paper towels close by. Same as small drip pan I guess, but it was handy for the 1st one I did, been using it for several rebuilds.
 

jcinga

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Acworth, GA
Whoa! What has happened to the pricing of these things? I've had one on my "wish list" for 3-4 years, and have seen these skyrocket in price. They also seem to be becoming less available through retailers than in years past. Northern Tool discontinued carrying them a few years ago, so I have been keeping my eye on one from Greg Smith Equipment. Just a couple of years ago, this one retailed for $349.00, and I just looked again and it's now $645.00. Same product, but wow! In their defense, the new price includes shipping to you, but all of these seem pretty costly for what they are. Here's the one available from Greg Smith: http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Transmission-Teardown-Workbench

I'm also eyeballing this one from Redline Engineering, which seems to be identical (except for color) to the one available from Greg Smith. Here it is: http://www.redlinestands.com/catalo...ransmission-tear-down-table-with-drain-p-1573

But, I'm leaning more towards this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/THICK-Heavy...:g:VJMAAOSwuYVWpm0D&item=172076606493&vxp=mtr

Either way, I'm looking at $500.00+ for one of these. Geez...
 

APEowner

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Sunny, New Mexico
This is another non-motorcycle thing that I use my motorcycle lift for. Mine slopes slightly towards one end and I just set a drain bucket under that end and go to town. In addtion to being a great work surface it saves me the effort of having to lift the transmission from the floor jack (I don't have a lift) to the bench. I roll the jack out from under the car with the transmission on it and then slide the transmission off the jack and onto the table, raise the table and go to work.
 

devildog93

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Apr 20, 2016
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Oklahoma City
Most of the tables i have seen listed here are weak in my opinion. When i went through automotive school years ago we had a real nice table that the welding side of the school had built and i think it was perfect. It was rectangular like most of the ones pictured in this thread, but larger, Dimensions were maybe 10' by 4' or around there. The table top was actually 4 separate pieces welded together in an x pattern with the drain in the middle. It was heavy enough gauge that you could jump up and down on it with an engine torn down at the same time. It was pretty much bulletproof. No extra drawers, just lots of space to tear down things or clean parts, a drain, and a bucket to drain into.

I have some ideas why these are not available today as i used to see similar ones around when i was a kid. #1 - they don't travel well. They are heavy and companies don't want to ship them. Hell, local people don't want to move them. #2 - they are going to be way more than 350 bucks. They will last a lifetime but the wal-mart mentality doesn't care about that. #3 - You would probably have to have a metalworker or a trade school build one up. I'm sure a hobbyist welder could do it, but it might take some time.

If i was tearing down a lot of transmissions and engines i would consider making one myself, and i do in the near future perhaps...after i make some room in the garage. They do tend to take up some space.
 

bdelmar2

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Apr 5, 2013
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We have several teardown tables.

Kind of depends on how many and what kind of transmissions you will be doing.

We have one of the little red ones like are linked above, but the drawer or pan or whatever that holds fluid is long gone, there is now a 5 gallon bucket there.

Its a little on the small side for its intended purpose.

For a rear wheel drive trans its not too bad if you have a solvent tank handy to toss the pan/tail housing in and clean them right away, then pull it down to the case and put the case in the parts washer/tank and then tear the drums apart in the space where the case was.

Piling things up higher is also an option, but then you end up handling parts more often than necessary. Fine at home, not so good in a shop.

Bigger front wheel drives and say 3 shaft 5 speed Hondas or an Allison are quite a bit more crowded. Can still wash parts as you pull and set on drain area and/or build table, but can sometimes be an issue if you need to get it torn down all the way so you can order parts in time for a supplier run.

Speaking of suppliers, check with your local trans parts place, sometimes they have tables on sale.

6' is a lot handier size, roomy enough to teardown pretty much any passenger vehicle trans, and keep tools and what not on.

Somewhere online I found 6' ones for $695 delivered, I think they also had 8' for $795, and a 10' for $1000.

Here is the 10' one, I think the same company has the 6 and 8 footers also. No clue about why not available until oct 16.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/T-0177-A-10...ssion-Engine-Sloping-Work-Table-/280766507224


These are about the cheapest functional looking ones I've seen.

I was thinking about stopping by the local steel place, one of them anyway, its huge and they have all kinds of metalworking machinery.

If you could get a 4x8 sheet and have them bend the trough along one edge and a lip down opposite, it would be fairly easy to weld on catch rails and make a base out of angle iron or whatever one could find. If they have a cut off might be able to get a break on price, would depend on how much they want for it to determine if its worth the effort.

Edit: We don't really need another table or I would have given them a call, or stopped by for a price.


A morgue table would probably be dandy, not sure where you'd get one though. I imagine they would object to someone wheeling one off. Especially loaded.

Another place to look would be used restaurant equipment. Its stainless which is great, fairly heavy duty, often has drains or a sink section you could put a plate over and a bucket under or whatever, and if its beat up pretty bad I imagine you could get it cheap, and after a couple of years of beating on it with transmissions its going to look like that anyway. Another plus is they often have good wheels.

Both of my build benches are old restaurant equipment.
 
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Mark in Indiana

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Aug 11, 2010
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Southern Indiana
Dodge Z,

Here's the rig that I used for my transmission table:
1. I used a folding table as the main bench and covered it with cardboard.
2. Then I took a couple of 2 x 4s, c-clamped them to the table and a stool. This allows for the shaft (1st. picture). You can use one of those Black & Decker clamping work stands for this (2nd. picture).
3. I kept a lot of catch pans. Especially under the 2 x 4 board stand. Not only oil drips out, but small parts fall out. Keep some rags laying in the bottom of the catch pans. That way, if a valve ball falls out of the assembly that you're working on, it won't bounce out of the pan.
4. I used a utility cart to keep all of the new parts and transmission sections that I wasn't working on separate.

IMO: unless you're planning to tear down transmissions for a living, I'd just keep it cheap & simple.

Check out the YouTube videos from this site. I got all of my information here. The owner is great to work with. http://transmissionbench.com/
 

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greasyfingers01

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Apr 6, 2015
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A buddy of mine has a stainless top he got from a friend in the restaurant business. Has a lip around the edges and a screened drain that goes into a bucket. I don't know what they're called but it's on my want list

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 

ephotrod

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