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Removing transmission horns.

9K views 24 replies 20 participants last post by  56owner 
#1 ·
Evening. I have a fairly basic hand held 4.5" grinder. Will it remove the horns? If so, anything specific I need to know? Precautions? Engine is installed. I do not have an acetylene torch or plasma cutter. Thank you.
 
#2 ·
Sure, you can do it with a grinder like that. Don't get your cut-off wheels for it from Harbor Freight though. They are very bad Chinese ones, don't cut worth a crud and are downright dangerous. I only buy US made cutoff discs. Get some good quality ones and a few 60 grit flap discs and you can do a nice job with a 4.5" grinder.
And btw, if your grinder is an HF, you will be lucky if it lasts for the entire job. Home Depot has a Milwaukee that's a pretty decent one.
 
#3 ·
Thanks roger. I do have a HF. Funny, I was doing some cutting tonight to repair wrought iron chairs with a cheap HF wheel and it basically shattered. Went and bought a few diablo wheels and they cut real well. If the grinder dies, Milwaukee will be my next one!
 
#5 ·
Those Diablo ultra thin .040" cut-off wheels are pretty good! Home Depot used to carry Hilti, and they were great, but they switched to the Diablo wheels, and they ain't bad. They were out of stock a few weeks ago, and I ran out, so my neighbor brought me some of those HF ones over to finish what I was cutting on. The first wheel exploded after only a few seconds of use and left a pretty good little gash in my left cheek. I gave him the rest of them back and told him I would wait until the got back in stock!

I drill the spot welds out on all brackets that I remove from the frame with a 1/2" drill bit, so I do not have to spend so much time grinding. I will cut the brackets off as close as I can with the cut-off wheel, drill the spot welds and then remove what is left of the bracket with a chisel. A little touch-up around the spot welds with a flap disc on a grinder, and it looks like it was never there!
Regards, John McGraw
 
#8 ·
I cut as many spot welds as I could using a spot weld cutter. Then I attacked them with a hammer and chisel, muffler splitter, and a 3" cut off wheel in a 90 degree die grinder.

I didn't get the 4-1/2" grinder out until the brackets were off the frame and I was cleaning it up. The 4-1/2" grinder is just too big for the actual cutting job.

I did mine with the body off the frame. If the body was on the frame, I'd get most of the bracket out of the way with a sawzall.
 
#13 ·
Just a question, what are transmission horns?

Joe]
Transmission horns are the little horns that sound when the transmission fluid gets low.
I thought that you've been working on the cars for 50 years..Or is it 60?
 
#10 ·
Just a question, what are transmission horns?

Joe]
Joe that would be the factory transmission frame horns that the bellhousing originally bolted to on the frame.
Terry
 
#12 ·
Sounds like you did very well getting those off.:tu Like an idiot, I had an opportunity to take those out BEFORE I put the body back on the frame, never thinking ahead and about the exhaust at the time....this is my first tri-five, but now it will be a pita to get them out.......oh well.....live and learn.
Had a similar experience with cheap cutting wheels as well.....NEVER AGAIN....had one explode, and even with a face shield, clipped the edge of the shield....nicked my neck, flew past me and put a 1/4 inch dent in the garage side door behind me....YIKES!
 
#22 ·
Very funny!!!!!

This has to be the funniest thread I have ever read! Restorit, that is the hazards of operating with a "skinny wheel"! It happens all the time! Especially if you try using to wrong side of your wheel for the direction that you are cutting! THEY WILL EXPLODE! Bad thing is with the 41/2" x .040 is you need to take the guard off the grinder so you can get in and see what your doing! VERY dangerous and you need to wear leather gloves and almost full body armour if it does get away from ya!!! LOL It CAN send ya to the ER very quick for stitches or worse!:p3:
 
#23 ·
I removed my horns with the Turbo 350 out, but the body still on the frame using a sawzall, and then ground down what was remaing down with a grinder No matter how you slice it, it was still a pain in the A** with the body still on the frame :sign0020:
 
#24 ·
One like these works really well.

I've used them in the past.

 
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