HELP! disassembling housing

[wristwister]

I'm swapping in a new A4 into my daughter's tartan. Due to a frozen prop shaft coupling, and because I need to use the old reversing with the new engine, I'm trying to leave the entire reversing gear mechanism in place and swap in the rest of the engine. To do this, I need to separate the top housing off the mechanism. I assumed I'd remove the two set bolts holding the shifter shaft onto the shift bracket then slide the shaft out. No dice, the shaft and bracket are still firmly connected. What am I missing? How do I slide that shaft out so I can remove the upper case while leaving the reversing gear in place? Here's a pic of what I'm dealing with:



HELP! I need to get this worked out tomorrow!

Thanks

[Al Schober]

The coupling may indeed be frozen to the prop shaft, but it should still unbolt from the transmission output flange. When the engine is out, you can deal with the frozen coupling if you want to.
The cross shaft will lift off with the transmission cover. No need to remove it.
The cover is bolted to the oil pan and to the block. In addition, there are two tapered dowel pins into the block. I don't recall whether the small end of the pins are toward the block or the transmission. But if you're going to drive them out, you have to drive on the small end (duh?).
Keep each transmission cover with its' original block. If you swap transmission covers, the dowels may not line up and the bottom of the cover may not match the oil pan.
Looks like you already have the reverse links disconnected - good.
You may want to do the Kaminsky mod to the transmission cover for the new engine prior to installation.

[wristwister]

Thanks Al. As it finally turned out, I was able to get the coupling separated. I had to sawzall the 3 bolt heads off, then several hours pounding a chisle between the coupling with ample doses of PBblaster, and it finally separated. Then my handy stud extractor to get the sawed off stubs out of the engine coupling, and all is fine. Swapping the entire tranny/housing over from one engine to the other went well. Yesterday we got the new engine into the boat and today I'm hooking it all up. Life is good!