• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Transmission Bolt Access

Share this page

S

SpacerM

Senior Member
Offline
Just completing my first year as a BJ8 owner, and am struggling to separate the tranny to replace a failing clutch. I've read darn near every thread here, including TimK's excellent write up at https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?77420-Transmission-Removal-Replacement

It took all of two and a half hours to get all the connections free, the tranny fully supported, and down to the last two bolts, but try as I might I just can't get access to the dowel bolt at 11:00 or the standard one at 9:00:

image.jpg

image.jpg


All other Bolts were fairly straightforward with sockets or short ratcheting or open end wrenches but these two are so close to the transmission I can't get a socket around them, nor can I use an open end wrench due to the throttle linkage (for the 11:00) or the sides of the tranny tunnel (9:00) limiting access. I tried a thinner 9/16 socket but there wasn't even room to squeeze that between the bolt head and the transmission body.

Best I can find no one here has posted about an issue accessing these two bolts so I must be missing something really simple, but two days later and I still don't know what I'm doing wrong! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks, steve. Went to Sears and picked up a 9/16 12 point socket with a 1/4" drive that seemed to have thinner walls- it wasn't labelled as deep but it was longer than standard. Still no dice- I'm just desperate enough to try and hammer the socket onto the nut but will likely try and locate a thin walled socket first. I'm at least glad to hear that there is no technique or trick I'm missing.
 
I have a BJ7 and I am sure that the gear box and clutch housing are the same as yours and I do not have any trouble. I do have several socket sets to draw on and there is one cheapy set that I use for the exhaust manifold, but as far as I can remember, my Elora set plus some ring spanners on the 'other' side covers the clutch housing completely. I will soon find out as I will be putting it all back together again within the next couple of weeks.


:cheers:

Bob
 
I'm just wondering if the tranny had been out once before and the wrong size bolt was used when put back in ,if you have patience you can get a stubby wrench in on the motor side and maybe loosen it up
 
I've got to believe if other's haven't had an issue, its simply a matter of finding the right socket set, rather than having to use modified or specialist tools- after all, the trannys have been being pulled for 50+ years now- looks like its my technique, or rotten luck with the newest craftsman socket. I'm still looking for thin walled sockets, as 9/16 seems to be not be offered in most of the common thin wall sets.
 
rjc157 said:
I'm just wondering if the tranny had been out once before and the wrong size bolt was used when put back in
Click to expand...

I'm going to crawl all the way under tonight and have a very close look, but it seems the heads of the bolts are exacly the same as the others that I have removed, and given that the 11:00 is a dowel bolt, it seems an unliekly condidate for a swtich- a 9/16 socket fits but can't get fully over the bolt as the socket hits the tranny first.

I'm also ordering a 9/16 Ford spak plug socket that is rumored to have thin walls- fingers crossed.
 
I had this problem too, luckily I had the engine on a stand for assembly so could use an open end wrench. The issue is that BMC didn't spot-face the bolt head locations on the bellhousing with a big enough cutter to consider the socket required to remove them.

If you really get stuck, grind the chrome off a non-precious socket so that the outer edge is sharp then hammer it onto the bolt head. This should broach a clearance in the bellhousing enough to get the socket on. Andy.
 


Mine is a side-shift trans. with plenty of clearance for a standard socket, I even think I used the thicker impact socket. In your photo, I can see your clearance issue. Sorry for your pain, but trying a really thin wall socket or one side ground down might work.
 
Guys, appreciate the ideas and support here. A thin(er) walled 8 point socket still didn't get me there- I could hammer it 90% of the way on, but it would torque off, and with some wear showing, I don't want to round off the bolt so I'm going to soak with PB blaster for a few days and then the try a socket ground down to chisel the bell housing and hopefully get me the clearance I need. Will report back when the PB has done its job and I have time to address carefully.
 
SpacerM said:
...and then the try a socket ground down to chisel the bell housing and hopefully get me the clearance I need...
Click to expand...

Possibly taking a small hole saw and removing the center drill - could be used to relieve the area between the bolt head and bell housing just enough to get a socket in there.
 
On a related note to Steve G's suggestion...perhaps consider drilling a hole in the center of the bolt and then use a beefy bolt extractor. Start with a small hole then enlarge as required for the selected bolt extractor. Something else, though probably not preferred or even practical, is to try to file away a bit of the housing adjacent to the bolt head to create more space for a socket (assuming you can get a thin enough file in there, perhaps a dremel abrasive disk)?
 
nevets said:
On a related note to Steve G's suggestion...perhaps consider drilling a hole in the center of the bolt and then use a beefy bolt extractor. Start with a small hole then enlarge as required for the selected bolt extractor. Something else, though probably not preferred or even practical, is to try to file away a bit of the housing adjacent to the bolt head to create more space for a socket (assuming you can get a thin enough file in there, perhaps a dremel abrasive disk)?
Click to expand...

Moss does not sell the dowel bolt - would be careful of destroying it.
 
Thanks agin to all- I ended up doing this to a cheap socket:

Grinder.jpg

which gave me the clearance I needed to get around the two remaining bolts. Transmission is out, flywheel looks remarkably good, and new transmission oil seal, pilot bearing and clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing are on the way.

Here's hoping the reassembly doesn't bring any more surprises.
 
In my post that you referenced, I did not mention the need to use a plastic dummy splined input shaft to center the clutch disk after lightly bolting up the clutch/pressure plate assembly. If you've done this before, you know what I'm talking about. I used a camera to verify I got it right, then tightened up the pressure plate bolts.
 
Thanks, Tim- this is my first trip through the transmission, but I've read up enough to know about the clutch plate alignment tool. Thanks for the tip about the camera- will definitely try that as I understand the alignment needs to be spot on for the shaft to fully seat.
 
Back
Top