- Joined
- Aug 7, 2010
- Messages
- 5,074
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- McDermitt, NV
- My Car
- 1973 Convertible H Code, 351C 2V FMX
Well, it's the day I've been talking about for months - I finally got the engine pulled out of the vert. It didn't snow or rain, and it only took a couple hours since I've had so much time to prep. A couple things I learned:
1) Even if you know there are 6 bolts connecting the engine to the bell housing, count how many are in the baggie. If there's five, it means you still have one to remove. If you don't remove it, it will be exponentially more difficult to separate the engine from the bell housing. If, after being distracted, you count them again, and there are still 5 in the baggie, you still forgot to remove the last bolt. So what does that tell you? REMOVE the bolt!
2) If the shop manual even goes so far as to say, "it's a good idea to use a six-point socket on the torque converter nuts to prevent rounding off the nut head. Removing stripped and damaged torque converter nuts is an unnecessary waste of time", then you know that you have to be careful removing them. Knucklehead. So that's why I had to remove the torque converter with the engine. I was told it would be a big mess with all the ATF that comes out with the torque converter, but there wasn't ANY ATF that came out when I pulled it out. I wonder why?
So this is what it looked like:
Now, what's the best way to remove this torque converter bolt that I've kind of rounded of. These suckers are TIGHT. I've used a bunch of penetrating fluid, which hasn't helped yet. Could I heat it up with a propane torch? I don't want to resort to the cutting wheel yet if I can avoid it.
Doc
1) Even if you know there are 6 bolts connecting the engine to the bell housing, count how many are in the baggie. If there's five, it means you still have one to remove. If you don't remove it, it will be exponentially more difficult to separate the engine from the bell housing. If, after being distracted, you count them again, and there are still 5 in the baggie, you still forgot to remove the last bolt. So what does that tell you? REMOVE the bolt!
2) If the shop manual even goes so far as to say, "it's a good idea to use a six-point socket on the torque converter nuts to prevent rounding off the nut head. Removing stripped and damaged torque converter nuts is an unnecessary waste of time", then you know that you have to be careful removing them. Knucklehead. So that's why I had to remove the torque converter with the engine. I was told it would be a big mess with all the ATF that comes out with the torque converter, but there wasn't ANY ATF that came out when I pulled it out. I wonder why?
So this is what it looked like:
Now, what's the best way to remove this torque converter bolt that I've kind of rounded of. These suckers are TIGHT. I've used a bunch of penetrating fluid, which hasn't helped yet. Could I heat it up with a propane torch? I don't want to resort to the cutting wheel yet if I can avoid it.
Doc