AO

Dave,
Are you able to get a length of pipe (cheater bar) on your wrench? I remember taking off the crank bolt. That SOB was on there tight. I ended up putting a 1/2" swivel-head breaker bar on the thing puls a 4-5' lngth of pipe (I was just shy of the hood). Even then it took a lot of huffing and puffing, but then it went. So I guess the moral of the story is, use mechanical leverage whenever you can, but if you can't then just forget about it and deal with it after you get the whole damn thing out with the bell housing in situ. Here's another reason to use anti-sieze! Makes everything... like butta. Let me know if I can lend assistance.

(BTW, got the caliper paint yesterday... don't know when I'll actually paint things, but at least I'm getting my ducks in a row!)

Big Dave

Andrew:
I can get a wrench on the bolts now, but the edges are beginning to round off. I'm trying to avoid ruining them.

AO

Then, I guess you should stop before things go from bad to worse. Let me know when you're ready to pull it, cause I want to be there (mostly for the pizza & beer though ).

heinrich

so you don't want to try my tried-and-tested solution eh ... ah well, I'm used to it ... everyone ignored my excellent procedure for installing the clear turn signals on the S4 also

AO

heinrich-

What are those keys for?

heinrich

Those are for my Porsches ... again, a striking resemblance in so many ways.

Big Dave

It's no longer a matter of getting a wrench squarely on the bolts. I accomplished that last night with an offset closed end ratchet. However, when turning it, the wrench was slipping on the edges of the bolt. Tell-tale shiny curved edges are starting to appear on the bolt head, telling me not to push my luck.

The next chance I get to wrench on the car will probably be tomorrow morning/afternoon. I'm going to take a stab at getting the connection between the bellhousing and torque tube loose instead of wasting more time on the engine block/bellhousing connections.

heinrich

Dave no biggie, if you break one you can pop down to sears and buy a drillout and have her on the road in no time

Sean79 5spd

In my experience with this kind of problem, an even pressure to undo the bolt may not work. The bolt needs some sharp impact to break it free. Put a box end wrench on the bolt and then hit the handle with a hammer or heavy mallet.

The other thing that can be done is to apply loads of heat. The aluminum alloy housing and the steel bolt will expand and cool at different rates anf may break the bolt free.

Sean

SharkSkin

ah yes... the "heinrich maneuver" can be a lifesaver....

Big Dave

Already tried the heavy hammer method last night. The wrench moved, but the bolt did not.

P.S. I've developed a deeper appreciation for my magnetic telescoping arm after repeatedly retrieving a variety of 19mm wrenches.

Big Dave

Oh, and I've already got a set of these standing by in case I do manage to finish destroying the bolt heads...

Big Dave

UPDATE:

The 4 bolts holding the torque tube to the bellhousing are OFF, along with the 6 nuts holding the pinch collar to the flex plate. Unless someone tells me otherwise, it looks like I've successfully gotten around the need to remove the bellhousing bolts where it connects to the block.

SharkSkin

WTG, Dave! I trust you'll be replacing those bolts, and using Anti-seize on everything you can...

DoubleNutz

Yep, you are wasting your time and may even strip the bolt head if you're not using a crows foot.