Last week I blew the input seal on the trans, either that or a seal in the converter. Lost lockup right before that, it's been on its way out for quite some time now so I figured I'd put a 5 spd in, since I found a few at a local place for a good price, 500 for a stock with X miles or 1200 for reman, complete less clutch and bellhousing adapter.

So I pulled the tranny yesterday, which went considerably easy except I can't for the life of me figure how I'm supposed to take the TC bolts out. Any other tranny I've worked on there is a plate on the bottom that reveals the heads of the bolts, at least enough to get a wrench in there. Right now I have the TRANNY OUT, starter out, and the converter is still bolted to the flywheel. How the heck do you get a wrench in there? A crows foot is too short, regular wrench is way too long, even a stubby was useless to me. Am I missing something? I don't even see enough room to back the whole bolt out anywhere. The bellhousing adapter has a lip that is flush with the front of the flywheel, if that makes sense.

Worst case I guess I get the sawzall in there and cut the nuts right off, but I'd like to keep everything intact if I can help it. Any help is appreciated.

 

on the passenger side about halfway up the engine adapter there is a tin cover with two bolts holding it on, take that off and you should be able to get at the converter bolts

 

Excellent...I figured there was an easy way. Just took a peek and it was hiding in about half an inch of sludge. Thanks a bunch.