Driver's side upper bell housing bolt....
 

I'm just about ready to pull the engine out of my '01 Jimmy. A co-worker and I got everything else (except for the three bell housing bolts on the bottom, leaving the easy ones for last) loose and ready for the engine to come out.

What we can't figure out, easily anyway, is how the hell to get that upper bolt on that side the hell out. Between it's proximity to the firewall and the support/brace/etc. that's cast into the bell housing just below the bolt running axially with the housing, we can't get any combination of socket, wobble, universal joint, extension, wrench, etc. onto that damn bolt head. One iteration ran right up from the back of the transmission of about 3ft of extensions with a universal at the end, another 3" extension and another universal got the socket to TOUCH the head of the bolt, but couldn't actually get on it. I'm about to say the hell with it and drill a hole through the firewall just big enough to put the socket on the bitch. I've read where some have removed the engine mounts and dropped the engine a little lower, but I really don't see where that would gain enough ground to make any real difference.


Any help from the experienced would be highly appreicated.

one reason i seen a few times that the bolt is closer to the firewall then it should be is bad motor mounts, even if its like a quarter inch forward it can make it hell to come out.

i actually have this really thin long 1/4 inch socket wrench breaker bar with a 15 inch socket and that gets it off everytime, unless of course the mounts pulled it closer in that case ill usually have someone prybar the engine forward to get on that bolt.

its always funny you can tell when someone has messed with the transmission before cause that bolt is usually left out

if i remember when i removed my tranny i removed the bracket holding it up and put a jack on it and it lowered enough to remove them, let the weight of the trans go slighty lower, but my memory is fuzzy i did it a couple years ago

that was me i'm guilty as charged:)

I believe you take off the tranny cross member, and carefully lower down the tranny to give enough room. watch everything under the hood while you do this (dizzy ect)

you will need around 2 feet of socket extension. go to sears and get a CRAFTSMAN 15mm swivel socket, it is about a half inch than a socket and swivel. ( i say get craftsman because they exchange em free) cuz you will most likely fudge it up. get it on the bolt head and go for it. it will be a pain in the a$$. you might have to use a cheater pipe. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN REINSTALLING. its easy to cross thread. i did this when i replaced my engine. one thing that will help is to put some of the bell housing bolts back in, remove motor mounts (on engine, and on frame), transmission crossmember, and lower the front diff, if u have 4wd. then gently lower transmission/engine together. until the engine is sitting on the frame. will give you extra room.

if you have to lower the front diff. take the bolts out of the frame on the drivers side, and the bolts on the metal bracket on the passengers side
you will need to cut an 18mm closed end wrench in half to get inside the frame.

This is the view of the upper bolts with the rear of the transmission tipped down. It really didn't take much but made a big difference in getting a socket on them bolts. I had to remove the transmission to fix a no reverse problem. Since your only removing the engine, taking the motor mount out could give you an inch of more space.

Al

2000 Blazer 2wd

Just install a body lift:). Sorry I know that wasn't any real help but these guys pretty much covered it!

That bolt was missing when I swapped my motor when I got it, putting one in afterwards I used a swivel head ratchet wrench. Wasn't an issue for me personally.

I have nothing to contribute, but damn your trans is clean. It's a little creepy, like it just drove out of the twilight zone. LOL

When I replaced my engine I ended up removing the trans cross member and letting the trans tilt down and therefore provided access. The other problem I had was the head on the bell housing bolts are thin and most sockets have a slight radius at the very end of the socket so my socket wanted to slip off the bolt head as I applied torque to the ratchet. If you have that problem you can cut the socket square to eliminate the radius. When I re-installed the engine I used bolts that had a thicker head on them. There is no need for the thin head bolts. (Long extension and swivel socket)

I have fully and completely considered the body lift, lol. It would eliminate these problems for certain.


I've not had any trouble with the sockets not staying on the heads of the bolts, but it's so damn tight it's hard to see how lowering the back of the tranny down would gain any room. It's about the easiest suggestion though so I'm definitely going to look into it.


Thank you all for your suggestions. The engineers at GM sure had their heads up their asses when they designed this.

Lowering the rear works, also use a a swivel extension. just did my trany

A 15mn offset box-end wrench did it for me. It's a little slow, but that's how you have to do it

A 1