Floobydust

How do you get the *$#%?% nut off the top of the rear transmission mount on a 1995 Cabriolet? The transmission output flange is so close to it I can't get a wrench or socket on it. Can anyone give me some hints?

Thanks,

- FD

spetz

You need the round part of a 19mm spanner.
Mine was pretty tight, and I held the spanner in place while using a long bar to undo it, getting leverage from the exhaust to turn the spanner.

Floobydust

spetz -

Thanks for your suggestion. I looked at that also, but the issue I have is that the spacing between the trans output flange and the top of the nut is so small it will not allow wrench to slip over the nut due to the edgewise thickness of the wrench. I bought an inexpensive combination wrench today and plan to grind it down so that the round end is thinner (edgewise), but that doesn't seem like the proper solution. Are your spanners unusually thin (a typical 19 mm combination wrench in my tool box is about 10 mm thick)?

- FD

spetz

I am unsure of what you mean with a combination wrench (it sounds like you are using the wrong tool though) but this is what I used:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1024&bih=578

Not that particular one, but a spanner like that. You need to use the round part though, as the opened part will not fit.
To be honest I tried to do it 3 times on jackstands and gave up, but I then took it to my mechanic which allowed me to drive the car over the pit, and once I had comfort and mobility, it was VERY easy, it took me about 15-20 mins of doing it fairly slow.

What I can say is:
-Try to use a straight spanner, not the ones which have a curve
-Careful not to strip the bolt
-Like mentioned, mine was quite tight and it took a lot effort to unbolt it
-It was so tight, that even when I was standing under it in the pit, I could not undo it by hand and HAD to use a bar to lever it initially
-Just as a safety precaution, I am mentioning that the transmission should be supported when you do this job

pifcat2

You have the trans bracket off, right? Seems like there should be enough room for the box wrench.

Worse case, you remove the flex disc to fit a socket. Maybe time to replace the disc if necessary...

Floobydust

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

spetz - Yes, that is the type of wrench I am referring to (without the folding/ratchet function).

pifact2 - Yes, I have the bracket off. On my car, the space between the outer edge of the flex disc and the top of the bolt is much smaller than shown in your picture. It seems that my disc is larger in diameter than the one in your picture. The other interesting difference is that the one in your picture has flat areas along the circumference. It looks like if you rotate the drive shaft so that one of the flat spots is right over the trans nut you would maximize clearance and this would allow the round end of a combination wrench to slip over the nut. The disc on my car is also completely round with no flat spots. I'd really like to avoid removing the flex disc as I have do drive shaft vibrations at the moment and I do not have a high lift.

At least I know I'm not overlooking was one of those "it's a 5 minute job if you know the secret trick" things. I'll sacrifice a $10 wrench and see how it goes. If that doesn't work, I'll have to take it to my Indy for the full Monty.

Thanks again,

- FD

pifcat2

I had a similar problem with the rear flex disc clearance getting a box end wrench to fit because it was too close to the diff. I tried the open end of the wrench and just rounded the nut so I ground down the box end and all was good.

spetz

So you cannot fit the spanner on the bolt because of your flex disk?
I thought the issue was the metal bracket surrounding it.

When I did mine, the ONLY problem I had was it was too tight and hard to unscrew.
In fact, when I finally took it off, everything else (the little crossmember etc) were still on the car, as I didn't want to take it all off just to find out I still couldn't untighten that bolt