smwells

Hi all,
I have a dilemma-
I am in the midst of pulling athe trans on my 95 4runner (manual trans, 4wd, 3.0L v6) and am having trouble accessing the uppermost 2 bellhousing to engine bolts. I have the 1984 to 1996 haynes book for toyota trucks/4runner and it isn't worth the paper its printed on as far as instructions. I have pulled plenty before out of other vehicls with no prob- it is always a tight squeeze getting the two wedged behind the engine at the top but this is out of hand!
Thanks in advance,
sean

airrikk17

try jacking up the motor a bit to get a better angle at them , try several different configurations of knukles extentsions and the such. i recently did my 3.4 clutch and i spent a long time on those 2 bolts , im sure they are about the same or worse . i think it ended up taking an extension from a air wrench on a regular ratchet ( it was the perfect length) and i still had to extend the handle with a pipe jsut so i could get a grip on the wrench, not so much for the pressure, if you can have someoen reach up and hold the socket in place the ideal wrench would be a swivel non ratchet wrench one with a longer handle its jsut so tight to use a short handled wrench, but then you cant keep the socket on , its a pain , but keep your wits about you and use the force luke LOL , my idea wasto try and remove the crossover pipe of the exhaust , but i found it was even more difficult to get to 4 or 5 of the bolts , so i ended up scraoing that idea.

erik b of oregon

good luck

Victor

I've had problems with those bolts on other cars too. I haven't looked from the top but perhaps you can come at it from above. I have a set of wobble extensions, u-joints, and all sorts of lengths of extensions for problems just like thse.

4 the Hard Way

smwells,

When I pulled the motor/trans/t-case on my '88 4Runner a couple of years ago, I found the best way to loosen and tighten the top 2 trans bolts was from inside the cab....I pulled the shifters out and accessed the bolts with an extension and 18" breaker bar from the shifter hole in the floor. Worked for me. Worth a shot!

Good luck.

Greg
Newest web page

smwells

thanks for the advice all-
I'll keep at it and report back what works best

smwells

Solution:
about 2 feet of 1/2" extension bars, one knuckle joint and a crapload of patience. The top driver side bolt is the hardest- the socket can be positioned on the bolt by reaching a hand through from the driver side- over the wheel-
thanks all!

airrikk17

4 the hard way ,
thats a damn good idea, i didnt thinkof that when i did my clutch. ill have to remeber that , for when i decdide to do a centerforce.

erik b of oregon

oldsub86

I did my clutch in October 2002. I bought a set of universal joint sockets and they worked well on the end of a long extension. The top bellhousing bolts are hard to get at but not impossible.

jx94148

Good info everyone. Mental note has been made. I'll probably get to wrestle with this part of my truck someday.