My advise: less coffee and more beer. Relax; its only a car!

There is a hole in the inspection plate to allow access to the torque converter bolts. You should be able to rotate the engine until the bolts line up with the hole in the inspection cover and then you can use a standard socket.

If this is not the case, a previous owner has done you a "favor" and you will need to post pictures to get more advise!

Header bolts are always a PITA; I went with recessed allen heads personally; if you have actual bolts then open end wrenches or thin wall sockets are your only real choices...

Good luck,
-Rory

 

I can't give you mechanical advice on this one, ...take a breath. Go to work, try not to think about it... read posts when you get home. By the end of the day, you will have a bunch of ideas and tricks to consider.

 

Never seen one you couldn't get to the nuts with inspection cover removed. Crescent wrench is the wrong tool. Box end wrench and they shouldn't be that tight. Rotate torque converter to reach all four. Headers are pain in the butt period, different sizes was the last persons bad. 1/4" drive sockets/universal, open end wrench, box end wrench are just some of the tools needed at times.

 

I have a fresh, good quality, six point socket I sort of reserve for torque converter nuts. And I can't think of a single Ford I've worked on where I couldn't use a socket to get converter nuts off. Usually through the removable dust cover plate.
That said, yes, they can be SOB's. Particularly when they've been rounded off. They are TIGHT plus if you look at one, they are a bit shorter than normal nuts so there's less material to grab with a tool. Sears sells rounded nut remover socket sets and I've have pretty good luck with those, particularly with an impact gun. Other folks also sell such removal sockets but I haven't used any others.
Last resort is indeed a small chisel. If you can just get a nut starting to loosen you can get it the rest of the way off with pliers, vice-grips, or whatever.
At some point you'll want new nuts. Most transmission shops tend to have them in stock, because you're far from the only person to have trouble with them.

 

I cut the heads off with a cutoff wheel after I stripped a couple. I'd like to see a pic also - what's throwing me is the backwards comments. Backwards would mean that the bolt head would be on the torque coverter side and someone but nuts on flexplate side.

 

TURN ENGINE BY HAND TO GET AT CONVERTER BOLTS !! like others said you should be able to remove the inspection plate to use a socket and ratchet .

 

Ok... here is what I mena by *** backwards... why make something more difficult on some one or yourself? WHY WEDGE the NUTS in between two objects where you don't have enough space to put a socket..

Second I should clarify that where I am from a CRECENT WRENCH = OPEN END and, what you consider a CRECENT WRENCH we call an ADJUSTABLE wrench...

So for argument purposes I AM using the correct 9/16 OPEN END wrench, I would never use an adjustable on this...

On to the next... the inspection plate has 0 holes for ANY nut to slip through... and EVEN if it did, there would still be NO PLACE for a socket let alone an impact gun? or ratchet.... weather its air or hand powered...

This space is soooooooo tight I can't even properly affix the the BOX or closed end of the wrench over the nut...

THATS AS FAR AS THE ROOM GOES THAT I HAVE...NOTHING ELSE FITS....

I know what you're gonna say here... because this has an offset head on it... just turn the wrench... thats why I used this wrench.. cuz I already tried it... same situation.. a little closer, but still doesn't work...

Am I retarded, or is this not right?

 

It appears you are doing this from the top side of the engine?..If you go underneath the inspection plate is removeable and should allow you a straight shot in at the nut with a socket or at least a box end wrench..
Also just to clarify are you turning counter clockwise?

 

I will have to pop outside real quick and see .. but I don;t remember the bottom side of the inspection plate to be any different from the top... and yes...

I am turning counter clockwise or DOWN with the wrench... up or clock wise would tighten....

 

+1

Show us a picture from the bottom...

The torque converter is tightened to the flex plate AFTER the transmission is mated to the engine, so there must be access from the bottom via the inspection plate.


If not, you've got the wrong block plate or some other previous owner hack.

-Rory

 

This picture should clear things up; it is what a view from the bottom should look like: (note that the inspection plate has been removed in this picture). The inspection plate mounts to the transmission for most of the old transmissions (AODs can be an exception), so chances are your inspection plate is gone and you will have access to the bolts once they spin below the lower edge of the block plate.

-Rory

 

What ever you use weather a wrench or socket (which you should be able to use a socket working from the bottom) make sure you use a 6 point not a 12 point socket. Might help in not rounding them off if you haven't done that allready.

 

Looks like visegrips will be used to remove that rounded nut in his pic.
Why do I see a Duh award coming soon.

 

Why do I see a Duh award coming soon.

I can just picture the Homer Simpson forehead slap and "Duh-oh!"...

Louie, we've all been there before... some day you will look back at this and get a good laugh!

-Rory

 

Suspense is killing me!

 

At least he asked before the torch came out.

 

If all else fails, aren't they accessible through the starter hole? It would be completely obvious to access them at the bottom considering he has the bellhousing and transmission removed. I'm going to venture a guess that the blockplate installed on the car is for a manual transmission, thus the lack of inspection plate. In fact, since he has the trans/bell removed most likely there isn't even an inspection plate attached anymore.

 

That's what I was thinking

If all else fails, aren't they accessible through the starter hole? It would be completely obvious to access them at the bottom considering he has the bellhousing and transmission removed. I'm going to venture a guess that the blockplate installed on the car is for a manual transmission, thus the lack of inspection plate. In fact, since he has the trans/bell removed most likely there isn't even an inspection plate attached anymore.

I used a man. engine plate and cut it to match the inspection cover area.

My 71 has a race converter with studs in the converter, nuts to hold it on the flexplate, but this one has me stumped.:loco:

 

If thats the case, how in the world did they ever get it together and work? I have enough trouble putting them together the right way.

 

My guess would be through the starter hole, that is the only other way that I can think of. Even if he got a wrench on that nut like in his picture, there isn't enough space to remove the nut once he loosens it. The nut would bottom out on the block plate before you run out of threads. Then you have a stuck wrench until you tighten the nut back down. Its a vicious cycle :lol:

 

Meee Tooo

The suspense? It's causing me to hyperventilate!

That TC looks awfully small in diameter like it won't even reach down to the inspection plate, and like PO drilled new holes in the flex-plate, on a much smaller bolt-circle?

 

The suspense? It's causing me to hyperventilate!

That TC looks awfully small in diameter like it won't even reach down to the inspection plate, and like PO drilled new holes in the flex-plate, on a much smaller bolt-circle?

A lot of the high stall speed converters are reduced in diameter; some as small as 9 inches. Even then they use the standard mounting holes. If the PO drilled their own holes, they should get a "special" award!

-Rory

 

Here's WRANCH-101.

 

Until the pictures I was starting to wonder. New one on me. I have never seen anyone try to take converter nuts loose from the top of the engine. Never even considered it possible. Mainly because the converter nuts should be removed FIRST. And only then the transmission bolts be taken out.
By the way, the converter studs are welded to the converter at the factory. If you bugger up a stud enough, you can consider the converter pretty much ruined. Some rebuilders won't even accept such as a trade-in core.

 

Ok... now that everyone this I am retarded.... I am not retarded... this inspection plate is retarded.... I can;t get a clear enough pic b/c the engine is still on the hoist leveled on wood... but I took a closer look under the wood.... and thats why I didnt see it before.. and decided to go through VIA the top... b/c the friggan hole on the bottom of the plate is like 25% in size compared to your pic... its barley enough to turn the converter and get a socket in to remove one bolt from the hole at a time... this plate is odd.. This is the first ford motor I'm working on... on every chevy I have worked on I went through the bottom well, b/c the hole in the inspec cover was open... I had to run to work after turning the converter over and taking one bolt off... and had to clean up.. I will finish tomorrow... I just got off work..

 

Oh.. and Mr. Cobb.... what these guys are calling an OPEN END WRENCH you're calling a Craftsman (Craftsman IS A BRAND, NOT A TYPE OF WRENCH)
(DON'T FORGET ... SNAP ON, HUSKY, KOBALT, PITTSBURGH, MATCO, STANLEY, COOPER, MASTER MECHANIC, MAC TOOLS.. JUST TO NAME A FEW!)

See ... depends where your from... Why complicate things... One wrench adjusts it's size... so New Yorkers call it an adjustable wrench... its forged ADJUSTABLE on the side.. why call it crescent? Plus when you go to sears or harbor freight or snap on they sell its as adjustable...

BOX and OPEN end... are a normal wrench.. closed and open sides.. plus a HALF MOON shape is called a CRESCENT...
crescent shaped - Google Search

Hence the CRESCENT SHAPED OR OPEN SIDE OF A WRENCH....

USING WIKIPEDIA
Adjustable spanner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A "CRESCENT WRENCH" is actually called an "ADJUSTABLE spanner"....

hence the the TERM New Yorkers use, "Hey pops... can you hand me the ADJUSTABLE wrench, please?"

Now if I got o Google and type in "Adjustable Wrench" I wonder what pops up?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...n.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1600&bih=771&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

BAM! Same thing? .. WOW? How could this be?

And... if we dig a bit further... we will find that COOPER hand tools as mention above in my first paragraph actually owns.. and registered the name CRESCENT as a line of a variety of tools, from hammers, to ADJUSTABLE WRENCHES to needle nose pliers, to *****, tin snips and much more specialty tools!

SEE LINK HERE: http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/crescent/index.cfm

As for CRESCENT to save confusion b/c I moved from New York to Nevada where everything here is dumb and the people can't take a joke or comment I say open end wrench usually.. to save these types of conversations... on why the English Language has the most vocabulary than any other language and multiple words have multiple meanings.. and things from different area's have different names...
Plus not to mention the AMERICAN English language is the only Language of it's kind to have a FULLY ADAPTABLE and TRANSLATABLE slang dictionary as if it was a secondary language?

NOT TO MENTION ON THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE IT CLEARLY STATES IN THE LAST SENTENCE OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH.. SECTION A-142 SUB SECTION D98 REVISION 2.1
"An adjustable spanner may also be called a shifting spanner, shifter, fit-all, crescent wrench or adjustable-angle head wrench."


Thank-you and good day sir!
Any other disputable items about what I call something?

 

We're laughing with you, not at you. Sounds like you got a handle on it now.

 

Eggzackly




++11

 

I worked on an old forklift one time. The torque bolts went directly to the crankshaft. it took me about 3 hrs to wedge my hands up in there to get the 6 nuts started and turned tight. That was the worst torque I've ever done. Although a Massy-Ferguson tractor is a close second.

al