I've been working for two days trying to get the transmission pulled from my 96 Cobra to replace the TOB and clutch. It's in my dad's garage so I need to get it done and it's fighting me all the way.
The way my H pipe is made the transmission looks like it will clear without removing it, but I can't get the rear transmission brace off because it wont clear the H pipe. So I set out to remove the H pipe. I got the two nuts off the driver side exhaust manifold, but the passenger side will NOT budge. I've tried PB blaster, Deep Creep, impact, and even a torch to get the nuts red hot and they still wont budge. Now, the top nut is rounded off just enough that the socket slips. I thought about putting a nut remover socket on the rounded nut but as I said, it wont budge even with a large breaker bar and I'm afraid of breaking the exhaust stud.
Has anyone ever used a nut cutter/buster on one of these nuts? I don't even know if I have enough room to get one of those on there (the bottom one is even worse as you know, but it's not rounded...still afraid of breaking the stud).
Dad suggests using an air chisel very carefully to cut a groove and maybe it will cause the nut to loosen enough to get a socket on it. If that doesn't work, then use the chisel to cut off the nut and clean up the threads with a self-tapping nut if I nick them.
Finally, it looks like there's an exhaust gasket on the passenger side. Why is it made that way? Why is it not like the driver side?
Anyone have any ideas? Just very frustrated. Took me forever to remove the drive shaft bolts as one was already rounded so we had to heat it and remove with vise grips which worked like a charm. As I said I also heated the nuts up front as well, but it didn't help. I can't use the torch again because the hose now has a hole in it (just my luck).
Any help is greatly appreciated. I have to get the transmission out tomorrow night no matter what so I can get it done by mid week. I still have to deal with reaching the top transmission bolts, but otherwise everything else has already been removed except the rear transmission brace.
The way my H pipe is made the transmission looks like it will clear without removing it, but I can't get the rear transmission brace off because it wont clear the H pipe. So I set out to remove the H pipe. I got the two nuts off the driver side exhaust manifold, but the passenger side will NOT budge. I've tried PB blaster, Deep Creep, impact, and even a torch to get the nuts red hot and they still wont budge. Now, the top nut is rounded off just enough that the socket slips. I thought about putting a nut remover socket on the rounded nut but as I said, it wont budge even with a large breaker bar and I'm afraid of breaking the exhaust stud.
Has anyone ever used a nut cutter/buster on one of these nuts? I don't even know if I have enough room to get one of those on there (the bottom one is even worse as you know, but it's not rounded...still afraid of breaking the stud).
Dad suggests using an air chisel very carefully to cut a groove and maybe it will cause the nut to loosen enough to get a socket on it. If that doesn't work, then use the chisel to cut off the nut and clean up the threads with a self-tapping nut if I nick them.
Finally, it looks like there's an exhaust gasket on the passenger side. Why is it made that way? Why is it not like the driver side?
Anyone have any ideas? Just very frustrated. Took me forever to remove the drive shaft bolts as one was already rounded so we had to heat it and remove with vise grips which worked like a charm. As I said I also heated the nuts up front as well, but it didn't help. I can't use the torch again because the hose now has a hole in it (just my luck).
Any help is greatly appreciated. I have to get the transmission out tomorrow night no matter what so I can get it done by mid week. I still have to deal with reaching the top transmission bolts, but otherwise everything else has already been removed except the rear transmission brace.
