Problems Changing clutch on a TKO with headers and MM K-Member

[rown4au]

Hi guys;

I have a 98 Cobra track car that I bought a few months ago and the clutch needs to be replaced. The car has a TKO swap, Bassani midlength headers, and Maximum Motorsports K-member.

I have removed the drive shaft, X pipe, and intake tube, and loosened most of the header bolts on the passenger side. I also have the bottom and middle starter bolt out but I am kind of stuck at this point. :cuss: My problems/questions are:

The top bolt on the starter looks damn near impossible to get to with the header on the car. I think I might be able to get it off if i wrestle with it and use a universal or two (maybe...:shrug but it looks pretty hopeless to get it back in afterwards. Has anyone with a similar setup (headers- K member) done this successfully?

I can't tell for sure if I need to drop the K member to get the rest of the header bolts loose and if I manage to get the header bolts loose on the passenger side if that will be enough to get the tranny out or do I have to pull the header completely off and get it out of the way?

I have not loosened motor mounts or jacked up or tilted the engine at all at this point. Will doing that help clearance on any of these botls?

This is my first time pulling a transmission out of a car and doing a clutch job so I am figuring this out as I go and trying to use the Ford service manual and a Chilton's manual I have to muddle through this. The car is no where near stock however so not everything matches up.

I am dreading the thought of pulling the K member so I am trying to avoid that if at all possible.

thanks

 

[rown4au]

By the way I did do a search before posting this and saw that people said they were able to get the top starter bolt out with universals but it was not clear if anyone managed that with headers on the car.

 

[PSUCOBRA96]

you can do it, its a pain in the ass times 10. Best bet is to try and tilt the motor from side to side to get access to the header bolts, take them out and remove the passenger side header, that should get you clearance to remove the trans. You can access the top trans bolts easier from behind the top of the motor but you will likely have to remove the upper and lower intake to do it.

You can access it without doing that if you have enough extensions, make sure they are impact sockets or you will end up breaking a few. if you don't care though, just go ahead and use them as they will get the job done most likely.

 

[whtcobra1998]

you have a tko? pull the 4 bolts out and remove the trans, as for the starter use long extensions to reach the starter from the front of the engine area. you do not need to loosen your headers.

 

[rown4au]

you have a tko? pull the 4 bolts out and remove the trans, as for the starter use long extensions to reach the starter from the front of the engine area. you do not need to loosen your headers.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but are you saying to take the transmission off the bellhousing? I would think that isn't going to help as I need to change the clutch and the bellhousing will need to come off either way to access the clutch and flywheel assembly, so I am back to the same issues.

I don't think the bellhousing will fit past the collectors on the headers unless I at least loosen one side and the previous Owner had made a comment to that affect. (but he wasn't really sure)

 

[rown4au]

After trying several different methods I managed to get the top starter bolt out with an extension and a ratchet through the wheel well. The trick was finding a combination of extensions that put me just past the front of the starter motor but before the motor mount and there was just enough room to get a ratchet in there. :banana:

I nearly ran a victory lap of the garage after that... how sad am I???

After the starter was out I loosened the rest of the header bolts and I have a little wobble in it now so hopeully that will be enough to get the bellhousing past.

 

[rown4au]

Ok its out... not having done this before I didn't realize that the tranny and bellhousing should come out separately. Once I realized that was what the deal was it was somewhat easier, I did have a hard time getting the tranmission input shaft out of the bellhousing until I fiddled with tilting the engine a bit more.

I also managed to squeeze the bellhousing past the headers afterwards but when I go to reinstall it i probably need to loosen the header a bit more as it was extremely tight and rubbed on the way out.