Bellhousing removal

I have a 1987 944S with an LS1 conversion that was done in 2007. I am in the process of replacing the clutch. I am at the point where I have the torque tube pulled back and need to remove the bellhousing, which is the 2-piece C5 manual version.

My problem is that two of the clutch housing bolts are too close to the body of the car to get even a box head wrench on them. I can get an open end on them, but my experience is that putting too much torque through an open end wrench just results in a rounded bolt head. It also looks like even if I get the bolts loose, I may not have enough clearance to back them out for removal.

Has anyone else faced this problem and found a solution?

Thanks

You may have to lower the engine down to get the upper bellhousing bolts out. You could try loosening the front engine mount bolts so you can tip the engine back but I don't know if that will give you enough room. Usually when the engine is installed, the clutch and bellhousing are already installed on the engine then the torque tube is slid in after the engine is lifted up from the bottom.

Thanks for the reply.

I got it out, but it was painful.

The keys were:

• I used a hammer and a length of steel rod to beat on the chassis near a couple of bolt heads to gain enough clearance to use a wrench and remove the bolts.
  
• I ground down a box head wrench so that I could get it on the two bolt that were obstructed by the chassis

After that the removal of the bellhousing and the clutch was straightforward.

JohnG wrote: I am at the point where I have the torque tube pulled back and need to remove the bellhousing, which is the 2-piece C5 manual version.

i have recently found a limitation of my 5.7 LS1 swap in that my stage 1 spec clutch is slipping at higher rpm at WOT. so eventually I may be replacing that with a stage 2 but i'm curious how in the world did you get your torque tube moved back at all. i'm guessing you dropped your transaxle to create the ability for fore/aft play to move the torque tube back? I can't see how you could possibly pull the torque tube back without doing this but that does sound much easier than having to disassemble my entire intake and cooling system with pulling the dual pass rad out to give enough nose room for the engine to be pulled back from front of torque tube and bell housing adapter.

i have the two piece as well and just trying to gauge when i would get at this achilles heel of my build in the future.

The Clark's Garage website has instructions for many 944 repair procedures, including a clutch change.

To pull back the torque tube enough to remove the bell housing and the clutch, you need to first remove the transaxle, remove the shift rod, rotate the torque tube 180 degrees to clear the retaining lugs, then pull it back. You need to support the engine with a jack before disconnecting the torque tube from the bell housing. The engine, torque tube, and transaxle are essentially a single assembly supported by the engine mounts at the front of the engine and the transaxle mount on top of the transaxle. There are more details in the Clark's Garage instructions.

The hardest part of the process was removal of the bell housing, due to the proximity to the body sheet metal. In retrospect, it may be possible to get the clutch and flywheel out through the bottom of the bell housing after pulling back the torque tube. I saw a video of someone doing that on a C5 Corvette.