I was in the process of removing tranny from my 83 245. The top 2 bolts would not come loose. I only had a 3/8 extension that would reach far enough back to get a ratchet on it.It seemed the extension would twist the 45 degrees of travel that I had in the top of the tranny housing. I pulled out the air gun and twisted my snap-on 1/2 to 3/8 fitting into 2 pieces. I had pulled the tranny crossmember to let the tranny tilt down for more room. I am quite proud that I did not start throwing tools at this point. I had read other posts about lowering the rear of the tranny to get a better angle for the extensions and having done this was a little upset with my failure. Then an idea!! I "raised" the rear of the tranny all the way until it hit the car body. This tilted the engine forward, giving me plenty of room to get a box wrench and cheater bar on both the upper bolts!

Since I had not "noticed" this step in writing anywhere, I just thought I would share. If this is allready common knowlege, please ignore this post.

Sincerely
Joe in Atlanta

Excellent tip. I'm in the process of removing the tranny myself and totally lucked out with the top bolt loosening, however not with out leaving some skin in various places. The bolts still aren't out, just loose, so now I'm going to jack it up to do the final removal.

BTW did you find it extremely difficult to get at the rear engine mount nut? Almost as painful as those top bolts on mine....

jeff

79 242 gt
82 wagon

I used a spark plug socket to start it and a short socket on extension to finish it off. I cheated on the driver side engine mount by removing airconditioner bracket. I also cheated on pass side by removing alt. I was gutting the car before having it hauled away.

Joe

Thanks for the tip.
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Thanks to everyone for the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, stock, M46; 86 244, 140k , auto.

If you have $17 to spend on a 19 ratcheting box wrench aka.Gearwrench, you won't regret it. The sears one with the tiltable head may be best in this application.