e36 Clutch woes...

[achulbert]

I am changing the clutch on my BMW 323, 1998 model.

I have removed the exhaust, shift linkage etc..

I have also removed all of the bolt securing the gear box to the transmission... apart from one!!

it's the upper most bolt on the bell housing, i can reach the bolt quite happilly, but some absolute moron before me has round the head of the bolt so my socket just slips when i try to remove it!!

anyway, apart from swearing at the top of my voice for over 5 hours yesterday I feel i need to turn to the forums for some advice on how the hell i can get this bolt out... any ideas?

Please !!!

[Jeron]

It's easy to choose the wrong socket for the bolts.

There are two "top bolts". The engine is tilted so the two top bolts are the top starter bolt on the intake side and the top block bolt on the exhaust side. The starter bolt is E12 and the block bolt is E14.

From my notes "Top Starter bolt: E12 make sure to use the right size because an E14 will fit too but could round it."

Also on the starter bolts some models don't have threaded starter housings and you have to hold a nut on the back side.

[achulbert]

thanks for the reply Jeron, this is the very top bolt , it's an E14, the two starter bolts have been removed as they were both e12. It's the upper most bolt, the one that you can only see if you poke your head up behind the gear box and stare directly at the flywheel end of the engine, i can see the little bugger but i can get it off, what would your opinion be of getting a dremel on it?

i can reach it with a dremel and could take the head off, the bolt is only threaded on the engine side and therefore im thinking , get the gear box off then get some mole grips on the stud?

oh and someone has cleary tried this before as there were bolts missing!

[Jeron]

So its the top Red Arrow on in this pic that you can see from the exhaust side?
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Clutch_Replace/pic61.jpg

If there is no way to get it off, cut it, then use PB Blaster and a bolt out kit on it.

[coolbear1]

This sounds imposible, but I was able to get to mine by tilting the engine all the way back against the fire wall with the intake cowling removed, by using a two foot extension and a universal. you can actually get a fairly good shot at it from above and to one side of the shift linkage.I had to drive the next smaller inverted torx socket onto one, with a cheap extension on the end of my Snap on extension. None of the job was any fun. This was on my 93 when I did the clutch on about a year ago. If the cluch ever goes bad again, I will give the car away.

[dfrost]

Here's a set of"damaged bolt removers" I got from Sears:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00952166000P?vName=Tools&cName=HandTools,GeneralPurpose&sName=Bolt-Out,%20Taps%20&%20Dies&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a

They are hard enough and sharp enough that I was able to use them to remove an allen-head bolt with damaged internal hex from my A/C compressor by grabbing the outer round surface. Once I picked the best size, I drove it down onto the bolt with hammer taps on the end of the socket extension. That may be more then you need, since your bolt is/was an external hex already.

It will be a guess which size fits your troublesome bolt, so you may need a larger one from another kit.

Obviously, the bolt will need to be replaced!