Cheap sleeper thanks a lot.
I will prob rereadyour posts another dozen times before I attempt the job.
Besides that harness thingy behind manifold could you tell me what bolts are hardest to get to,because I'll get them first,also how does that harness attach bolt or ?
I will be in need of your advice very soon I think,thanks for the wealth of info...
Anyone else want to contribute please do
Hey no sweat bro that's a large gig so I'm glad to be of help to anyone man enough to do it. (I'm not that manly, just like saving gobs of money lolol)
Hmmm... the hardest bolts to get to are 'technically' the lower starter and bolts directly below the starter, because you have to lay 100% underneath the car to access that spot. Make sure everytime you are underneath that you double up support on each side of the car, get a brand new pair of clear glasses at harbor freight or northern tool for 2 bucks and wear the dang things everytime you are underneath working, you will save yourself from numerous timeouts, pain, and cursing by having them on!
Some other big things are: There are several bolts that take many thousands of partial turns, as a 1/4 turn is all you will be able to get on some of them, so MAKE YOURSELF STAY COOL. Any one of those 'toughies' (as me and my girl call them) can take up to 10 minutes of partial turns before it is finally out, one or two even require you to 'flip' the wrench over between every 1/4 turn. That will test your patience greatly if you don't stay cool, have sense of humor about it, stay zoned on whatever's hosing you til you power through, unless your hand starts fatiguing, then of course stop for a minute, grab a smoke or drink, but know that you must return and finish defeating it!
To finish answering your qs: the 'other hardest bolts to get to are imo the very top right one and the other starter bolt. So: all 3 starter bolts lol and the top right one. For the top right and top left one (which is directly to it's left ~8 inches) use a couple of short 3/8 extensions to put your ratchet out in the open 10 inches away from the tranny. It will give you room to use the ratchet! (Don't try to use 1/4 stuff on those bolts. They are torqued a little more than any 1/4" drive will take.)
The reason those two are tricky is because you have to 'feel for it' instead of being able to see it. Honestly though, you will find that getting all the bell housing bolts out isn't really tough at all, especially if you stay patient and precise. The tougher part is coming up with your own way of labeling each bolt and perfectly describing to yourself for LATER, by just reading your label, WHERE it goes. I arranged my bolts where they were actually 'in' the box the way they are positioned on the tranny. So I put them in the cells clockwise around the outer cells of the box. All the left over cells were used for obvious bolts/ locations.
Remember, when you disassemble anything heavy, remove all the bottom bolts first! Then do all the tops last! I imagine you already know that, but it is easy to forget something so important like that for your own safety!
DON'T PUT YOUR FACE DIRECTLY UNDER THE BOLTS WHILE YOU WORK ON THEM. All those firewall side bolts under the starter require you to put your face directly unde the bolts to SEE them, but after you get a visual on your next bolt, reposition yourself so that your face will not be under the bolt and tool. Cannot stress that enough. Catch yourself from doing it! Everytime I forgot that rule, I would get a visual, start getting the tool up there to it and SLIP! Metal tool falling right at my face. You could easily lose your front teeth in one accidental instant by not remembering to MOVE your face before you start fanagling the tool up to the bolt.
GLOVES
Bro I hate wearing gloves in any situation, but buy 2 boxes of nitrile gloves from harbor freight for 10 bucks. Every time you stop working on the car, garbage pile. As soon as you wanna start back to jammin, stop and make yourself put a pair on. My girl was the glove police for me this time so my hands and nails wouldn't look like crap afterward like usual, and so I wouldn't mark up the whole house lololol. My nails still looked brand new the moment I finished everything and started the car. I admit, I love them now. I should've been using them all these years! I went through a whole box of them doing the swap.
Don't worry about lifting the back of the car. I never do. BUT ebrake and chock it obviously.
You have to put the crow's foot axle puller piece in the spot between the axle head and the tranny without the slide hammer attatched to it. Once you FINALLY get it to fit in there between the tranny and the head of the axle, you'll discover a path to put the slide hammer rod through to reach the crow's foot's threads, and just screw it together and give it a couple of good pops. A little fluid's gonna dump when they come out obviously unless you drained the tranny ahead of time. I don't, so that's 'party time!' (We say that when we know fluids're 'bout to dump)and I have a trash can lid ready to catch. Btw.... trash can lid...... Awesome catch can you didn't know you already have haha!
Anyway uuuhhh... tarping the driveway before you start might be a clever way to avoid making your drive way look TERRIBLE as mine now does.
Try your very best to only break bolts loose with SIX point sockets and wrenches. They are difficult to source, but 12 point sucks for breaking bolts loose and some of those are super tight and will test your might. Plus, if you round one the bolts?? oooooooooweeeee!!! NOT good!!
Source yourself a couple of different pipes, one bigger around than the other, that will slide over various large and small wrenches you are using so you can take really tight ones off super easy. I used one of my jack's handles and a slightly bigger diameter pipe for larger wrenches.
Don't attempt to break any bolt loose with the open end of a wrench. Gotta at least get the round side of the wrench on to 'crack it loose', then you can use the open side for quicker removal. I'm sure you probably know that as well, just trying to cover everything. Stripping any bolt would suuuuper-suck, and if you break your only XXmm tool, you gotta clean up and go buy another. :/
So have 2 of each incase you break one: 8,10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19mm wrench AND 2 of each in sockets. Really, if you own a Focus, you should have 2 of EVERY metri size, even the .5 mms hehe.
You need deep well impact sockets for passenger motor mount. I basically went to harbor freight and bought 2 of every metric wrench size and 2 of every metric socket size. Each kit does not have every single mm, so you will sometimes have to buy four kits to get double of every single size. DON'T FRET BUYING A [
][
][
][
][
]TON OF TOOLS. Go to harbor freight and go crazy. Reason being, they have a 90 day return policy, and you return everything you don't use. By doing it that way, you are never forced to cease operation and lose your momentum. Better to never suddenly not have what you need, especially when you do it over night like I did! lol nothing is open 'cept wally world!
Honest to goodness, I spent like 1000 on tools to add to my already existing full metric arsenal. I've never had my own air comp at home, so I got one, and all the tools and necessary gak for it for ~$160 total. I never used any of it until I reached the FLYWHEEL. DAMN... that, you want an airgun for. I was actually gonna take all the airtool sht back too if it hadn't been for the flywheel. So ~$120 for a compressor big enough to BRIEFLY run a large airgun (1/2") and the gun and hose and ends for it. Worth it for the flywheel. I ended up returning $300 worth. I now own lots of 3 ton floor jacks, a few new socket kits, a couple of new wrench kits, so I can pretty much do any swap work now. Hehe!
You really only need
5 3-ton lowrider floor jacks for ~82 a piece on sale
Every metric regular and deep well size socket in kits.
Every metric size wrench long and short in various kits.
Big ass pry bar.... Like a 2.5 ft long one.
2 is better/easier, but not necessary.
The pipes I mentioned.
Aquire 5 3-ton jacks and two stands however you can, it's the safest way bro. Don't use any kind of jacks but 3-Ton, flat-style, floor jacks. Don't buy or use those ghey ones that have a single 'barrel' at the front instead of wheels.
Use some thin plywood under your jack's front wheels. It keeps them from sinking into your driveway.
Don't sit any tools on your wipers lol.
Sorry for the hella post.
