Hey all, I think some of you may remeber my taking the engine out of a 56 pickup, ell, we finally got to trying today.....and failed....

I need help because we got caught up on 2 measly bolts, but none of out sockets or wrenches were the correct size.

The specific bolts are on the top of the trans housing right behind the head. they are the only bolts that are backwards, the rest are faced the opposite direction.

Heres a pic: The bolt is in the red circle, there is another on the drivers side of the truck too.



They are too big for our 9/19, but too small for 5/8...Has anybody ever done this and know what size these bold are?

Thank you very much.

 

Sure they aren't just rounded off? Sometimes when people strip the threads on a USS bolt, they re-tap for a close metric size.

 

There is such a thing as a 19/32" which would be halfway in between 9/16 (18/32) and 5/8 (20/32). It's unlikely but possible. It's more likely that someone rounded them off as ALBUQ F-1 suggests. In either event, since you aren't likely to find a 19/32 in any store, you might try a metric size. IIRC about 15mm-16mm should be close. Use of a 6 point socket (or box wrench) may help too.

Lou

 

My son gave me a socket called a Gorilla Grip, it is like a round socket filled with spring-loaded pins. It's made to pull rounded-off bolts, fits any size, costs under $10. Sold at AutoZone and Sears.

 

I have a couple of old open-end wrenches for those, but as I recall, they were used exclusively on left-hand bolts/nuts. No chance this is a lefty, is there?

 

Do what I usually do, round it off, then snap off the head, get really mad, and then give up and move onto the next part of the truck.

You can always just jam on a metric socket onto it as a last resort, or use vice clamps, and lock it down tight and then crank it over by hitting the vise clamps with a hammer. My guess though is that you probably don't have enough room to do any of that, or do you?

 

You could pull the motor and tranny out at the same time and make it easier to work on I'ma thinking anyways.

 

angle grinder, cut off the heads, pray you can take the threads out later

 

We tried metric, they wouldn't work at all(15 too small, 16 too big). However, a couple of our 5/8s would almost fit, but they were too loose.

There is almoost no room whatseoever, I don't even know how we're gonna get the bolts out when we find a size that'll fit...There is no way there's enough room for vice grips, and especially not enough room to cut the heads off.......

A friend of mine whos helping is gonna try and get a 19/32 from his stepdad, but it might not happen, so I might end up buying one. Either way, it still might not be the right size...I mean.. I didn't get a great look at it, but it didn't look rounded off to me...

Man, I'm so pissed, it takes me 6 months to finally get my *** in gear to do this, and when we finally try, I get stopped by 2 bolts.

Thank you all so much. I'll be back...you know I will.

 

That's the first I heard it put that way, I was always told that it was 2 nuts that got us into trouble,lol.

P.S.
I have in the past filed the head of a bolt down to the next size when I've been in a jam, but if I'm correct in what I was reading you did say you were removing the motor out of your 56, why not pull the tranny or at least the bell housing with it where it will be easy to get at There is also a set of sockets called metwrench, not sure of the spelling, but they claim they fit both sae and metric and put the torx away from the point of the hex, maybe another option if you continue from the bottom

 

Sorry, I know that you are just venting, .........so I guess I can too, huh?

Lots of things are going to happen, some not so good and you don’t have to like it, but you do have to accept the way things are and move on. Are two bolts going to stop you? Mom and the Dalai Lama never said that life was going to be easy (or fair). (End of my vent)

So are the heads of the bolts facing towards the rear of the truck? Are your sockets 6 point or 12 point, use only 6 point, maybe you could use a 3/8 inch drive ratchet (1/2 inch is better) and a really long ($) (or two long joined together ) extension with a flex socket (5/8) ($) from the bottom.

Oh…… life, and fixing old trucks, isn’t going to be cheap either.

 

yeh, I'm in favor of this method too.. specially if you have already pulled the radiator support..

the whole front clip comes off too, with a few bolts..
4 inside the fender, (3 inside the cab, 1 outside)
4 for the inner fenders
and then the lateral supports, 2 bolts at the cab
and then the bolts under the rad support.

took me 10 minutes to remove my whole front clip (all new bolts of course)
when I had that new engine failure..

then you will have all the room in the world to work..

Sam

 

I purchased some grip tite sockets from Sears, they are great for rounded off bolts and nuts. You might want to pick up a set.

 

Can you get a 6-point 5/8" wrench?

 

Grind or file out your 9/16" wrench untill it fits kind of snug and tap it on. Or alter your metric wrench, whichever is more expendable! If you take out the motor mounts and support the engine from below with a jack so you can lower it somewhat, it will give you a little more room to see what really is going on.