I have a 94 7.3 turbo. It needs a new clutch.

The passenger side top bell housing bolt is nearly impossible to get at, as a bracket for the turbo exhaust downpipe is blocking the bolt. Worse still, the bracket is held on by the bolt it's blocking.

I may be able to bend the bracket to make room to remove the bolt.

From there, I'm guessing I'll have to cut the exhaust to get it out of the way, as the trans has to come straight back.

There is a v-clamp holding the downpipe to the turbo output. Can someone tell me if there is a sleeve in there? The v-flanges don't budge when I wiggle the exhaust pipe with a bar. I hope I don't have to cut that pipe near the turbo.

I'm sure plenty of folks here have swapped DMF to SMF on a Turbo 7.3 and have needed to pull the ZF-5 to do so. Any info would be appreciated.

 

I will provide an update in case someone finds this thread using a search in the future.

- The top starter bolt on a manual transmission is nasty but doable. Count on 30 minutes for just that one bolt, if you were laying on your back like I was.
- The v-clamp on the turbo exhaust is much easier to get at if you pull the air box and I think removing the airbox is required for the top, passenger side, trans bolt.
- Pressure plate bolts don't come with an SMF clutch kit and are NLA from Ford. Be gentle with your old ones. Torque to 21 ft*lbs.

 

when i did the trans swap on my 88 i found it was much easier to remove the floor pan and access all the bell housing bolts through the giant hole it left.

 

I concur wholeheartedly with this statement. With that removeable cover out of the way it makes pulling the trans ALMOST easy!

 

I did it without pulling the trans access hole and it wasn't horrible but I can see it would be easier with that hatch removed.

Thank you for the advice, gentlemen. Hopefully, it will help someone who might find this thread via a search.