I have been unable to find a procedure as to how to remove the bottom bolt on the thermostat housing of the 302 engine with AC. I even read through several Mustang forums and the best I could find is to use a short wrench. I tried removing the alternator and coming at the bolt from that side, but that did not work. Then I removed the 7 mounting bolts so I could slide the AC compressor toward the drivers side of the truck to give a bit more room to reach in. That gave me very little additional room but just barely enough to reach in and get a box end wrench on the bolt reaching from the drivers side of the thermostat housing. But then there was no room to turn the bolt. I decided against removing the distributor although that may have helped, but then would have probably introduced a bunch of other problems. Any help would be appreciated.

This picture shows how difficult it is to reach the bottom thermostat housing bolt on the 302 with AC

 

Break it loose with a stubby box end wrench. Use a short flexible 1/4 drive socket on an extension. Not the most pleasant task.

 

You may have to take the radiator hose off the housing if you have your timing set already otherwise note where the vacuum advance is pointing on the distributor. Loosen the distributor hold down bolt enough to rotate the distributor so the vacuum advance canister is out of your way. When your done rotate the distributor back where it was and tighten the hold down bolt.

 

I'd be replacing that upper hose too. It looks a bit swollen.

 

Also the small bypass hose while your hands are dirty....

 

I thought there were only two bolts on the thermostat housing?
If that's the case, and they are on the sides, what is this bottom bolt you speak of? A third bolt?
Granted, even the two are a pain to get to. And that even without A/C!

Sorry if I'm leading you astray, but I believe I'm correct about two side bolts only.
Maybe I'm not understanding your use of the word "bottom" in this context?

good luck.

Paul

 

Yes there are only 2 bolts. The one on the drivers side of the housing sets lower than the other one, thus the term "bottom.

 

Ok, gotcha.
thanks.

 

I was finally able to remove and then reinstall the thermostat housing on my F100 with 302 engine and AC. I had to take the 7 bolts out of the AC compressor mounting to move it toward the drivers side of the truck in order to reach the "bottom" thermostat housing bolt. In addition, I had to remove the large mounting bolt for the alternator and move it out of the way so I could reach under the thermostat housing from that side to hold the bolt with one finger while getting the bolt started and then screwed in. Note that I first screwed in top housing bolt nearest the alternator. I also found that it was much help to cut slots in each flat of the "bottom" bolt head so I could use a screw driver to push the bolt with my right hand as I was holding the bolt in position with my left hand finger. Finally after getting the "bottom" bolt screwed in part of the way, I then reached in with a cut off shortened offset 1/2 inch box end wrench (see picture) from the AC side of the thermostat housing, while still using the finger of my left hand to help position the wrench on the bolt. It was a slow process, but I was able to get the bolt tight.


Cut off shortened offset box end wrench = 5 inches long tip to tip