Hello everyone, i am in the process of replacing the clutch and flywheel in my 97 f350 460 with zf5 and I can't get the transmission to separate. I can't get any gap, it's like there's still a bolt in it. I removed all 6 bell housing bolts, starter, cross member etc. I have a transmission jack under the transmission and a jack under the oil pan and I've tried up and down with small movements trying to get some separation, to no avail. I'm wanting to know if there's something I missed or if any of you fine gents could give me some suggestions to get this thing free.

The reason for the clutch job is I was driving it and when moderately acceleration it sounded like something scattered in the bell housing, after that I get a bad squeal when pushing the clutch so I assumed the throw out bearing must have give up the ghost. I was only about 5 miles from the house so I drive it home and the pedal was noisy but the clutch still worked to drive it so I drive it home. Haven't driven it since. Perhaps whatever came apart in there is causing something to bind up. I'm not sure, but I need to get this repair done as this is my work truck and I'm losing money and falling further behind the longer it sits.

This is a new one to me, I've never had a transmission not separate before. Any help and advice I can get is greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.

 

Manual or automatic?

Dowels may be keeping it together.

 

Manual

 

If your bell housing is aluminum there is a good chance that the centering hole has corroded tightly around the front bearing retainer. Try removing the bellhousing along with the transmission.
Once you get it on the ground you should to seperate the housing with a suitable hammer.

 

His bellhousing will be part of the trans case
Get a BIG screwdriver type pry bar
Some are damn tight to get apart (7.5l seems to be the worst)
Some need to be ran back in using the bolts after the clutch replacement
It's tight dowels, and or a tight pilot bearing you are fighting most likely
Use the biggest pry bar you have

 

Have you tried penetrating oil close to where you think the dowels are? Not sure that you could get close enough for where the input shaft goes into the pilot bearing, due to the clutch.

 

It is the 7.5L. I can't seem to get enough separation to work any kind of pry bar in. I sprayed the locating dowels with penetrating oil last night when I quit for the night. I was thinking of trying to carefully run a pneumatic hammer with a flat bit on the locating pins, any thoughts on that? Any other suggestions I can try will be very much appreciated.
Thank you all for your input.

 

I’ve no suggestion for you, other than I’ve been there too. The dowels are steel, the bell housings are aluminum. They get corroded and really stick on the dowels. Penetrating oil, maybe a little warmth from a heat gun, not hot, but just warm to help the oil creep in, on and off. Not sure about pneumatic hammer, hate to see the housing crack.

Im in the rust belt, and everything on my truck was corroded together.

Eventually it (351/E4OD) just started to separate and I was able to separate them. I was working from above though, with the cab and box off. I recall it not moving at all and wondering if I was going to break the bell housing trying at first. I don’t know if I could have done it from underneath, it just didn’t want to let go at first. I left the engine mounts installed, and an engine hoist with engine sling - attached to the transmission, from above and kept at it until it finally let go. Lots of oil, tapping with a rubber mallet, gentle taps with brass hammer for vibrating, iirc. And some gentle man handling. It wasn’t too bad from above, from underneath though I’m not sure I would’ve got it, there’s really not much room to work under there in terms of leverage, epscially if working off jacks on your back.

Iirc, one dowel never came out of the block, and one stayed in the bell housing, seized in place. Even after a hot tank (engine block) they didn’t move and I just left them in place.

With the age of these trucks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple threads of having to pull the engine and trans together, and separate them on the floor.

 

You could also add some gentle backwards pressure from a ratchet strap or similar, just so that when you're tapping, something is giving it some encouragement to separate. I didn't need to do this with my m5r2/4.9l to get them apart but I did use this trick to help me put it back together. Also had to put it in gear and turn the output shift to align the splines of the input shaft.

 

I got it!!. Thank you everyone for your input. It was in fact the dowel pins. A combination of penetrating oil, a rachet strap with tension and a brass rod and hammer tapping on the pins and it showed about 1/16 separation. After that I was able to take a painters 5in1 scraper and drive it between the bell and block to get a little more and then I could get a flat blade pry bar in there and was able to work from one side to the other and back and it finally came apart. Thank you everyone for the input you've given.