All of you old timers ,feel free to laugh at me or with me. I relize that the natives are smaller than us, but getting the top nut on the firewall under the dash was not good engineering. finally took the seat out, curled up in the foot well and a long extention ,univeersal adaptor and a 12 mm socket did it , My hands are too darn big.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bob

 

pay the kid next door, it is a pain to do but it can be done i used 2 swivels and a reducer to 1/4 inch drive just to do it, another option is take the gauge cluster out and go at it from there.

 

yeah. gives me a nice neck cramp every time i have to do one.

believe it or not, a 2g dsm's master cylinder is a bigger pain in the *** to do...

 

Yeah, you can tell it was designed by small Japanese people.

 

I swapped mine out in less than 15 minutes. Man in Black was there, so he can verify this. The thing I think that made the difference was the fact that the car was up on jackstands. This allows you to get a better angle on things without having to stand on your head. I used a 1/4" socket set with a swivel.




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I laughed at the position, I was able to loosen it up with an open end wrench and then squeeze my fingers in for the rest. My car was on stands which helped.

It's the lower release cylinder bolt that really frustrates me. I end up taking out the oil filter and a coolant line.

 

That's one of the "Famous Four" worst nuts to access in-place on a First Gen... who else can name all four without peeking?

1: Clutch Master Top Nut
2: Rear Left Carburetor Hold-Down Nut
3: Upper Thermal Reactor Nuts (on an SA, obviously)
4: Rear Oil Filter Tower Nut (FMOC versions)

I never work under my dash further than the fuse box without pulling the front seat; It makes it 'possible' in my case. Still wish I had that second elbow in each arm, though.

 

Sorry....I peeked!