Was able to get the bolt off on the driver side, but can't get anything on the other as the beehive hose is in the way. Any thoughts? Also what size line wrench do I need. None of my box wrenches fit tight to see the size. The slave gave up the ghost right as I pulled into the garage, very lucky! Thanks

 

Could be any size. With the age of the car it could have been swapped out with lots of different sized heads. Most likely its a 13mm or 14mm.

Lots of extensions and a wobble socket helps get it off of there.

 

The bolts Mazda installed are 12mm ATF. All 8mm thread fasteners on the car have 12mm heads except for the strut mount nuts which are weird 14mm ATF shouldered nuts.

I believe I used to access them by reaching up from underneath the car. It has been a very long time since I had a car with a beehive and A/C.

 

Be careful when you replace the bolts, it's really easy to strip the threads out of the bell housing. On my race car I convert the slave bolts to studs after I had to helicoil a few transmissions.

 

Thanks everyone, I'll try tomorrow and is cooler. Got the master out, so only 1 more bolt and I'm done. I really like the stud idea. With some good thread lock, I'll never have to worry.

 

One of mine is actually almost stripped but as long as one is good and tight, you are good.

 

The holes are threaded fairly deeply so a stripped trans issue can be salvaged (once!) with a 10mm longer bolt. And don't be a gorilla on the threads next time!

 

Got it out, now 1 nut on the master and I can put it all back together. The entire inside of the slave was rusty and full of fluid, so I got really lucky.

 

The top bolt is threaded pretty deep but the lower one is not very deep at all, less than 10mm. I ended up cutting down the stud on that hole so it doesn't stick way out.

 

All back together. A word of warning for replacement masters. The Beck Arnley had studs in it the were not threaded all the way. This does not allow to fully tighten. I had to add washers. Very frustrating given how hard the nuts are to get on.

Unfortunately the battery is dead, so will not be able to test till it charges.