ksimmons

This is only my second post. In my introduction I said that I don't have any mechanical experience. But I thought that getting a project truck for me and my son would be fun. I have been learning a lot and having fun so far doing the work. I need to pull the transmission because of a leaking slave cylinder. However everything that I've been able to research says that I need to remove six bolts from the bell housing to the engine block. I can only find four. My first question is do I need to remove the starter. My Haynes manual does not specify removing the starter. My second question is are there only four bolts. My truck is a 1995XL 4.9 L with a M5OD transmission. Thank you guys for all of the input I look forward to getting this project more underway!

BLDTruth

Yep you need to remove the starter, and the two bolts you probably cannot find are the two that are on top and the most difficult to get to. The only way I have ever gotten at those is with a couple of long extensions, a wobble, and an impact gun. Sometimes it helps to get the transmission on a jack and remove the crossmember, then lower it down a bit to get at it - it may also help to loosen up the motor mounts to get better "flexibility."

If you go to about 8 min in of this video he is taking those bolts off.

ksimmons

So the two bolts that I couldn't find were missing. There was only four screwed into the block. I just bought the truck and it had been sitting for a long time. I got the transmission off and will be replacing the slave tomorrow. Thanks!