Day Eleven - Exhaust down pipe REALLY down now

Okay, I lied. I didn't really remove the down pipe. It's still attached. I tried to pull the bracket from the bell housing, but it was way too tight. Now, I'm thinking I need an impact wrench to get this sucker off. So I bought one, and a new compressor to go with it, from Harbor Freight. My little 8 gallon compressor wasn't powerful enough. I wanted to get an impact wrench for a while now, but didn't want to get it unless I was backed against the wall. This seemed like my wall. I crossed my fingers hoping I didn't buy a dud. 

I followed all the directions for setting up the compressor, adding oil, breaking it in, flushing the oil and replacing it. I wanted to make sure I followed all the directions to the letter. I want these tools to last. Everything seems to be working fine! :) Now on to the exhaust pipe.

It was difficult to get to the fasteners with the pipe in the way, so I was hoping the extensions and the impact action would loosen them. No such luck. Is this impact wrench not powerful enough or are these things hopelessly on too tight. I had to come up with another strategy. Not thinking it would work, but wanting to try all the alternatives, I tried to loosen the clamp nut attached to the bracket. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to move with a regular socket wrench. And, it wasn't a nut as I had thought. It's hard to see what's what down there with everything in the way. When you're not familiar with the pieces, you tend to think they're a certain way and it's not always true. So I finally got it off. Hmmm, I guess I didn't really need that impact wrench for this after all. Well, who can say no to more tools? It'll come in handy later on anyway.

Ha! Got you sucka!

With that accomplished, the rest of the work today was disconnecting the wiring from the start motor and whatever else I could find along the transmission. I pretty much wanted to have the engine and transmission disconnected completely.

Starter motor connections

Wiring harness along the transmission and PPF.

Almost ready to pull this off. Made a list of final details and planned on doing the deed next weekend. Kinda excited!