Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

[Bear'sToys]

Here's why working with the bear is always head-desk time.....

I'm doing a tranny replacement on my 98 firebird V6 5sp, after much fighting and a smashed finger, I managed to get my new 5 speed lined up and shafted (with only the help of a standard hydraulic floor jack), only to realize that I have LOST all six of the main bell mounting bolts! After looking for an hour, throwing tools at the fence, cursing , threatening the car (that ALWAYS works, right?) and generally scaring the hell out of my neighbors, I cooled off enough to realize I could buy more- so I took a quick drive to Advance... Them: "Duhhh, we don't have the ability to look that up, you'll have to bring one of the bolts in"
Me: umm, were you listening when I said I lost all....nevermind... >:/
Now, I CAN go to the Chevy dealer near me and definitely get the bolts first thing in the morning, but I know from experience I'll end up paying eleventybillion dollars for them, I'd like to avoid that if possible, with the help of just a bit of info-

So, can any of you fine folks tell me the specs for the six main (upper) bell mounting bolts?

Many Thanks in advance,
-The big stupid Bear

[PalmHarborBlkv6]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

I have done this kind of thing too damn much so now I get a container to hold what I am removing and what I want to put back. I would call on a bunch of transmission repair
shops and see if someone knows...Chev is a common car and they might be able to give you a range...buy the range and return to the autoparts store the wrong ones.

[WarShrike]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

Call a dealership parts desk. They should be able to give you the specs. Scoggin D.I.C.K.ey (filter keeps editing that out) Parts Center here in TX does a good job.

[FIREBIRDV6RAGE]

I can just imagine me peaking over the fence and see a guy doing all that haha . Don't worry I've done it before also lol

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[Bear'sToys]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

@Palmharbor- me too, but in the 6 months my F-bird has been down the "parts pile" has been moved several times, and in the shuffle those particular bolts got lost, despite the nice stainless steel bowl I've been keeping them in. They are most certainly hiding in a dark corner of the garage or some weedy section of the yard, but at this point it's more worth the $$ to just buy the bolts and get the show on the road.
However, duly noted, I need to be much more careful in the future, and maybe bag all the bolts in a single Ziploc.....that's my problem here, those bolts got partitioned into a separate "lot" which then got separated from the project and lost. I make that same mistake over and over because I'm a hopeless ADD puppy and I suck >:/

@Warshrike- that thought did cross my mind, except that pretty much all parts dealers take a dim view of those who call them to get parts specs so that they can then buy the parts elsewhere for less. I'm pretty much honor bound to buy from them if I rely on them for the parts info...I may need to use those guys again, and I don't want them saying "oh great, here comes that cheap bastard again."

the nutshell of this is that I'm willing to spend the extra cash at the dealer If I have to to keep the project on schedule, and I realize I probably will, I'm just hoping someone here is geek enough to have a database of part measurements, or at least a shop manual they can find this in.

THX,
Bear

[KJZ28]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

Baggies, labels, magnetic part trays...get them....use them. Also I bought one of these and I label the draw with a number. Then I have an inventory sheet that tells me what is in each draw number.



I Use to throw everything in a box and I got tired of that REAL fast.

[Bear'sToys]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

Thanks all,

I managed to get the bolt specs and bought replacements, Currently I have the tranny bolted on, it'll be next week though before I can put everything else back together, and who knows if it will fire up after sitting for this long.....I tried charging up the battery, and it looks like several of the cells are fried, I'm only getting 4 1/2 volts out of it....so there goes another $100 +

[PalmHarborBlkv6]

Re: Lost my bolts, lost my mind......

Advanced auto parts has a camaro battery for under a hundred