I had the problem of tight access to the belt tightener for the serp belt. Bought a breaker with a ratchet that was too deep. Bought one without a ratchet for the future. Then discovered I had already bought one years before. I have spare that I will ship if it means resolution to the problem.
Thanks for the offer, but I think I just need an incredibly small socket.
This is for a transmission pan bolt that is up against the subframe. I know I can just undo the mount and jack it up to get some clearance, but I’d much rather just undo the bolt with jacking it up if at all possible.
This got me thinking. The Wera socket has 9 mm of length to grab onto the head of the bolt. I can measure the thickness of the head of the bolt and just sand down the socket so it still has enough to grab onto the head of the bolt. I think an angle grinder will not work, because I need to get rid of a few mm of length. Can anyone recommend a certain type of sandpaper that I could use? The internet said 320 would be recommended. I’m not sure if it would work though on chrome?
Sand paper ??? You can’t buy enough sand paper or live long enough to grind a socket . Why can’t you just use an open end wrench ?
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Ah I thought that might not even work. So even a few mm, sand paper won’t work? Well I never heard of sand paper for metal application but I thought such a product might exist.
I can’t find an open end wrench with thin enough walls that a socket offers.
Is this a Toyota Camry?
haha yea,
So there’s no way to remove only a few mm of length from a socket?
Use the bench grinder.
Or, it only takes a few minutes to loosen the transmission mount an raise the transmission (not 3 weeks).
I wish you said it was a Camry trans pan to begin with. I did mine with a couple of different open end wrenches. It was not easy and took longer that it should, but didn’t take the month you spent looking for a tool that won’t fit. It shouldn’t be that tight. C’mon man be creative this job could have been done a month ago. Quit thinking about what you can’t use, and think more about what you what you have that you can use. Or as @Nevada_545 said loosening the trans mount only takes a few minutes.
You did it without jacking up the transmission or loosening the subframe so it could drop a few mm? Can I ask which wrenches you used to do that.
Yea I was just looking for a smaller socket if it existed, doesn’t seem so, need to custom it.
Just trade the vehicle for a new vehicle then you can quit obsessing about this bolt.
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There’s more than enough play in the trans mounts to gain access to that bolt. Place a length of 2x4 on a floor jack, then raise the trans slightly. Just enough to get in there and loosen and remove that bolt. Then remove the jack and remove the remaining trans pan bolts.
You’ve turned a 10 min process into a weeks long ordeal.
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Your picture is not of a regular wrench or box end wrench. That’s a ratcheting box wrench, and it’s MUCH thicker than a regular box wrench. A good, quality standard non-ratcheting box wrench is very slender and will fit in the tightest spots.
How do you think the bolt was put on in the first place?
When the transmission was on the assembly line.
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Before the trans was even bolted to the engine prior to install it into the car. Same way it is done in every auto plant. @texases beat me too it 
Very often they don’t think about ease of repair way down the road. It’s all about “What’s the fastest way to put this thing together”?
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Everyone who has gotten the welder or grinder out to make a special tool for a single purpose, please raise your hand. Note to self, label it so in ten years you remember what it is for.
Other thing to do - keep all the tools together so you don’t buy duplicates…
me too. a couple of times
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Walked in the shop and there is a funny home made thing hanging on the wall “flywheel puller”. Not a puller but to hold the thing while the store bought puller does it’s job. Need both.