Oh what fun - 2nd Clutch Job

[Grafanton]

Back in March I replaced my clutch. It's a bit of a long sob story, but I also ended up installing a Fidanza Aluminum flywheel. It has not turned out well. It is incredibly noisy and difficult to drive so I'm going back to stock.

One of the biggest problems I had was getting the transmission in and out of the car. There are two tabs on either side of the bell housing that come into hard contact with the transmission tunnel in the last inch of the removal and the first inch of the install. What I ended up doing was putting the transmission in at almost 90deg and then rotating it straight once fully mated.
It was not a pleasant experience.

I see two options:
1 - loosen the motor mounts so I can rotate the back of the engine down. This makes me nervous, as the engine is pretty close to the firewall and there is some sensitive looking stuff on the top-rear of the engine.
2 - Cut off the two tabs on either side of the bell housing. They are fairly thick with a large hole through them. Probably used on another application. Nothing attaches to them in anyway. There just in the way.

Has anybody done a clutch job on the Ecoboost Mustang? Anybody had trouble with these these tabs? What did you do? Do you see any issues with cutting them off?

Thanks

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[rainmaker]

Back in March I replaced my clutch. It's a bit of a long sob story, but I also ended up installing a Fidanza Aluminum flywheel. It has not turned out well. It is incredibly noisy and difficult to drive so I'm going back to stock.

One of the biggest problems I had was getting the transmission in and out of the car. There are two tabs on either side of the bell housing that come into hard contact with the transmission tunnel in the last inch of the removal and the first inch of the install. What I ended up doing was putting the transmission in at almost 90deg and then rotating it straight once fully mated.
It was not a pleasant experience.

I see two options:
1 - loosen the motor mounts so I can rotate the back of the engine down. This makes me nervous, as the engine is pretty close to the firewall and there is some sensitive looking stuff on the top-rear of the engine.
2 - Cut off the two tabs on either side of the bell housing. They are fairly thick with a large hole through them. Probably used on another application. Nothing attaches to them in anyway. There just in the way.

Has anybody done a clutch job on the Ecoboost Mustang? Anybody had trouble with these these tabs? What did you do? Do you see any issues with cutting them off?

Thanks

I loosen up my BMR engine mounts and remove my front wide band O2's. Then you can grab the header and tilt the motor back and make removal and install much easier (I remove and install by myself on jack stands). The job is also easier if you have adjustable motor mounts (like BMR) and lower the motor .25 - .50 inch