Hi Jay, 
    It appears it is possible to access the pressure plate  bolts through the starter hole in the bell housing. Sometimes a bad pilot bearing can hold dearly to the transaxle input shaft but rocking the engine a bit will free it up.  A clutch disk stuck to the input shaft   can be nearly impossible to free up with the engine and transaxle together. Good luck with your quest.
Darrell
       
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Darrell Boehler 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 1:59 PM
  Subject: Re: remove engine

  Hi Jay,
      Be sure you have all 4 bell housing bolts removed,  one of them helps hold on the starter. Pushing on the clutch pedal will then cause separation. If not the Transaxle input shaft is not letting go of the clutch disk.  Not sure if there is a way to remove the pressure plate stud bolts that go into the flywheel with the transmission and engine together on a wasserboxer. It is possible to do it on a bus. Then you can remove the engine and leave the clutch disk and pressure plate on the transaxle. I will check for a bell housing access hole and let you know. 

  Darrell
             
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Jay & Kim Schmidt 
    To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
    Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 10:36 AM
    Subject: remove engine

    Hi all,
        I'm doing my first wasserboxer removal(84) and am all set to drop, but can't get the engine to pull free(or even begin to) from the trans bell housing. Everything is  disconnected,I've tried various angles by adjusting the engine height, but it wont break free. I've never had this problem on my 2.0 aircooled. I know the lower studs have to come out straight, but I cant begin to pull from the bell housing. Any suggestions? 
        The alternative is to leave it in and pull the heads. Bentley tells how to do it, but Haynes says not to. What does the list think?
    Jay
    84 westy
    77 westy
    71 highroof camper

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