I just about finished my clutch and flywheel installation but when it came down to putting the tranny back on the block we could NOT get it to go on. We literally tried everything. It was like the spindle didn't want to enter the shaft. We ended up towing it to a trannsmission shop so they could check it out/finish the work. Please let me know if anybody else has had this happen.

I talked to one of my friends about this who does BMW trannsmission swaps and he said that its normal and you just had to get one bolt lined up and then turn the driveshaft end of the transmission to get it to sit right and then slowly crank in the other bolts. Is that true?

 

Your friend is somewhat right. If you don't have it properly lined up and start cranking down bolts, you could damage the bell housing.

Getting things lined up used to happen to me and some friends of mine while doing clutches on DSM's. How we cured the problem...... PLEASE NOTE, THIS WAY HAS ONLY BEEN TESTED ON A DSM, AND USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

We got some threaded rods from Lowe's. A rod that is small enough to fit through BOTH holes on the bell housing and the back of the block, yet strong enough to hold a partial ammount of the tranny weight (not sure of the weight of an FD tranny). Anyway, what we would do, is lift the tranny up and line up TWO holes (one on each side of the tranny/block). Slide the threaded rod through the bell housing hole and also the receiving hole in the block. Put a nut on the engine side, and then a nut on the tranny side (basically this is just a "guide" to slide the tranny where it needs to be). Now, BEFORE just letting it dangle there, you should be able to get the tranny to "catch" a little bit, then it's just a matter of wiggling the spline in and getting it to match up.

 

I have had this proiblem on both my FD and NA FC. The problem is the cheap plastic alignment tool doesn't do ots job well enough. Everytime I end up losening the pressure plate bolts, so the clutch disk can float a little bit, installing the tranny, and then torquing the pressure plate bolts through an access cover opening. On my NA FC, I ended up torquening them through the starter motor opening (you will need a crows-foot socket).

Glenn

Edit: On an FD, you don;t need any special sockets.

 

You have to get the clutch disc centered as possible and just sticking the plastic alignment tool in the hole won't do. bolt the pressure plate on just enough to hold the clutch disc in place and center it with the alignment tool and then eyeball it and get it centered as possible. If you do this the transmission will slide back on easily. If you don't have things lined up and you start cranking down the bellhousing bolts you can damage the pilot bearing (Ask me how I know).
Also the motor has a tendency to tilt forward when you remove the transmission so you have to support the motor from the front engine hoist bracket otherwise you'll never get the transmission lined up.

 

In my experience I would have to say mgoddard1 hit it right on the money. The motor tilting forward was my major malfunction, der duh.

 

So we should tilt the engine towards the rear as much as possible and then try again? I mean, we tried wiggling the thing to death in order to get it back in with no luck. I'm debating on what I should do... we no longer have the lift we were using and its currently undriveable and sitting at a transmission shop waiting to be worked on on Monday. What would you guys do? I think i'm just going to leave it.

 

first take the motor mounts off the motor and try again. you should be able to get on the input shaft if it wont go on the splines the just twist the input shaft a hair. put some greese on the splines to make life easier but just a touch. is the clutch right? did you make sure the disc will fit on the splines of the shaft? other than that is is just holding your tounge right. use the dowel pins as your guides

 

Hey fellows,

didn't mean to post-what I ment to say-VVVV

 

Haha...didnt't mean to post yet...

I had the same problem you had, a couple of months ago when I replaced my clutch. I was fiddling around with it for a week before I just got fed up, and used the fail safe method. I took the clutch off of the flywheel, and than put it inside the bell housing on the input shaft. When you do that it is a breeze to get the input shaft into the E-Shaft, just slides right in. The clutch is already aligned because it is aready on the input shaft. Then the difficult part, bolting down the clutch with the tranny on. I just went through the service holes, rotating the flywheel and doing each bolt. I will use this method every time I replace a clutch now, had I done this from the start I would have been done alot quicker. It is not easy bolting everything down, but it definately works.

Brent

 

well the problem is i can't do that with the flywheel because it required a nut on the back of the flywheel so its literally impossible to squeeze 2 tools in the service hole. or any other hole for that matter. And im sure there's an easier way than removing the motor mounts...

and i have greesed the spine and i can get the input shaft to go in, just not past that point.

 

Actually did you support the engine had the problem and then realized the engine was leanning forward too much so I jacked it up a bit with a 2X4 on the jack not to damage oil pan, block went right in without a problem.

 

woah sorry i mis read i thought the engine was going in not the trans.. nm about the mounts. if you are sure the disc is right and that it is centered the engine is prob just tilted to far forward. just be sure the disc is centered and the pilot bearing is ok.

 

Hey tookwik,

You must have the Racing Beat flywheel? Pain in the butt eh?

I had the same problem when I installed my Racing Beat/ACT S/S combo. I tried jacking the engine, little grease, etc, nothing helped. I ended up just getting the splines lined up and wrenched it down.

I'm not sure if it was the new oil seal or the clutch not being properly lined up, but the next *cough* two *cought* times the tranny came down shortly after that; it went back in without a problem. So, something just needed to be worked into place (or worn in).

 

it's actually easier to put the clutch/pressure plate onto the transmission first, mate it up before putting the engine in. It's usually pretty easy to get the block and everything together then.

 

you guys are insane goingt through all the hassle of putting the disc on the trans first. imo

 

I'm assuming you have only done this with flywheels that are threaded for pressure plate bolts. Some flywheels aren't threaded, so there is a bolt that goes on the back side. That would be damn hard to do through the inspection plate.

 

if you couldnt get the input shaft to line up did you try rotating the main pulley on the front of the engine? that would rotate the clutch/flywheel so the teeth could catch. we just put the transmission back in my friends FD, and it took us all of 10 minutes with just 2 of us. we put a jack under the bell housing and lifted it up to the height of the engine, then he held the back of the tranny and lined it up. he pushed it forward up against the block and i slowly turned the main pulley on the front of the motor. as soon as it lined up it slid right on and we bolted it up!

 

oh yeah i must of missed the first part of his post, yeah only delt with threaded flywheels. ah well, got the tip from a rotary mech, worked for me ok:/

 

Yea it was a pain in the butt! Its actually a pettit 8.5# but same design... We literally tried putting the tranny up there 5 times, each time we turned the flywheel a little hoping that the splines would line up but nothing worked. I do think that if I could still work on it we would be MUCH better off working with the car NOT on a lift. Once the tranny was up there it was close to impossible to turn anything. If it was on the ground, we could tilt the engine, turn the pulley, or whatever. Its too late now, the cars at a transmission shop... but hey, if they price me too high I'll have it pulled back to my house so I can do it the right way.

Why'd you have to take your tranny back down TWO more times?

 

No, we never tried that cuz it was on the lift and therefor unreachable. I'll try that next time though... if there is a next time

 

When I first put it back up there, by the time I got it wrenched down, I noticed I had knocked the wedge collar out of the pressure plate. I tried to be lazy and pry it back in with a long screwdriver and a pry bar. After bending the collar, I had to drop the tranny anyway (drop #1) to fix the collar and push it back in.

I rebent the collar (instead of buying a new one) and hooked everything back up. 10 minute test drive through the neighborhood was ok. I then loaded up some tools to install a few things over at my parents on my father's Z06. On the way (normally less than 10 minute drive), the rebent wedge collar tore to shreds. After having the car towed back home, the tranny came down again (drop #2) to install a *new* wedge collar.

 

haha, well i guess I should laugh... sorry to hear that. Good to know that everything is fine now though. You really are on here all the time aren't ya? I guess the 11k+ posts goes to show that.

 

I'm actually doing work on the laptop, but it's slow updating through the VPN so I browse the forum on my home PC when waiting.

But yes, that was a lesson I learned on that clutch/flywheel job. Cutting corners gets you no where.

 

I had the same problem before. I didn't know about the engine tilting forward until i tried to put my tranny back in. I spent 9 hours trying to put the tranny back until a friend came along and gave me an idea to tilt the motor back and loosen the pressure plate so we can put the tranny back in. it wasn't easy as the other guts here experience but it did do the job. Me myself prefer doing my own maintenance on my car so I know it was done right and how i wanted it to be. Well good luck on putting your tranny back.