ok, so I inherited a a project that never got completed. He pulled the motor im assuming leaving the trans in the car. at which point he tried to place the TO bearing back in the PP and it did not engage. He somehow managed to get the clutch release arm back on the TO bearing.

So what I have is the bearing on the arm pulled away from the PP and when you try to snap the TO bearing back in it will not engage.

I'm assuming the ring behind the PP is bent is there any way I can get to that ring without pulling the motor.trans or should I just go ahead and pull it all and start over.

 

You just need to drop the transmission. You can do this without pulling the motor. But you will need to do this to replace the wedge collar ring.

 

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is it possible for me to unbolt the trans and slide it back far enough to unbolt the pp through the inspection hole and replace it that way?

 

You still need to get the ring around the shaft, so either way you need to pull the shaft from the engine. That's basically dropping the transmission as you need to complete unbolt it to even slide it back that far....