I'm in dire need of some help here. I've been battling this transmission for over 6 hours now trying to get it in. I'm using one of those HarbourFreight Transmission jacks and the tranny won't go in all the way. There's about a 1 inch gap.

I tried taking the clutch components back out and make sure the clutch alignment tool was in there all the way which it was. Can't push it anymore, then I torqued down the pressure plate bolts and then the bellhousing. Took the clutch alignment tool out and rolled the tranny into the bellhousing. Damn thing won't go in all the way. I was tempted into trying to run some bolts through it since some of them will connect but the manual specifically states the tranny must be flush before bolting it together. Not sure how much longer I can keep trying before I just tow it to a tranny shop to get it done...damn I was soo close to doing it myself. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks....maybe I can get some pics tomorrow if anyone can help. If you're in the bay area I'd be more then willing to pay for some assistance.

 

Make sure your gap is even all the way around. You might have to turn the input shaft a little to get the splines to line up. Sometimes they go right in and sometimes you just have to tweek'em till they do.

 

I always have bad luck getting those to go right in - some of those little alignment tools they give you with a clutch aren't very good. Last time I loosened the pressure plate so the clutch would move around then it went right in. I had to back it out then retighten the pressure plate screws - so it was extra work to do it that way.

 

Do you think drilling the alignment holes a little larger might help? I tried to put the bellhousing onto the transmission when I had it out and it took some wiggling to get it on. I've wiggled this thing under the car and I feel like I'm soon going to break something trying to get it in there. Picking the tranny off the jack and wiggling it into the hole I can feel like it won't line up correctly with something but when I peek through the pressure plate/clutch/pilot bearing I can see straight through and it looks aligned.

 

don't drill. please don't drill. calm down and look at it again, if its going that deep it should be through the clutch just not into the pilot bearing.

 

Well I'm going to go at it again now. I'll try to loosen up the pressure plate and then slide the tranny in there and see if it goes in all the way.

 

Obviously it was a no go again tonight. But I read this from an LT1 clutch install page and made me realize that the clutch alignment tool is very difficult to get in and out. I have to put some muscle into pushing it in all the way and especially pulling it out.

"Put some high temp lubricant into the input shaft bearing on the motor side. Slide the pressure plate and clutch onto the alignment tool, depending on your pressure plate, there's usually a dot or mark on some kind on the pressure plate that you'll have to match to the white "X" that should be marked on the flywheel. Mount these up and make sure everything aligns correctly with the alignment tool. The tool should slide in and out easily with no bind whatsoever. If it has any kind of resistance going in, the input shaft will not go back in. I think the pressure plate bolts take around 20ish ft/lbs to tighten up."

Taken from:
http://web.archive.org/web/200802251...lt1clutch.html

 

You need to re-align the clutch disc to the pilot bearing until the alignment tool slides in effortlessly as stated above.

 

So should I loosen the pressure plate bolts and put the alignment tool in and out until it is effortless and then torque down the pressure plate bolts?

Just trying to get some clarification on this before I proceed again tonight. I usually just put the tool in through the throwout bearing, pressure plate, clutch disk, mount it to flywheel and torque it down, then pull out the alignment tool.

 

Do your first statement. Just loosen the PP bolts enough, then get everything aligned with the tool then slowly tighten the PP bolts. Do the PP bolts in small incriments criss-crossing the PP as you tighten them to have it go in straight. Similar to how you torque cylinder head bolts.

 

Finally got that thing in!!!

First I removed the bellhousing, fifth time, loosened up the pp plate, ran the tranny into the pp plate/clutch disc all the way till it wouldnt go anymore. Then I measured the distance between where the end of the tranny should be to where the bellhousing mounts, the gap in between...about ~4.8x inches. Measured the bellhousing depth...5 inches. This told me that the tranny would in fact go all the way through. Tightened down the pp plate while tranny was still in there, rotating the engine to reach more difficult bolts. Rolled tranny out, torqued down the pp plate. Reinserted tranny just to make sure it was still good. Rolled it out bolted on the bellhousing then proceeded to reinsert tranny. This time it felt a little different but still ended up being about an inch or so off again. The holes however lined up so I put 3 on the left and 2 on the right finger tight. Light push on the back of the tranny and bam, magically went in. I was just shocked, but extremely relieved.

When I looked through the pp plate/clutch disc hole after the tranny was in there I noticed it wasn't exactly straight through, the clutch disc was a bit off but thats how the tranny wanted it oddly enough. I never even bothered to use the clutch alignment tool this time. I just wanted to thank you guys for the help. The bottom of the car seemed like my second home for awhile and I was starting to have nightmares and thoughts of rolling the car off a cliff.

Thanks again sorry for the long post hopefully it will help someone else who's in the same situation.