Installing transmission for 3 hours, still stuck. 0.75" Gap, pilot bearing?

[M-technik-3]

I used vice grips to close the gap between the engine an the bellhousin flange.

Edit: as soon as you can start getting those bolts on too

Force is not the answer, obviously there is an issue whether it's the imput shaft or the angle you are using or the pilot bearing.

[drumad]

True. Didn't say it was end all be all, his bearing looks to be fine and I'm sure he didn't fubar the clutch disk alignment. If anything, undo everything, remove the bearing and try again.

[rcfanatic]

ok, so the best I could get was about 0.510" of clearance. So I removed the transmission, went to Lowes and bought a 15/16" socket to drive the bearing in.

Before removing the pressure plate I checked with the alignment tool and the clutch was still in alignment. I removed the PP and clutch, pressed the bearing in an extra 0.510", and reassembled clutch and PP.

After this it took me about 15-20 minutes to get the transmission to where the bolts would finally grab the threads on the engine side and then pull the transmission the rest of the way on.

So I'm going out on a limb and saying that it was the pilot bearing not seated far enough

[rcfanatic]

One last question

*** How do you hold the nut in place for the top starter bolt?? Somehow I got lucky and it came undone by itself when removing the transmission.

Any tips on how to reach this? I put the nut in a 5" box end wrench and using two fingers I was able to lay the wrench in place working from underneath, but I can barely maneuver it and have no idea where it is in respect to the bolt.

[erik325i]

One last question

*** How do you hold the nut in place for the top starter bolt?? Somehow I got lucky and it came undone by itself when removing the transmission.

Any tips on how to reach this? I put the nut in a 5" box end wrench and using two fingers I was able to lay the wrench in place working from underneath, but I can barely maneuver it and have no idea where it is in respect to the bolt.

First stick the bolt through the hole. Then, reach up there and hold the nut in place with your fingers. Put your socket with a u-joint on a long extension and tighten the bolt into the nut.
You might not be able to hold your fingers on the nut and tighten the bolt. If that's the case, get a friend to help you out.

[rcfanatic]

First stick the bolt through the hole. Then, reach up there and hold the nut in place with your fingers. Put your socket with a u-joint on a long extension and tighten the bolt into the nut.
You might not be able to hold your fingers on the nut and tighten the bolt. If that's the case, get a friend to help you out.

Yeah can't fit my hand in there. I can fit two fingers up adjacent to the solenoid, but there is no way I can fit my hand over the top and further toward the center of the car where that starter nut is.

Would it work to remove the intake manifold and go from the top? Pelican parts suggests this in an article about an e36 m50

[erik325i]

Yeah can't fit my hand in there. I can fit two fingers up adjacent to the solenoid, but there is no way I can fit my hand over the top and further toward the center of the car where that starter nut is.

Would it work to remove the intake manifold and go from the top? Pelican parts suggests this in an article about an e36 m50

You should be able to reach it from underneath. I can do it, and my hands are large. Is your transmission still hanging down?

[rcfanatic]

You should be able to reach it from underneath. I can do it, and my hands are large. Is your transmission still hanging down?

Transmission is still hanging down. I tried raising and lowering the engine to see which would allow me more room but neither was adequate. Also, the engine is no longer seated on the subframe, in fact from all of the raising/lowering both motor mounts sit flush in front of where they should

[rcfanatic]

If anything it seems like this would open up more room by having the engine forward

[KenC]

What is supporting the engine right now?


You shouldn't have to "suck" the transmission on with the tranny bolts. It should slide in nice and flush. The fact that your engine isn't sitting properly now either makes me think that something is still wrong. Did you put any grease on the input shaft?

[rcfanatic]

What is supporting the engine right now?


You shouldn't have to "suck" the transmission on with the tranny bolts. It should slide in nice and flush. The fact that your engine isn't sitting properly now either makes me think that something is still wrong. Did you put any grease on the input shaft?

From the best I can tell, the engine is supported by the engine mounts, they just aren't aligned normally. I used lots of grease on the input shaft where it inserts into the pilot bearing, and where the throwout bearing rides. Also between the release fork and throwout bearing, and on the inside of the throwout where it rides on the shaft. Guess I should have lubed the splines as well..

[rcfanatic]

I didn't have to apply substantial torque to the bolts for the transmission to mate up.. so it's not like anything was binding. It just provided me a way to uniformly seat the tranny from all around the bellhousing.

Before I pressed the pilot bearing in further, the transmission sprung back after trying to use clamps (with substantial torque).. so in that case there was binding, which is why I reevaluated the bearing

[Adrian_Visser]

Hearing about you guys using clamps and vicegrips to get the tranny to mate up makes me cringe, as long as you don't throw the clutch alignment off while you're installing the tranny it should slide almost the whole way on with little effort, the last 1/4" or so it will kind of spring back but forcing it before then is asking to damage something.

[rcfanatic]

Hearing about you guys using clamps and vicegrips to get the tranny to mate up makes me cringe, as long as you don't throw the clutch alignment off while you're installing the tranny it should slide almost the whole way on with little effort, the last 1/4" or so it will kind of spring back but forcing it before then is asking to damage something.

I agree it made me cringe too.. but it was the best way I could think of to determine if something was binding. Only clamped it about 0.100" to ensure that I didn't ruin anything in the process

[drumad]

iono.. I'm about 1000 miles in on this new clutch and all is fine? No vibrations or alignment issues. haha. My engine mounts were shot so shoving the tranny towards the engine wouldnt work since the mounts would give and render my force useless.

Plus I had the rear of the tranny being held up by a rope from the interior. The clamps allowed me to effective just push the shaft into the bushing directly vs having the engine move.

I probably shouldve explained that I wasnt exactly forcing it to hard with the vice grips. Just using it to effectively do what I said above.

edit: if the vice grips didnt insert the shaft so easily I wouldnt have went further with it btw.