that felt good :sigh: i just needed to vent, I'm kinda stuck on that right now, partly becuz i have had to lift the tranny and align it with my bare hands( keep in mind my car is 2 feet off the ground too!). Its resting on a jackstand right now, and its an inch from the block, but it wond't line up and go on! I remember this last time as being the hardest part.

 

If pushing and twisting won't work then try pushing it up and down while you push in.

 

idea.......

that is a most dreadful part...what works for me is to leave the header on the car but not connected anywhere but the engine ....then what you do is pull down on it, it should angle the flywheel downward ....I then usually stick a piece of wood between the header and the car to keep it at that angle....this makes it easier to match up the bell housing to the engine and it also makes the higher bolts easier to get to.

 

yeah, i just did this the other day when doing the front seal on my trans (and aluminum flywheel etc..). The two things I find help the most are having the clutch disc *perfectly* centered, and attaching the engine hoist to the front of the motor, and lifting it til the motor tweaks back. Another thing I did was used some rope through the hole for the shifter, and wrapped it around the back of the trans (extension housing), then using a 2x2xfoot or so accross the center console where the shifter was, I wind up the rope lifting the rear of the trans until the part where the shifer mounts is nearly in contact with the top of the torque tunnel, then I C clamp the rope to the 2x2 so it won't unroll. Then it's just a matter of getting under the car, and lifting the front of the transmission / guiding it into the clutch disc and pilot bearing. There are a few pictures my procedure available here:

http://pengaru.com/~swivel/public_ht...x7/04-16-2002/



it's the last five images in the directory listing.



BTW, It's a good idea to change the front seal (gasket and rubber seal) on the trans before you put it back in, especially if you find yourself fumbling about trying to get it aligned with alot of stresss on the input shaft. The old seal will start leaking shortly after you have the trans installed if you don't change it and have applied some load to the input shaft while installing it moving it around and making the old seal leak (yes, i'm speaking from experience, I learned this the hard way )