Cant get the manual transmission to line back up

[SWRT]

Ok, so my friend Bryan and I dropped the transmission yesterday
on the 92 Festiva. It's a 5 speed. We dropped the trans, replaced
the rear main seal, the clutch, pressure plate, pilot bearing and
throwout bearing. Now it's time to reattach it and it seems the
engine has moved backwards. We have it suspended from an
engine hoist and it still has the passenger side motor mount
attached, but every time we try and put the trans back onto
the engine side it ends up hitting the power steering rack or
wont line up. Not sure if the splines are having an issue. Is there
an easier way to get the engine into the correct position? The
crossmember holds the trans as well so we cant really put that
in yet. We've tried having one person try and position the trans
that's on a jack and the other person pull the hoist towards the
front of the car. It ends up lifting the engine too high. If anyone
has any ideas that would be awesome! Thanks, guys!

[htchbck]

The engine should be lowered down as far as you can without hitting the crank pulley on the frame rail. Gives plenty of room for installing the trans. Not sure why it would be hitting the steering rack unless the drivers side of the engine hanging on the hoist has moved rearward a good bit. Sounds like the input shaft may not be centering in the pilot bearing, did your clutch kit come with an alignment tool? If not you can easily make a simple one out of a 6" 3/8 socket extension and some electrical tape, by wrapping the extension on the end until it smoothly and snuggly fits the pilot bearing hole, then doing the same thing to fit the splines of the clutch disc.

[SWRT]

Yeah, for some reason when it's all the way lowered it moves towards the
firewall. When the hoist gets lifted it pulls the engine forward, but makes it
too high to fit the trans in.

Yeah, it may not be going through the pilot bearing. It's hard to tell, but it does
feel like it's hanging up internally rather than catching on something outside whenever
we pull it as far forward as we can. Yeah, it came with the alignment tool and when I
put the clutch/pressure plate on I used that to make sure the clutch was centered
and tightened down the pressure plate so I'm confident that's in the right spot. We
left the CV axles on because I believe whenever you take them off the trans fluid
will come out, right? Maybe we should just remove the CV axles? It didnt seem to
be hanging up on them, but it may be throwing it out of balance and rotating it
slightly or something.

[Movin]

twist - turn CV's back and forth to help splines engage instead of locking up. Lots of wiggling and pushing is a good thing for exercise and it helps get the tranny in..win win lol.

Maybe loosen the clutch back up and walk the alignment tool around then find center of the travel it allows. Gravity is your enemy here it will hold the disk at the bottom of the range of motion allowed by the tool. A free tool should work perfect right? lol

[SWRT]

Well that's a pretty good idea. I was planning to turn the crank to align it, but
that may end up working better.

Sure, may as well try it. It's easy enough to get to right now and the torque
was something like 18 ftlbs or something small. I'll check and make sure it's
centered. And you're dang right it should! I may just throw a line of electrical
tape around it on the bearing side and get it as snug as possible. Thanks for
the tips so far guys

[Flyin4stroke]

The key for the alignment tool is making sure you can wiggle to tool around in the splines while you are tightening the clutch. Check periodically while tightening the clutch bolts that the tool moves freely in and out. Sometimes people will hang the clutch on the tool and think it fine but really it's angled and won't allow the input shaft to slide in.

[bravekozak]

I had a little trouble getting mine to line up too. But, that was out on a big piece of cardboard on the lawn. It finally snapped together. Good luck with it in the engine compartment.

[SWRT]

I'm guilty of that. I'll probably be working on it again tomorrow so I'll give this a shot.

BraveKozak: Well...crap haha Thanks, though

[koRnhead]

Well worst comes to worst. Since you have a hoist. Pull the motor and put it together then reinstall.

[shadetree]

If you left the axles in the trans then the dust shield is catching on the passenger side axle cup . It's going to be almost Impossible unless you trim the shield .

[SWRT]

Korn: Thought about that. Would it be a huge pain to drop them back in together?


They seemed to clear the hubs ok as far as I remember. I'd honestly rather pull the hub assemblies than the CV axles though. I'm trying to do it all as cheap as I can for the guy. In case I can't, what would be the trans fluid I'd need? And what is the fluid capacity?

[drddan]

ATF and about 4 qts. The speedo gear, that the speedo cable attaches to, is the dipstick. Remove the 10mm bolt that holds the gear to the trans and remove gear.

DO NOT PRY ON THE TAB that the screw goes through. It will break. Remove gear by twisting and pulling up with pliers.
There are 2 marks on the side of the gear housing, lo and full. keep between those marks and good luck

This post may have comments to use some other fluid like gear oil. DONT! ATF or syncromesh is best. ATF comes stock in festys and gives better mileage. Festy's have driven 400,000 on trans with ATF

[koRnhead]

Idk, pull the axles and slide it in.....this is why I prefer pulling the motor to do the clutch. And just leave the Trans in the car.
And yes, 4 quarts of atf as cheap as you can find will be fine and you're back rolling.

[htchbck]

CVs will have to be removed, or the plate between the engine and transmission notched. I say pull the axles. If you are very very worried about pinching pennies on this and can't afford $10 for some new trans fluid, use a catch pan and recover what is already in the trans and reuse. But fighting the axles is definitely not helping any, and probably the cause for a lot of your grief.

[SWRT]

Funny, I read ATF was pretty confused. I've always thrown 75w-90 in my Subaru's
and that's some much heavier stuff. I suppose he wont mind spending some on trans
fluid. I could probably pick up a few quarts.

For what it's worth I told him to pull the engine first, but he started it on his own
thinking the trans would be easier, then I got roped in haha

Thanks for all the help, guys Gonna try re-aligning the clutch tonight, then I'll
drop the axles and do the fluid change and hopefully he'll have a fully operational
car by the end of the night.