WTF is the trick to mate the motor to the tranny?

[RangerGress]

Spent a couple hrs last night trying to get my motor back into my car. My buddy and I couldn't quite get the motor to mate up. The last 3/4" kicked my ass. Unless someone comes up with a killer idea, I'm going to pull the transmission and mate the two outside of the car.

When we swapped motors at the track a couple months ago, a group of very knowledgeable E30 guys mated the two up in 5min. So there has to be a trick to it, I figure.

[323I Junkie]

Check your pilot bearing, make sure it is not damaged.
Make sure your clutch is aligned dead center//

Make sure the center lines from your crank front to back and mainshaft front to back are perfectly aligned...



its harder to mate a motor to a trans than mate a trans to a motor

[Rigmaster]

get a new buddy.





Seriously, like the junkie said, they have to mate up almost perfectly for the tranny input shaft to slide thru the center of the clutch disc- so make 100000000% sure that is aligned correctly before you even try to mate them up.


If you're getting close, but it's not quite right, you can put the tranny in gear and turn the output flange a bit while trying to get them to mate up, sometimes that's all it takes for the 2 to slide together.


Other than that, make sure the engine is at the right height, and the right angle- both up and down AND side to side.

[87ethirty]

The weight of the transmission on the motor tilts the motor back so when you slide it off it's at the right angle. Once the transmission is off the motor it rocks back forward.

To put my transmission back in I jacked up the motor from the oil pan and tilted it forward until I was able to slide the transmission back on.

[RangerGress]

Engine is in. Problem turned out to be the clutch alignment all right. It looked ok looking at the hole in the center, but by looking at the perimeter of the clutch disk I could see that I was off by a couple mm. I fixed that and then was able to put the motor back in and mate it up by myself without too much trouble.

So tomorrow night I should be ready for a test start

[thejlevie]

Yippee! I sincerely hope the engine runs well.

Before trying to crank it spend a few minutes double checking all of the harness connections to make sure everything is correctly connected. And triple check to make sure that you filled the engine with oil and coolant.

[imprttuner88]

good job! I was gonna suggest a clutch alignment tool was probobally all you needed.

[323I Junkie]

I have this huge keyring of tools...about twenty. I should have marked them so I just try one until it mates up with the input shaft..