I have a 1995 F150 with a 4 speed manual transmission with overdrive. I removed the tranny in order to replace the slave cylinder. While I had it apart decided to replace all clutch components as I had 207,000.00 miles on the original clutch. Got everything installed and torqued down. The only problem I'm having is getting the tranny to slide back in. I have it on a jack. We can get it to a certain point but it won't slip all the way flush and onto the pins. When looking through the access hole on the tranny I can see the slave cylinder tight up against the fingers of the cover assembly. Should the tranny slide up tight or do you get it close then start the bell housing bolts and let them draw it into place? Any helpful hints and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

NEVER NEVER NEVER use bolts to draw a transmission into place. All you end up with is broken ears on the transmission/bellhousing(seen it a million times). Or worse.

Sounds like you got the input through the splines of the disc, but haven't gotten the snout into the pilot bearing. Did you use a dummy shaft to hold disc in proper relation when bolting pressure plate down?? Most newer kits come with a plastic dummy shaft, though they aren't the best it is better then nothing.

Sometimes you can use a couple bolts to hold it in place, then gently press on the clutch pedal as someone wiggles the tranny around. This allows the disc to move and hopefully allow you to get it the rest of the way in. The bad thing is with one piece bell/tranny, that style throw out bearing will be pushing transmission backwards. Using a couple bolts will help, but person will need to release clutch again so you can push it forward. Shouldn't take much. All else fails, pull everything back and carefully look through clutch splines and see if pilot bearing is in the center of hole. If not, then you need to loosen clutch and adjust it.

It falls into the category of Murphys Law. Sometimes it just falls in without looking. Other times it takes 3 men and a baby 2 days of cussing to get lined up. How's your luck????

Really, it's not that big of deal.

I did the clutch in the company 1995 F250. That tranny is nothing to mess with all by yourself(like I did). I used some all thread to help hold everything in line. Once it was in, unscrew the all thread and use bolts.

 

What he says, also you must ensure that the trans is fed into place straight. As you are feeding it into place ensure that there is an even gap all around the bellhousing to engine.
Good luck.

 

Yes I used the little plastic tool that comes with the kit to line everything up. Lowered the trans and double checked it with the tool. Just spent another 3 hours under the darn thing and still can't get it to line up. VERY FRUSTRATING!

 

Try opening the bleeder on the slave cylinder before sliding the transmission up to the block. Another thing to try is to put the transmission in gear and turn the output shaft to align the input shaft splines with the clutch disc. I've also had luck changing the height of the jack slightly to align the transmission/block mating surfaces.

 

I'm sort of red-faced right now after reading the responses above. I did exactly what Freightrain has cautioned you not to do. I started a thread a week ago sort of detailing what I did and some lessoned learned. No one replied to tell me that using the mounting bolts to pull the transmission in, is a big no-no. Maybe those who read it never did this job, so I'll go back and add a cautionary note to that part of my post.

I'll be doing an inspection of the transmission to see if I did any damage; didn't hear any horrific noises so hopefully I was just extremely lucky that I didn't break anything.

Neither the Chilton manual, nor the Ford Service Manual cautioned against this. And nothing detailing how to overcome the pressure plate and slave cylinder resistance. Perhaps it assumes that it is common knowledge that one should not use the mounting bolts, and some other means of getting the surfaces to meet would be left up to the installer.

I did use a 5 and 6 inch long section of all thread to help align the transmission to the block.

When the input shaft was close to the disk, I rotated the drive shaft so the splines were lined up before pushing it in further.

I did contemplate opening the bleeder port to see if it was the resistance culprit; in hindsight, I should have done that. Would it have worked? Maybe, but I'll never know till I have to do it again.

Hopefully the suggestions given will help you with getting the two surfaces to meet up. The next pain in the **** if the crossmember hardware.

 

If you get it evenly up to within less then 1/2" gap, then you have made it through the clutch disc, but NOT the pilot bearing in the rear of crank. If you can see that it is evenly gapped all around, then that usually means the clutch disc is just off center enough to not allow snout to enter bearing. Those plastic spline tools are okay, but usuallly sloppy and you still need to "eyeball" the center to make sure it's close.

If you did try to use a couple bolts to draw it in, that is okay IF IF IF IF IF you are very careful and just use the lightest pressure on a rachet to pull it in. If you have to grunt to make it move.........STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! If the throwout bearing is holding it back, then it shouldn't take any effort to move the bolts. If it is anything else, then you'll likely screw something up if you really crank on the bolts.

I've seen quite a few old toploaders in my day with ears broken off due to just this thing.

Like I mentioned, sometimes they just drop right in.............then there are times you cuss/scream for hours. I've found it best to get up and walk away. Take a break, then try again. Once you clear your mind, it usually comes together.

 

ive never done a trans on a ford. but i agree with everything here.also keep in mind that the motor might have shifted its angle when you pulled the trans out, so you would need to get the right angle on the trans to put it back in.

im lucky, my DD is a cheby s10 with a 5 speed. i just lay on my back with the trans on my chest, and i can push it up and maneuver it into place.

 

I agree, sometimes you just have to stand back and reevaluate the situation. That's one of the reasons why it took me so long to complete my clutch replacement

 

Got everything back together. Started the engine and there is a terrible vibration like some thing is out of balance. The truck is in neutral while doing this. Have not tried to shift it. Any suggestions?

 

Did you replace the flywheel, or is it the same one that was on it before the clutch replacement? Was there any vibration issues prior to the clutch job? How did you get the engine and transmission to line up?

 

New flywheel. When we were trying to get the tranny in we noticed that a wire loom harness had slipped between the tranny and engine at the top of the bell housing. Once we secured that up and out of the way the tranny slid right in. No vibration issues prior to the clutch job. Looking like it has to all come back apart. Not real happy.

 

I'm no expert, but maybe you were sold the wrong flywheel. Hopefully one of our much more knowledgeable members will reply re. the correct flywheel for your engine. Do you know which one you were sold?

 

Just bumping this back up to the top in case you are still having issues with the engine vibration. Hopefully someone will chime in with a suggestion on what could be the cause.

 

Out of curiosity, what was the harness to, and could it have been damaged? May or may not have anything to do with the vibration.