On 26 Jul 2018 17:50:07 GMT, Clare Snyder wrote:

I'm stuck. Do people normally have to rotate the transmission shaft?
How do you rotate it?

Stick the driveshaft in.

Hi Clare,
I didn't think of that!

Thanks for all your help, as you are helping me UNDERSTAND what I'm doing!

Anyway, yet again, your answer came too late, but it's good to know as I
would have asked why on earth people said to put the transmission in the
high (fifth) gear, since that's the *only* step where it's needed (any gear
works fine for the rest of the transmission job).

I tried to use pliers on the shaft on the back of the transmission but
there's absolutely zero chance you'll spin it that way.

What I ended up doing was loosening the straps on the transmission jack and
then putting my head way back at the differential, and my feet on the back
of the transmission and I jiggled the transmission like it was a bowl of
jello.

When I went forward to look at the effect, voila, the bolts were lined up
and slid onto my two 17mm diameter threaded 3-inch dowels (which were a
Godsend, where I'm super happy that I machined them!).

I didn't use any loctite because I want to put all the bolts in first, and
then snug them up, and then remove one by one, to loctite blue when I'm
actually ready to torque them.

At this point, I don't have any questions as I'm just at the stage of
putting back the myriad bolts and sensors and fluid.

I have two now-old questions that I would love more detail on, both of
which are about "alignment" of the transmission shaft.

1. When I put on the clutch plate and diaphragm, I stuck the plastic
alignment tool in and then pulled it out when I was ready to put in the
transmission. What did I do by sticking that plastic tool in? I didn't
notice anything happening whatsoever. If I didn't use the alignment tool,
what would have happened? (I don't get what tool did.)

2. When I got stuck in the last inch or two on the transmission, I didn't
know why it wouldn't go that last inch. I thought of what it could be and
the most likely was that I was off center with the flywheel but it could
also have been maybe that the splines weren't lined up? If the splines
weren't lined up, would that stop the clutch from going in, or, would they
just line themselves up while I jiggled (something in that jiggling worked,
but what)?

I must repeat that neither of those two questions is critical because I'm
past that stage, but I'm curious about what exactly is aligned by the
plastic tool, and whether the splines in the end will line up on their own
with just jiggling or if the drive shaft is needed.

If the drive shaft is needed, it must only twist a teeny tiny amount,
because how much twisting could it take to align those splines (1/16th
inch?).

Pictures later.... got to get back to the job before nightfall.

Thanks for all your help, as you are helping me UNDERSTAND what I'm doing!