PCM351 to PCM40i lining up the transmission shaft to damper drive plate on flywheel

[trayson]

So, I've read a handful of ways that people try to make sure the transmission input shaft lines up with the damper drive plate on the flywheel. I've read about how people leave the bolts loose on the damper drive plate and then get into the bellhousing with some myriad of extensions and u-joints. I am not that much of a contortionist.

So, my idea was to use a clutch alignment tool. Here's the rub. The input shaft on the transmission is a 15 spline 1" shaft. It'd damn unique. I tried to buy one that was for a 90's ford 351 and it was the wrong spline and diameter. We found that the only other common application for a 15 spline 1-inch was Ford tractors and back hoes. :confused: So, we ended up with a universal clutch alignment pilot tool.

http://paceperformance.com/images/F31105054.jpg
http://paceperformance.com/i-5926931-cta6125-universal-clutch-alignment-tool-kit.html

The crazy thing is that the piece that fit into the hole on the engine side was too big to fit through the hole in the middle of the splines on the damper drive plate. What we ended up doing was taking the next size down (that would fit through the hole in the damper drive plate) and then temporarily increasing it's diameter by wrapping it with electrical tape. then when the damper drive plate was bolted on, we pulled the alignment tool back and basically pulled and twisted enought that the electrical tape gave way and let us get our tool back through the smaller hole. Lots of problem solving last night.

I thought I'd pass on this info because even with the "electrical tape" rigging, I still think that buying the $20 tool makes for a much more successful install than trying to tighten those bolts by reaching your arm through the starter hole of the bell housing.

[trayson]

EDIT: I've since realized that the proper solution would have been to buy a brass pilot bearing and hammered that into the hole that's is in the crank shaft at the end of the engine. That would have allowed for a smaller diameter bushing to be used on the alignment tool and eliminated the "electrical tape" redneck engineering.

And there was a question on why even bother to do this. On my damper plate, there is some variability in how you could mount it. I.E. the holes in the plate where it mounts to the flywheel allowed for a bit of play so there were varying degrees of being "centered". Obviously, if you just threw the damper plate on and it wasn't dead on centered on the flywheel, then it would cause your tranny input shaft to rotate in an eliptical orbit and would tear up your transmission.