need help w/ m50d-r1 install

[revg62]

1st post here,great site! 2000 ranger 3.0 l 5 spd. manual tranny.replaced clutch,pressure plate,pilot bearing,slave cylinder & to bearing.i aligned with tool per haynes manual & can't stab this sob back in to save my life! bought a transmission jack & even purchased some 12mm bolts that i cut the heads off of to use as alignment studs but it just won't go in.removed the clutch disk & pressure plate to make sure nothing was wrong with the pilot bearing/shaft,it slid right in.so,i reinstalled with the alignment tool & torqured to spec.what has me wondering is i called luk (mfr.) help line & plead my case.they asked if the slave cylinder came with a strap to hold the spring back (no!).it appears that the bearing is touching the fingers on the pressure plate before the shaft ever gets to the pilot bearing.do i have to compress this spring as well as line up the splines at the same time? any ideas,knowledge or tricks would be appreciated! i'm getting too old for this s**t! thanks,revg62.

 

[HareRazor]

I have never had an issue that I had to compress the spring on the on the slave cylinder to get the transmission in there. It usually does take some wiggling to get the transmission shaft lined up with the splines on the clutch disk and into the pilot bearing. I don't use any bolts or anything to get the transmission lined up or anything either.

 

[revg62]

thanks,i'm going to try again this weekend.when i called luk,they told me there was shipping strap that's supposed to break the first time you depress the pedal,then remove.trouble is,the slave cylinder came without the bearing installed (bearing in clutch kit).i'm still open to suggestions! revg62

 

[Hotrodlincoln]

Did you make sure they sent you the correct disc? That happened to a friend of mine once. They put the wrong disc in the clutch kit, the splines were wrong so it wouldn't go on the input shaft.

Another thought, When you put the pressure plate on, are you holding the alignment tool in the center? If you let it go it will sag enough to keep the input shaft from lining up with the pilot bearing.

 

[revg62]

update

i tried again this evening,still giving me trouble.i removed the slave cylinder & everything went together without much trouble,i did slip the driveshaft back into the tranny & put it in gear so i could align the splines on shaft & clutch disk.was able to get 1 bolt snug so that tells me there's no issues with splines,alignment or pilot bearing.i did make a mark on the shaft with a sharpie,then pulled it back down & reinstalled the slave cylinder.the mark is well past the splines on the shaft so tomorrow i'll try to figure a way to compress the spring while trying to stab it.thanks,revg62.

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

1st post here,great site! 2000 ranger 3.0 l 5 spd. manual tranny.replaced clutch,pressure plate,pilot bearing,slave cylinder & to bearing.i aligned with tool per haynes manual & can't stab this sob back in to save my life! bought a transmission jack & even purchased some 12mm bolts that i cut the heads off of to use as alignment studs but it just won't go in.removed the clutch disk & pressure plate to make sure nothing was wrong with the pilot bearing/shaft,it slid right in.so,i reinstalled with the alignment tool & torqured to spec.what has me wondering is i called luk (mfr.) help line & plead my case.they asked if the slave cylinder came with a strap to hold the spring back (no!).it appears that the bearing is touching the fingers on the pressure plate before the shaft ever gets to the pilot bearing.do i have to compress this spring as well as line up the splines at the same time? any ideas,knowledge or tricks would be appreciated! i'm getting too old for this s**t! thanks,revg62.

you should NOT have to compress that spring.. you just didn't put it on all the way. once its on far enough it will snap into place and stay put. try pushing the bearing down further. if it doesn't click and stay find out why

 

[revg62]

finally!

thanks to all who responded,i finally got it together.i ended up using a thin piece of wire around the slave cylinder with the spring compressed.once i bolted the tranny back up,i cut the wire & pulled it out the inspection hole.i used my mityvac pump to bleed system,all seems well.now all i need to do is find some gaskets for the exhaust & i should be good to go.again,thanks.revg62.