[NA8] reaching transmission bellhousing upper passenger side bolt
 

How the fuck do you reach this thing? I'm going to give it a shot from the top-side tomorrow (remove the coilpack) but I'm not sure that'll work.

Extensions plus impact for the others were no-go: I had to breaker-bar all the rest so whatever monkey at the shop did this job last (engine replaced 6 years ago) torqued the piss out of everything.

Any and all feedback/advice appreciated.
Thanks.

I go at it from the top with a wrench, same with the other side.
swivel joint and a couple long extensions would probably work from undeath

From underneath, rattlegun, extensions, and a swivel joint. First off, last on for me.

Never felt the need to explore options.

Holy hell, I didn’t even realize it was possible to get at the top ones from the engine bay with a wrench. You learn something new every day

But yeah, what Gee said. Hella extensions and a swivel. Much easier with a stubby socket than a long one.

Turns out, rattlegun (Ryobi 500ftlb) plus 11 inch extension and swivel head was all I needed to get to the bolt from the bottom. Just need to give a shoutout to Harbor Freight's Icon extension set: it may be 40 bucks and cost 4x more than the Pittsburg set, but holy shit this BBC is thicc and transmits torque like a mofo.

Even with the coilpack off, I'm not sure there's enough clearance from the top and if you've got the coolant reroute, there's ZERO chance as that hose is in the way. But regardless, highly recommend taking off the coilpack anyways because it gives you way more light.

If you unhook the PPF, you can use a jack to jack up the back of the trans to push the engine forward. Then you can sort of get to the top bolts from the top. I generally just use a ton of extensions and a big impact gun. Once you do it once or twice, it gets a ton easier.

DUMB QUESTION that I'm hoping I'll get a response in time as folks are waking up to their coffee and morning poo.

Is it safe to put the transmission in gear dry and out of the car? Or is it even possible? I'm figuring I'll bolt the stick back in and try to slot in first.

I'm having a hell of a time getting the fucker to mate back to the bellhousing. I'm also wondering if having solid motor mounts (949 Supermiata, duh) is reducing how much I can tilt the motor from jacking the front.

I’m lost, you want to put the shifter on before trying to mate the bell housing to the engine?

I’ve got Supermiata poly mounts too and have noticed that my motor will tilt forward without the trans installed, making it near impossible to mate up the bell housing with the block. This might be your issue.

I used to just have a helper push the engine rearward for me while installing the trans, but have now cut up a piece of wood that I place between the top of my radiator and front water neck to keep the motor from tilting forward. Not ideal, but it’s small enough that it puts minimal weight on the radiator. I haven’t had an issue with it.

That being said, I could’ve interpreted your problem wrong. Let us know why you want to get the sucker in gear.

In searching for tips for getting this thing back together people recommended putting it in gear. My understanding is that keeping the transmission from spinning (?) helps with spinning the crank/flywheel into the right place. I'm pretty retarded so I could have easily misunderstood this recommendation.

I had not thought of using a block of wood to hold engine in the right place, but that makes sense. I always use a floor jack under the front of the oil pan and jack up the engine there to tilt it back and hold it roughly in place. Getting the trans in is just a ton of wiggling and luck. Having a trans jack helps out a ton holding up weight while you work on jiggling it in.

Hahaha, all good. I figured I'd check just in case I was missing something. I haven't had an issue with installing the trans in neutral before but I see what that's trying to accomplish. You can shift the transmission dry with it out of the car no problem. Just push the shift rod with a pry bar. I've never had an issue installing the transmission in neutral, though.

Yeah, I was going to add, jacking it up by the front of the oil pan is probably a better idea. I'd do that if I didn't have an undertray. I've always done mine on a lift with a trans jack and the outcome is still pretty luck-dependent.

I often use a 3/8 extension in the shifter hole to put it in gear, and I have a cut off yoke in the tail shaft to keep it from leaking. With it in gear, spin this and it’ll rotate the input to line up. Youll know you’re in when you can no longer spin it. However in my experience, the splines line up easier than the dowels and/or pilot bearing, and you’re most likely having issues with one of those.

Wednesday afternoon playing hooky sitrep:

I believe I'm hitting the pilot bearing: I can see that about half an inch of grease on the spline is displaced, so it's obviously engaging and I'm stuck elsewhere. What other dowels or pins would there be?

Going to hunt in the rain for some wood as I've maxed out my floorjack pushing the front of the motor.

Okay it's pilot bearing alignment -- was about an 1/8 or so south the datum. Christ if you can't trust the tool what do you trust? Anyone have a spare spline shaft I can borrow...?

OKAY so homie is mated cleanly, but as the tip went through the pilot bearing, a bunch of oil started dripping from the fork hole on the trans. Bellhousing was clean before so I didn't touch the rear main seal and the fluid was extremely fresh so I assume it's a bit left over that didn't fully drain from the trans.

How screwed am I here??

Sounds like you might have fubared the trans input shaft seal. Should probably do the rear main and input shaft seals when you are in there unless you have change them recently or go in there often. Probably needs to come back out.

^^^
Sad after so much struggle but it has to come back out. There is no legitimate "healthy seals" reason you should get oil out of the bell housing, especially as high up as where the shift fork passes through.
When you put it on again, the angle between engine and transmission is everything, when it comes to mating them. And it is hard because the tolerance on that angle is not very large.
Tilt the engine down at the back. I like to put a block of wood between subframe and oil pan, but I always remove the under tray.

Yeah, it's a bummer, I'm way over my head on this project but I accept the risks. Only way to learn, right?

The flywheel/pilot bearing would've protected the rear main seal and the rest of the engine, right?

The transmission dumped a bit more oil overnight, but my question here is: where did it come from? Replacing the input shaft seal looks pretty straight-forward, but given how more oil came out, will filling from the standard trans fill hole get juice to where that seal was sealing them? Or is there another fill hole or some other 'priming' procedure?

Thanks again guys for all your help.

Just one fill hole. Can also fill through the shifter I believe.
Input shaft seal will be your fix here, can't imagine anything else

Filling through the turret is only for the 6 speeds.