[VXEric]

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of a clutch upgrade (335is clutch & PP going into my 335xi N55, also new DMFW) and cannot for the life of me get the transmission mated back to the engine.

I cut down two of the old aluminum bolts to use as guides and i get it lined up, but it keeps hanging up about 1/2 inch from the bell housing. I tried jacking up the front of the motor as much as i dare (What can I damage if I keep going further?)

My buddy and I have been using a transmission jack and going at it for almost 3 hours and cannot get it any closer. I used the BMW alignment tool from ECS and it slips in and out no problem, though I don't see any possible way to screw that up, even if I didn't use the alignment tool, there's just not that much play.

Any ideas? I am tempted to just get it within 1/2 inch and start putting bolts in to pull it the rest of the way, seems like a bad idea but I don't know what else to try.

TIA!

[drtmvr]

Try rotating the tailshaft as you go in with it

[Hannibal4444]

The same thing happened to me. I ended up kicking the back of the trans until it finally mated

[Efthreeoh]

Just a dumb question, but you did remove the star-shaped pressure plate spring release retainer...????

Is the transmission in neutral? The clutch is locked in place if the pressure plate is released so the splines of the input shaft need to be able to move a little bit to slide into the clutch disk.

[jwalker87]

Did you replace the pilot bearing while you were in there? If so, did you verify that it fits over the transmission input shaft before pressing it into place? (I think this car has a press-in pilot bearing, but I'm not sure, so sorry if this is N/A).

I had the same issue with my Z3M and it ended up that the transmission input shaft was slightly mushroomed, so it would not slip into the pilot bearing. After many hours of struggling, I pulled the pilot bearing back out and discovered the issue. Some emery paper to the input shaft solved the problem, though I also ordered a new pilot bearing just in case I damaged it during removal or the repeated jamming.

I would recommend not using TOO much force when pushing it into place - it should not require it, and the parts that hang up around 1/2 of gap (namely the transmission input shaft and pilot bearing - the gear splines should be long engaged at that point) are not designed for large amounts of force.

[Maestro]

Yep, not easy to get it back in, You have to do some wiggling of the transmission to get it go in. I got it mostly in, and put in the bolts and use them to close up the last of the gap. I think it much easier if you are not laying on your back its is hard to get the exact leverage you need to get it to go in easily.

[VXEric]

Thank you for all of the replies! Really appreciate all the support. I had done everything correctly. I think the motor still shifted despite trying to keep it in place. Tough to get it to stay on an XDrive, not a lot of room to work.

I ended up getting it really close and then using the old aluminum bolts one turn at a time to draw it closer in and eventually sit flush. then i went and installed all the steel bolts, removed the old aluminum ones and replaced with the new ones, then torqued everything down.

After that, reassembly was pretty easy. Only other word of advice i would give to others is to pay close attention to the slave cylinder when it goes back in. i didn't put mine in squarely and it missed the clutch fork. First time I hit the clutch the piston popped out. i re-built it and it worked ok, but ended up replacing the slave cylinder this weekend as a precaution because I wasn't sure what kind of damage had been done.

All in all it was a pain project, not hard, just a lot of steps and not a lot of room to work without a proper lift. Would never have attempted it without all the info available here!