Mark Hubley

I replaced my clutch, and I have everything back in place except the exhaust system. I also have one other pressing issue: I have not been able to slide into place the coupler that joins the transmission input shaft to the drive shaft. Right now it is slid toward the back of the car onto the input shaft. I need to slide it forward over the rear end of the drive shaft.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I just need to be willing to lie under the car working at it until I get it right?

I have tightened all the bolts that link the transmission to the chassis and the torque tube. I figured this would help line up the two shafts. Perhaps I should loosen the transmission to get some play???

Mark

BlueDog944

Are the bolts completly out of the coupler? Make sure the coupler is aligned. On mine (just did this exact job yesterday) you couldn't bolt the trans up in place without the coupler starting to mate onto the driveshaft. Were both splines clean when you put the couple back in place? Its a tight fit and just a little crap in there can make it tough. Did you put a little assembly grease on it as well?

If you're sure everything is aligned, clean and proper, you might try an adjustable wrench open enough to fit about the center part of the couple and slide to give it a few "love taps" on the clamp to see if it just needed a little encouragement to start.

theedge

IIRC, I had to use a pry bar to get mine moving.

JimV8

I had a bugger of a time until I loosened the four transaxle bolts a bit. Then it was a bitch trying to get the bolts into the coupler, thats were the prybar came in. Bugger and bitch were them mildest words used that day.

DDP

Use some lub and a pry bar. With all the bolts in the housing together it should be lined up and slide right on.

tod84944

Like was stated above, you will have to loosen the 4 bolts that bolt the tranny to the torque tube. Then use a pry bar to push it on. Of the clutch jobs I have done over the years, I have to do that sometimes.

Mark Hubley

Thanks guys! Before posting, I tried prying with a long socket wrench, and I got nowhere. After reading your posts, I got out my heavy duty pry bar (about 2.5 feet long) and used that. The coupler slid on right away.

Tonight I'll put new bolts in to connect the downpipe to the exhaust headers, and start her up to see if it all works again! Cross your fingers . . .

Mark

Scootin159

btw...the bolts should thread easily. If they don't, double check that the coupler is in the EXACT right spot (i.e. front-to-back). Mine was off just a little, and one bolt went in fine, but the other just stripped out about halfway in.

You shouldn't hit much resistance until the head of the bolt is up against the coupler, if you hit resistance before that, try adjusting the coupler a mm forward or back.

schwank

Let's just say that during my clutch job I found the teeth on the inside of that coupler were shot due to drivetrain lash caused by failed rubber center clutch.

You DO NOT want to find out how much that stupid coupler costs. Trust me.