Ok I got the whole A15 engine in my car type thing going on. It's attached a standard A12 gearbox.
Well at least it was until I went to change the clutch last week.
And I 'll be buggered if I can get the son of bitch gear box back onto the back of the motor.
Keeps hitting the floor. I have banged it out a bit to try to get it to fit in easier. Still wont go in.
Loosened the brackets on the engine mounts and put a jack up under the front of the engine pulley to angle the back of the gearbox downwards.
Still wont go on.
Anyway, my plan now is to unbolt the engine from the engine mounts and attach the engine to a crane and fully angle it downwards.
Anyway, it is just *%$#ing me so much cos having to borrow my mums cars kinda sucks quite a bit...
Anyone else have this problem?

Oh yeah I took the gearbos cross member off and the reverse switch as well.
My friend and I have such sore shoulders and arms from trying to put the gearbox in for aroudn 3 hours or so...

2 Guys 3 hrs and still not in. lol
Ahh the joys of a manual tunnel!

It is a bitch hey. On mine I jacked up the front of the engine until I could get a better angle on the gearbox.
One thing Dattodude pointed out to me once when he was telling me about how fit a gearbox on a CA18 in a 1200 was to undo the crossmember bolts and lower everything.
This should work on your car too.

One other thing, when you checked that the clutch you got off the other engine was the same, did you check that the splines on the clutch plate mesh with the gearbox splines? I am sure you would have.

But really it is a pain in the arse to fit with that tunnel, you should be lineing the box up then pushing it forwards, but it sounds to me like you are just going to far forwards and then the input shaft is getting caught on the clutch pressure plate. Just take your time and line it up then push and if its not going , bring it back move it a bit to the side or up and down then push forwards again.

3 hrs lol.

Did you remember to take the gear shift lever out? That guy poking up would make it difficult to put it in!

Damn gearstick!
Forgot about that!


Nah I have no idea why it wont go in. My dad said that the maechanics who put it in last time said it would have been really hard to do on just ramps. And that it took them a lot of effort to put it in. But I guess they had more of an idea what they were doing and more strength and like proper tools or some other things...

I could fit the standard A12 4-speed in without undoing the motor mounts. Like phunkdoktaspok, I only jacked up the front of the engine a little to angle it. But that was with the A12 engine. Your A14 might be sitting a little higher up and you may well need to unbolt the engine mounts. Using a scissor jack on the front and back of the engine (with a block of wood across the pan) will work if you don't have crane -- and you won't have to remove the hood.

If you did not use a "pilot shaft" to align the clutch plate before attempting to put the tranny up, stop and go get one. They sell cheap plastic ones at the auto parts places. The problem fitting a tranny is usually the shaft fitting the clutch splines. If it goes most of the way up to the block, but not the last inch, it may be the fitting into the pilot bushing. The piilot shaft will pre-align everything.

Yeah i forgot to say about lining up the clutch plate itself, before you tighten the pressure plate bolts. You can get that tool ddgonzal talks of or like i did with an old busted gearbox i cut the input shaft off and now use it to line up clutches

here's my tip for the day...
after i have the trans positioned under the car, ready to lift into place, I'll install the drive shaft. If the splines on the input shaft don't mesh, its easier to turn the driveshaft than it is to lower the trans, turn the input shaft, up, down, up...
Make sure the drive shaft doesnt hit anything as you are raising the trans.

my tip for the day is to support the gearbox with a trolly jack it makes it alot easer to suport the box while twisting the box around to line up the input sharft

Wohoo! I got the gearbox in. I eneded up using the engine crane thingy to do it.
Adn now I am happy. It isn't driving yet because I have to buy some stuff from the shops for our Xmas eve party at our house, but the rest should all be easy.
I was going to go buy some more metal and remake my engine mount spacers, but it is 4:57PM on Xmas eve so the metal shop probably isn't open.

Anyway gearbox is bolted to back of engine


Now I do the HAppy dance...
Hopefully running car before new year.

good stuff,the real fun starts soon.my tip for the day would have been to undo the top radiator hose & see if that would let you tilt the motor back further,plus a second to that trolley jack idea,but make it a big 2 tonne bastard,not a cheap Stupid Cheap/K-mart toy.plus,you can hire trolley jacks from kennards for bugger all,about $20 a day,which is why my 2 tonner has never been repaired.