so about 2 weeks ago, i yanked out my engine and left the trans (t5) in the car, and now i'm trying to put it back in.. and i swear i tried 2 hours tonight with my buddy, to drop in the engine and it just wasn't happening..

the problems i'm having are,

1. the motor mount that bolts to the engine is getting stuck in the between the humps on the clamshell if i lower it too much..
2. i can't get the engine the whole way onto the input shaft.


if it helps i'm using the engine lift i bought at advance, and the load leveler.. i've tried many different variations of leveling it, lifting the engine, lowering the engine, lifting the trans, lowering the trans... till i finally got frustrated and said f it i'll deal with it tomorrow..

so.. is there like a magic trick to putting an engine in... incase you didn't already guess this is my first engine install..

 

I'd bet that the splines on the input shaft arent lining up with the splines in the clutch disc. Did you replace the clutch? If you did, did you use a clutch alignment tool to center the disc? Even if you didn't touch teh clutch, getting teh splines aligned can sometimes be a serious PITA. Even though it's more work, it may be easier in the long run to take the trans out, bolt the engine in, then bolt the trans to it.

 

well i didn't replace it cause it was brand new, but i did have it off since i had the engine on an engine stand..

is there any way to do it without dropping the trans? cause i really don't feel like doing that unless i absolutely have to.. in the morning i'm gonna go get a clutch alignment tool but i have this really bad feeling i'm gonna have to drop the trans..

 

No you shouldn't have to drop the trans.

The clutch is mis-aligned. The tool should fix that.

Put the clutch on the motor, and the bell housing on the transmission; assemble the clutch fork and throwout and all that to the BH, before you put it on the trans; loosen the trans mount nut and slide it as far forward as it will go, and put a floor jack or something under it to raise it as high as it will go; then the motor should just plug right into it.

I cannot tell you how many times I've put motors into cars that way; since long before the T-5 was invented.

 

ok, so i bought the tools aligned the clutch and it still didn't go in, so i said F it and just dropped the tranny out and put them together then dropped them both in as 1 unit.. all was going really really well, untill i got to the motor mounts...

i managed to get the passenger side motor mount bolted in.. but for some reason i can't get the driver side on.. like pretty much what is happening is the part that is bolted to the engine, is just sitting on the 2 little metal tabs that stick out the side of the motor mounts like an 1/8 of an inch on each side... the other side i managed to pry them over and it dropped down to where it should be, but i've pryed and pryed and i can't figure out how to do this...

am i doing this totally wrong, or do i just need to pry and beat it with a BFH till it goes in? if it makes a difference they are the engergy suspension poly mounts..

 

The brackets on the engine are LH and RH. Do you have them on the correct side?

 

i'm assuming i have them on the right sides... any way to know just by looking at them? cause since i did manage to get the one side on it would suck to take them both off only to find that i had it right in the first place..

 

It's pretty easy to get hung up on the tabs. Odds are that the engine is twisting a bit. You have to lift slightly and then put some muscle into it to align the mounts. When you get everything lined up then drop the engine down in place.

The key ingredient here is putting some muscle into it. Don't use leverage bars and start bending things.

 

Although I'm sure you already know, remember to leave the bolts loose while your getting the other side lined up. If you tighten the left side before you start the right side, you'll never get it lined up.

 

well i got it in.. kinda cheated though as i got pissed off and used the grinder and trimmed the little metal tabs just a lil bit..

thanks for the help..

 

On my motor mounts (red poly), the tabs you speak of in the mount itself align with squared-off spots in the clamshell - thus it all fit accordingly and a perfect fit - so maybe you had the mounts installed backwards - the tabs are angled, and backwards or on the wrongs sides would throw the angle off and they wouldn't fit properly in the mounts.