_Wing_

Hi, this is my first post here mainly because I drive the EK hatch with the crap sohc in it, and as such, I don't want to modify the engine in any way until I get a swap.

But little did I know, the stocker clutch really did suck *** and decided to die on me one night.

So I got a new Heavy duty "Dakin" clutch with an Exedy clutch disc [Daiken makes Exedy btw] quick smart and got the install going. I basically followed everything from http://www.c-speedracing.com and like everybody says, the wost part of it all was trying to get the tranny lined up again. So here's my tips I remember for the install:

1 - Don't bother separating the lower ball joint, just unbolt the other end of the LCA and let it hang.
2 - Don't bother with the shift linkage pin either, unbolt it from the shifter end rather than the pin @ the tranny's end.
3 - Here's THE BEST tip ever!!!!!... When you try to align the tranny back into the engine/flywheel/clutch/preasure plate, don't bother. What you do instead is remove the P/P and disc off the F/W and slide them onto the TRANNY. It obviously wont be secure, so don't jiggle it around so much when you pick it up, or else it'll come loose and it's hard to push the clutch disc back on with one hand while you've got a heavy tranny in the other. If you do it this way, you wont have any woes with aligning the tranny back onto the car.
So now that it's almost completely on the engine, look inside the starter motors' hole and you'll realise that you can access the P/P's bolts that hold it onto the flywheel. Stick your hand in there and tighten them up, when you need to get to the other bolts, just go and rotate the crank on the other side of the engine.
Now you've got the P/P secured'ish onto the F/W, grab a 10mm 12-point WRENCH , not socket - one with an angled head so you can stick it in and tighten them bolts up. So there you have it, the simple way of re-installing the tranny!


So now that I've got the tranny back on and all the other misc. stuff bolted back on, I've got myself a little problem... the long axle wont go in properly! I'll post pix tommorrow, but right now I'll try describe it as best I can.
When I install it, it goes in ok, and it gets locked in by the c-clip, but there's still a gap remaining. It's about 4mm/0.16" - doesn't sound like much but when you see it, it's HUGE!
I've found out what's stopping it from going all the way in. If you check out this pic [this isn't my axle, just one I found for this example]:

On the bottom axle on the left you'll see there's the main big black "thing" you pry on to get the axle out, then there's a step before you get to the main splines/shaft. That "step" hits the tranny inside before the gap is removed. Sorry for the crappy discription, it's the best I can do without proper pix.
If you've looked into the tranny where the axle inserts into, you'll see that there is a big rod going up/down, then there's the splines to turn the axle, then there's a spline-less bit, then you get to the tranny housing itself. Is it possible AT ALL that the spline-less part has moved out and hence blocked me from inserting the axle any more?

Let me know if you know anything that can help me and if you need any clarification of my tips above. As said earlier, I'll get some pix up ASAP.

_Wing_