5 speed Cherokee Manual Transmission

My neighbor's 96? Cherokee clutch went out this weekend. Removed the tranny, replaced the clutch, throw out bearing, etc. For the life of me, can't get the tranny to seat back to the engine block. Any hints out there? Using a jack for the tranny, and sliding on my back to try to get the alignment correct. Fought it for hours.

Thanks.

Mark

If it has one, check your pilot bearing in the end of crankshaft for damage, loose/ missing needles. I had one give me a problem before and that's what ended up being the problem.

Thanks,

I have checked the bearing, appears ok. This '96 has 170k+ miles on it, I am wondering if the motor mounts are so weak that the angle of the motor/tranny is not correct, which creates a problem for alignment.

Also make sure there is not one special spline (index spline) on the output shaft of the trans. Possible it is not lined up correctly.
If you feel the engine is not angled correctly you could jack up the front of the engine a little so the rear of it would tilt downward, might make it easier to get the tranny aligned.

just installed a clutch in an 89 recently..turned out had to put it in off center,tilted sideways then it slid right in all the way