Tips For Mating The Engine To Torque Tube?

A friend and I spent over an hour trying to get the torque tube to mate to the TPC bellhousing/clutch thingy. We worked and worked and worked, and nothing would make it budge.

We lubed the splines, the clutch disc is properly aligned, the pilot bearing is installed correctly.

We just can't get the thing to go in!!!

Anyone have tips or hints or "this trick always works" kind of advice?

Anything! Haha. Thanks!

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OK...so I have yet to do this on my project but I can tell you from prior clutch replacement experience that the splines on the driveshaft MUST be EXACTLY inline with the splines on the clutch plate. There is very little tolerance in this fit.

Since the clutch plate is tight and will not move unless the engine is rotated, the traditional method is to rotate the drive shaft ever so slightly and try again....and again....and again until it's right on. If indeed you have all the correct components, this is just a matter of precise alignment.

I imagine the engine is not yet fully mounted and the TT is still attached to the transaxle. If this is so, you can rotate a wheel to get the desired driveshaft movement for alignment.

I hope this helps!!

It turns out i was trying to install the engine in the wrong order. Someone just told me you have to bolt the bellhousing to the torque tube, then you have to bolt the engine to the bellhousing. LOL. I spent half a day struggling with it for no reason... Haha

I did mine as you describe - bellhousing to TT then mate to engine - and it still took the better part of a morning for 3 of us to get it mate up. As stated the tolerances are very close. It helped to have a balance bar on the engine hoist, a jack under the engine and another jack under the torque tube so we could manipulate all the angles to get clutch and driveshaft splines to line up. Good luck!

OUCH!

Just wondering how you made out??

I did a dry run hook-up on my drive train and found I needed to ream the mounting holes on the torque tube mounting flange in order to make the connection to the bellhousing adapter plate.  

As I mentioned before, it only takes the slightest "miss-alignment" to prevent a successful insertion of the driveshaft splines in the clutch.