Is there a trick to installing the tranny back in my Kick?  Got it OUT fairly easily, but damn, I am having FITS getting it back in!!!

Is it best to do it with the crossmember already installed, to support the tail of the tranny, or with it out?

Maybe my problem was the "new" bellhousing, that didn't have holes for all the mounting bolts, and thinner flanges, making me have to stack a bunch of washers under the top driver's side bolt, but I've gone back to the original bellhousing (patched with JB Weld).

I put mine in with the cross member out, lift under the front, strap around it towards the back and ran up through the t-case shifter hole in the floor. It can work solo but helps to have a second pair of hands.

Put the floor jack in a position where it will easily roll front to back. Place the strap far enough back that when it is pulled through the shifter hole, it lifts the back of the tranny and pulls it forward. Now with a balancing act and a long enough strap you can raise/lower the front with the floor jack handle in one hand, raise/lower/move it forward with the strap in the other hand, and move it side to side with your feet
Yea, it's complicated, but I got it in solo like that.

HTH,
Zig

Huh.  I have a tranny jack that lets me tweak the angle on it, etc., but once I got the two studs on the tranny into the holes on the block, it got HARDER to push home...

Oh them fancy tools No tranny jack here. Mine did just the opposite, Once I got it ligned up it got alot easier and slid right up, even with the humorous balancing act :-/
Zig

Oh them fancy tools No tranny jack here. Mine did just the opposite, Once I got it ligned up it got alot easier and slid right up, even with the humorous balancing act :-/
Zig

Yeah, that's what I expected.  Well, maybe the bellhousing was the cause of all my woes!  We'll see how it goes with the original bellhousing tonight.

Good Luck, Have fun in Moab

Yeah, that's what I expected.  Well, maybe the bellhousing was the cause of all my woes!  We'll see how it goes with the original bellhousing tonight.

One other thing would be to make sure that your tranny is in gear, any gear, so that you can turn the output shaft to get the input shaft to line up. It almost sounds like this could be your problem.

Good Luck, Eric

I threw a 17mm on the crankshaft, and turned the crank instead...

I just did a clutch on a F-450 solo and I
didn't have that much trouble.

Check the new part and the old part, before
you put the trans on it for proper fit, you might
find it's different somehow, and the problem.

Wild

Are you putting the trany and transfer case in at the same time?

If you leave out one bolt (the one under the shifter) you can put the trany in first, I was able to just bench press it into place that way, and then did the same for the t-case.  If you have a 3" body lift you would have enoff room to install that bolt then the shifter if you like.  But I was told to do this by Mike and it's worked for me.

One problem I did run into was the alignment dowles.  When I pulled the t-case, one dowl stayed in the trans.  I used a different t-case that had both dowls in it.  So when I went to put it in, it would stop 1/4" from being in.  It was late, so it took quite a while to find it.  Won't forget again!!

Good Luck.

Are you putting the trany and transfer case in at the same time?
If you leave out one bolt (the one under the shifter) you can put the trany in first...But I was told to do this by Mike and it's worked for me.

Wow - you can run it without that wicked-long bolt under the shifter?  How hard is it to bolt the tranny & xfer together, once you've hung the tranny?

Yeah, I have the 3" lift.  Heck, I was thinking about cutting the whole tranny hump out, to do it from the top...

You couldn't get the t-case to go on any easier if it was sitting on a bench.  You just lign up the shafts and they slide together.

Like I said, I've had no problems and I run a 4.24 t-case gear and 32-11.5's

Also, like I said Mike told me about that little trick and look how he runs his stuff.

When I put the transmission back into the Tracker after changing the clutch there were 2 people underneath the vehicle, lifted the transmission up and man-handled it back into place.

 You think that doing that solo is a problem?
Try doing it with the whole kicker3 setup altogether! Now that's hard, even with 2 people!

You think that doing that solo is a problem?
Try doing it with the whole kicker3 setup altogether! Now that's hard, even with 2 people!

Some reasone I just don't feel sorry for you!