George (moparman76_69) and I have been trying to get my auto 2.5 car swapped over to an A520 manual since Saturday.
First, we had a heck of a time getting the trans onto the engine...once the input shaft finally went into the clutch, everything seemed like it was seated properly with no gaps between the engine and trans on the top and the front. Lo and behold after all the top and front bell housing bolts were tightened, there was a small gap between the block and trans where the rear bell housing bolt hole is under that pain-in-the---- starter bolt....there's a dowel/guide there that seems to be keeping the block and trans from coming all the way together. I couldn't even get the bolt started. Also, the engine spun fine with a breaker bar until I tightened the starter down...then it was bound up tight, so the starter was keeping the flywheel from turning.
Tonight (Sunday), we pulled the trans back down and double checked that the clutch was centered and pressure plate was torqued properly, trying to figure out why the trans wouldn't seat fully. We had another horrible time getting the trans mounted up again but managed to get the trans seated and a couple bell housing bolts in but loose. That's where we are at this point.
Any advise, help or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. This has been a royal pain in the --- so far and the next step may be dropping the engine whole to get the trans seated properly or knocking out the dowel pins since that's what seems to be causing the problems. We haven't even done the pedals, ran a clutch cable or installed the K frame yet. Progress has stopped with this mess.