Tips, please, for installing the 5-speed transmission in a Gen1 SWB with 2.6 engine.

The tranny has to be rotated counter-clockwise so the starter bulge in the bellhousing will clear the firewall. What's the easiest way to make that happen without damaging the clutch or the input shaft?

Make sure that you've used a clutch plate centering tool. Leave trans in second gear, use a drive shaft to turn the trans as you're stabbing it and should snap right together. I learned this over the course of two weeks being stupid and cocky, forgot about the input shaft spline that had to fit the plate. Doh!

LOL. I found it easier to mate the engine to the transmission, not the other way around. I can pull and re-install the 2.6 in less than 5 hours, and that's with a lunch break.

How did I get so good at it?

I built an engine out of JY parts and a new head. I got careless at the end and installed the clutch plate backward. The next weekend, I had to pull the engine, flip the clutch, and put it back in... and 2 weeks later, I had an awful racket/knocking. I pulled the oil pan, checked all the bearings (good), and found the flywheel was loose (I didn't put threadlocker on the bolts, oops). I pulled the engine again, popped off the clutch again, and pulled each bolt to put threadlocker on, torquing each one again to 101 lb-ft. I then installed the engine again. All in all, the last time I started at 10:30 in the morning, and finished by 3:30.

Don't be like me. Read the FSM carefully before each bolt is installed.

Update: someone on another forum gave me a tip to slightly jack the front of the engine so that the flywheel pointed a little downward, which would give enough space for the hump on the bellhousing to clear. Worked like a charm (well, it did once I remembered that the transmission needed to be oriented on an angle to match the engine!)

Now, "the rest of the story": I had the KM145 transmission rebuilt this summer, and a few weeks ago the transmission locked up at a stop. I pulled the transmission, took it back to the shop, and invoked the warranty. Now, when I reinstalled the transmission the first time, the input shaft was pristine ÔÇö not a mark on it. When I pulled it out this time, though, there was a groove warn in the input shaft where the pilot bearing rides. The transmission place said that the pilot bearing had bound up the input shaft, and if the tranny was in 4th gear and the clutch pushed without downshifting, the 4th gear wouldn't disengage. Sounds reasonable, especially since I saw the damage with my own eyes before they got their hands on it.

This time, instead of trusting the cheap $4 pilot bearing that came with the Sachs clutch kit (supposedly a quality part), I ordered up a made-in-Japan Nachi (which I'm told is OEM) bearing and installed that before reinstalling the tranny.

I hope this is the last time I have to pull that thing for a long, long time!