[Whiteoutf22]

Hey, so my car has the 6 speed manual transmission and it got the infamous 2nd gear grind. I bought a new transmission and new clutch/pressure plate. I put in the transmission but it's not seating all the way to the engine block. There's about a quarter inch gap left. I used the bmw clutch alignment tool so I don't think the clutch is crooked but any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[1more1]

So I had this happen on a car and the problem was that one of the alignment dowels was stuck in the transmission that shouldn't have been there.

Doubt that's what was happening here but took me way too long to figure out.

[aerobod]

There are a few potential causes:

- Clutch plate is the wrong way around, which is problematic if the splined boss is not symmetrical (often the case).

- Pilot bearing is not properly seated (if replaced) or has been damaged and the needle rollers have fallen out and jammed in the flywheel bearing hole, preventing the input shaft from going all the way into the bearing.

- Release bearing is not properly seated or is just applying outward pressure due to it being a preloaded bearing that should always be in contact with the clutch pressure plate fingers.

[Whiteoutf22]

So I ended up pulling off the transmission again and it seems I used the wrong clutch alignment tool and I can see that the clutch isn't perfectly aligned. I'm going to go buy some new pressure plate bolts and the correct alignment tool and try again. Thanks for the feedback