4 speed install trouble not lining up

[BigmanjbMOPAR]

 For the life of me I never had this much trouble trying to get the 4 speed in the 383 what's the trick?

[340Challman]

I am going to make a few assumptions here and assume that you are doing this with the motor in the car and using an alignment tool. That tool only gets you in the ballpark. You need to eyeball it to be as close to perfect center as you can get. Doing that means that the pressure plate bolts are just tight enough to prevent the disk from falling, but still move fairly easily. Some people prefer to have the bell housing mounted to the motor. I prefer to have it mounted to the trans. This is just a preference thing. I also like to have the gearbox in gear with a spare yoke in the tail. I usually do 2nd gear. With it in gear, if you are off on the splines, you can reach the yoke and hopefully line up the input shaft to the disk. I have installed a few where I benchpressed the trans into position, but I have failed more times than I have succeeded doing it that way. Much easier on a jack.

The disk alignment is the big culprit. If it is off and the pressure plate too tight it will drive you nuts.

Keep after it. You'll get it. 

[DeathProofCuda]

I've bench pressed a few in, but these days I use a HF trans jack, which allows you to adjust the pitch fore-aft and side to side to get the proper alignment of the trans going in.  I have the bell housing mounted on the motor and I use alignment bolts in the four holes where the trans bolts to the bell housing.  Buy bolts from the hardware store with the proper thread size that are long enough that they have an unthreaded section along the shaft, cut the heads off, then cut a slot in the top so that you can use a flat blade screw driver to back them out after you've slipped the trans over them.  I also usually file the cut tops slightly round so that the trans holes slip over them easier.  Once I have the trans slipped over all four alignment bolts, it usually just takes a jiggle side to side or up/down to get the input shaft to slide into home.

[wimpy]

Had the problem with disc not lining up for input shaft, I used a ratchet strap hooked to spring hanger and clutch fork tightened strap so disc would float trans slipped right in.

[HP_Cuda]

Make sure your crank wasn't setup for an auto and not a 4 speed because you will try to jam it in there a million times and it won't pull closed because it's too tight a fit.

Otherwise alignment is the key prior to stuffing the 833 in. I used an old input shaft prior to and it went in like butter.

[anlauto]

Did you put a new pilot bearing in the crank...they can be pretty tight ....I've used longer bolts to draw the transmission in (not recommended), but it works....I assume the crank is drilled for a four speed