Having almost no mechanical experience I attempted to convert my car to manual. My car moves but it makes a horrible whineing noise I'm assuming from clutch or transmission. I also don't have the return spring installed so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. My question is, where does this spring go, I've spent hours on the internet researching and I finally just give up. I thought it went from clutch fork to zbar but thats way too short of a distance for the length of the spring. Also does anyone know what my noise is, it goes away when the pedal is completely pressed. Thank you.

1971 chevelle with saginaw 4 speed and 300hp 350ci.

I dont know about the noise, is the clutch in backwards? The spring goes from the clutch fork to a small slot/hole in the frame. You should see it, its a pretty big stretch.

I thought I saw a hole but it looked far, and wasn't on a straight angle, but I'll try it. Thanks. Its quite possible I put the clutch in wrong, I hope not, it took me 6 hours to get the transmission into the bellhousing using a bunch of regular jacks (no transmission jack). Maybe I should take it to a tranny shop and let them fix the damage I've caused. :( Can't be too bad the car moves. Thanks again.

If you still have some fight left in you dont give up. You might just have to take it out and make sure the clutch is in correctly. Do you have an experienced buddy who can help you? Does it whine after you are moving and clutch is fully engaged? I put my trans in myself too, man was that hard... I had a hell of a hard time with the pedal stuff too. The conversion would go alot faster now that I know what I am doing. Is your trans new? Is the clutch and flywheel new? The hole is in the frame and the angle is not straight, but it should be on the same plane. If you would like you can fab up a bracket or some people connect it to the headers. Good luck, Brett :beers:

The clutch and flywheel is new but the transmission isn't, its freshly rebuilt but I don't know how reliable or good the guy who did it was. I just assumed the noise is something I did wrong. As far as I know there is no noise when the pedal is completely in or out, just went its rubbing so I guess that means the clutch disc is in wrong??? I'll go for a little drive down the street tommorow to check, so far I've only done up and down the driveway and didn't really test it much and I'll put in the spring. Maybe I should invest in a tranny jack. Thanks for all the help.

When you lined the tranny up and put it in did it go in easily ? Sometimes bellhousings are not necessarilly 100 % centered with the bushing in the end of the crank,this can cause problems.If you look on Lakewoods website they have an article on this.Also did you put the throwout bearing on the clutch fork correctly ? There is a right way & a wrong way.Is the tranny full of the proper lubricant ? 80-90 gear oil is recommended for some tranny's.Do you have a little bit of play in the pedal before it moves the clutch ? If you cant get the spring to hook up in the recommended place,get an assortment of different length springs and hook it anywheres that it will work.If its driveable hopefully its something simple to fix.
Guy

If the spring isn't hooked up, the throw-out bearing will be touching the disc all the time, making a growling noise. Put the spring on and it will pull the bearing away from the disc and your noise should go away. Don't start pulling stuff apart just yet. Yoy may be good to go with the spring hooked up.

I was thinking the same thing. I would think when your spring is connected your noise will go away

The throwout bearing should not be making a "horrible whineing noise" when in contact guys... :noway: :confused:

Well thanks for all the help but it looks like I'm just gonna take it to a tranny shop. This is getting too much for me. Every little thing I do goes wrong somehow. :( This has been quite the costly mess changing, I don't know how you guys do it so smoothly.

It did not go smooth for me. It was my first time as well. I had to remove and reinstall 3 times, each with major problems. Total it took about a month for me to do it. Like I said, the next one I do, if ever would be a breeze. I doubt I will ever do it again though.

I dont know about the noise, is the clutch in backwards? The spring goes from the clutch fork to a small slot/hole in the frame. You should see it, its a pretty big stretch.

Ever see a clutch disk put in backwards, it destroys the thing and I think the units in use today makes it just about impossible to do it, the spings are so large they bind on the flywheel bolts.

:sad: :sad:

I think its the pilot bearing because I looked underneeth and the transmission isn't even straight the top bellhousing to tranny bolts are flush down with no gap and torqued but the bottom ones are loose and there is a gap between the tranny and bellhousing. Which would mean the end of the input shaft isn't in the pilot bearing right... *Sigh* :( well I got the shifter kinda installed after making a huge hole. At least I can set it on neutral now for when I pay someone to tow it to the local shop. What a mess :sad: I feel like I've destroyed my precious vehicle.

Dont lose hope yet,I had lots of trouble with mine before I got it all straightened out.You might be better off to take it out yourself and try again than go to a tranny shop,most trans shops today work with automatics or newer style import stuff,who's to say they would get it right.If its your bellhousing not lined up properly,as I said earlier go have a look on Lakewoods website,they make it look fairly easy.Post some pictures,you might be able to get help here too !!! But if your bellhousing isnt mating up,dont drive it...You will wreck something.
Guy

yes, pull it back out, inspect, fix stuff if needed & try again!!.....make sure you don't forget the all important step of having your wife depress the clutch at that critical moment as you slide the tranny in:yes:

I wish, I'm 20 and single and been doing this conversion all alone. I choose quite the project on my only car. I was thinking that it would be best if I found someone to push in the pedal as last time it clearly didn't go in perfectly straight. Also I might try and get my keisler repro bellhousing on. I used this really crappy one someone donated to me. The keisler one won't fit over my starter tho so maybe I need to sand down the part that goes over the starter. Should only take a few hours to grind down a bellhousing with sand paper. :confused: So much for the award winning repo bellhousing, doesn't even fit without work.

You might need a mini starter.

Turns out the crappy bellhousing that I was using was a 12" truck bellhousing. Now I've read its hard to align the transmissions in those so looks like I'm gonna get a mini starter and use my 11" keisler bellhousing. Hopefully this will work. Thanks for the help. Maybe things will work out after all.

Yea dont use the truck bellhousing. See, your learning, just keep with it!

Dont use the truck bellhousing use one that is for your car I think the truck ones have a bigger hole and the trans will not line up correctly. As for the starter they are different from autos to manual the noses are different ( the manual is norrower and auto is fatter) Make sure you use the clutch aligning tool when you put the clutch back together that will make the job easer. You should be able to get the trans in and get the bolts started if it does not want to go in all the way do not force it, at that point support the tail of the trans with a jack and step on the clutch, once you do that it should line everything up and go in the rest of the way with ease. I have done mine a couple of times that way and have had no problems. Good luck and dont give up when it is done you will love it and have feel great that you did the job! Remember we all started out doing things for a first time thats how we learn. :thumbsup:

Found a place that sells cheap transmission jack so I'm gonna try and get that, should make this all possible. Thanks for the help.

That may help just make sure it will fit under the car with the trans on it, I know with my car up on 4 jack stands I was unable to get the trans under the car with it on my chest and my back on the floor, i had to slide the trans under the car first then pick it up in the tunnel area to have enough room to get under it. FYI Once I had my trans into the bellhousing and clutch I was able to slide the crossmember under the tail so when my arms got tired i had something to rest it on. Dont want to see you spend money on something that may not work for you. :)

Well the transmission is still installed so I can just put the jack under it, move it out of the way redo my bellhousing stuff and put it back in, properly aligned this time.

Any updates?

Took a 3rd attempt but with my friend over we managed to get it in. Not sure if you have been paying attention to the weather but the north east got some cold weather so I've yet to install my new starter and the shifter to try it out, but it seemed aligned perfectly but will find out how it runs sometime later this weekend when its a bit warmer. Today was -6C/21F with minor snow, in APRIL!!! :mad: but the main point is I got the transmission in so I'm happy, thanks again for all the support. :D

I too have that dreaded truck bell housing:mad: Where can I get one for my 66' four speed? I don't need numbers matching, just something that will work well. My tranny is always popping out of 4th gear.

Thanks
Tod

There are many places you probably could get one, but I got the repoduction of the original from keisler.

http://www.keislerauto.com/gm/transmissions/bellhousing.asp

Came with inspection cover and bolts. Only problem I have with it is the boot for the clutch fork likes to pop in and out a bit. Not all the way in so its not a big deal. That and I couldn't use my automatic starter but thats to be expected from most bellhousing I'm guessing. Good luck.

A couple of weeks ago I got a real nice 621 bellhousing off a corvette from EBAy. I feel I lucked out, because this one is like perfect..$168

McLeod makes a ring for use on the truck bellhousing. I had a friend make one for me in the machine shop he works at.:)

I wish, I'm 20 and single and been doing this conversion all alone. I choose quite the project on my only car. I was thinking that it would be best if I found someone to push in the pedal as last time it clearly didn't go in perfectly straight. Also I might try and get my keisler repro bellhousing on. I used this really crappy one someone donated to me. The keisler one won't fit over my starter tho so maybe I need to sand down the part that goes over the starter. Should only take a few hours to grind down a bellhousing with sand paper. :confused: So much for the award winning repo bellhousing, doesn't even fit without work.



Did you call us? Award winning I am Honered! I didnt realize we won an award.
we have lots of satisied customers out there with them.

Please call Tech support if you haven't already 865-609-8187 ext 2

I must correct my self, it fits perfectly, just not with an automatic larger nose starter. But yes, I sware I read somewhere that it won an award. Nothing too fancy just some car magazine thing. Everything works good now, I just would have never guess they would design two starters, seems silly but thats GMs fault. :D

So how does it work?!!?

Also dont worry about the boot. I was unable to get mine on, and they run fine without them. I suppose if you drive gravel roads everyday it might not be a good idea.

I don't know, my engine doesn't run properly, as my other post in engines has been discussing. I'm getting a new distributor tonight after work, MSD e-curve, so hopefully that will fix everything and I'll go drive around until my saginaw blows up from my agressive driving. Thanks.