Heh,heh, that could happen couldn't it? Naww, I knew where the bolts had to go, and if you look closely at the pix above of the motor side of the plate, you'll see where three bolts were welded in reversed, compared to the nuts on the rest, as that is where the oil filter is on the Olds motors, and couldn't put a bolt through back to front there, it hits the filter, so put those three bolts through front to back and welded them in place. It all went on the block quite nicely, clears the oil filter. The six smaller open holes are where bolts fasten through the bell and the plate into the block itself. The two larger holes are for the dowel pins in the block.
McLeod provided a plastic alignment tool with the twin disk clutch setup, and I carefully aligned everything on the flywheel, it's more complicated by the fact that the splines on both disks have to be aligned, then both centered on the pilot bearing, in order for the tranny input shaft to slide all the way in.
The alignment tool got the two disks aligned pretty well, but there was some flexibility in the whole thing, once I got the tip of the tool in the pilot bearing, I could wiggle it around a bit before I tightened down the bolts, clamping everything in place! I tried to center it as much as I could, but it was still basically just a guess! Clamped it down and put the bell in place with the clutch arm and bearing, and hooked up the linkage. Looking down the hole with a light it all looked lined up pretty well.
Laying on my back with that heavy Doug Nash tranny on my chest, I got it in and it was a tight fit. The splines on the input shaft needed some persuasion to go into the clutch disk splines, but it went in until it got to the pilot bearing, and wouldn't go any further, that last 1/4" or so gap between the front of the tranny and the bell surface told me where I was! Wiggled it, pushed it, rotated it, profuse profanity was used, it just would not go in that final little bit!
That told me the clutch disks were not accurately centered on the pilot bearing.
OK, take the bell off so I can realign it with that plastic tool and try again? Take all those bolts off again, some of which are quite difficult to get at with a wrench? Or wait until a buddy can come by and step on the clutch pedal for me, so that maybe I can wiggle it around enough to center it and "pop" it into the pilot bearing? I've been successful before doing it that way, so ok, let's wait, go have a beer (or six!!!).......
Pulled the tranny out and layed it aside.......
My buddy stopped by on his way home from work, I got that heavy tranny up on my chest again, and in the hole, he stepped on the clutch, which released the pressure on the two disks, I could feel them release, and tried to wiggle them around on the front of the tranny shaft, to find the pilot bearing hole, but after a lot of profanity and sweaty wrestling with that tranny, I was unsuccessful!
I think that when the throwout bearing is pressed against the clutch fingers, although the clutch disks are free to move around, the throwout bearing is pretty much immovable, pressed as hard as it is against the clutch fingers, preventing me from moving the disks enough to get alignment. Must have just got lucky when I did it that way before.
Pulled the tranny back out, looked in the hole with a light, could see that the disks were not aligned any more with each other, with the splines also out of phase. Tried to put them back close with the tool, with my buddy holding the clutch pedal down, but again, that throw out bearing was locked against the clutch fingers and wouldn't move, making it hard to try to get that tool in through both disks and aligning the splines. Just impossible. If it had a spare input shaft with the correct size and splines for this app, where I had something to grab ahold of and work with, I might have been able to get it aligned again, but that short little plastic tool just disappears in there when shoved in, no way to grab ahold of it and wrestle it around trying to align the splines, and the disks with the pilot bearing. Just no way!!!
Went and had a bunch of beer and grilled some fresh venison with my buddies, "Fender Friday at the Shop...."
Today the bell comes off and try again to align it all....
And gotta do it before 3 pm, when the Niner's game comes on....
With more beer, and we'll fire up the grill at half time....
"Not Feeling Much Aloha Today...."
(Well, that's not quite true, it's only when I think about that *%# clutch!!!)
Willy