Hello all,

A couple months back I lost clutch pressure while driving, and had to pump the pedal to get it back. Eventually, the car finally wouldn't go into gear with the clutch at all. Thinking it was the throwout bearing/slave cylinder, I rolled it into the driveway intending to work on it.

Fast forward to now, I took out the transmission and saw that the throwout bearing/slave cylinder was shot. So I went ahead and replaced that as well as the flywheel, clutch disk, and pressure plate while I was down there. I reinstalled the transmission, and started to reinstall the subframe, when I noticed that the front transmission mount and rear transmission mount do not align when the subframe is bolted in. Initially, I played around with raising/lowering the engine and transmission with a jack to see if I could get it to align, which I couldn't. I also tried taking off the subframe, thinking it was out of alignment, attempting to align everything again, with no success. My only remaining idea left was that the engine shifted during the removal/installation of the transmission, which is why everything is so off.

This is my doing any of this, so any help would be appreciated.

 

I've done this job multiple times on my 2004 Ion. Some questions regarding your transmission removal:
Did you remove or loosen the engine mount (right side of car) at all? And did you completely remove the transmission mount on the left side of the car? Did you have to do any prying to get any of the mounts loose? Did you remove both the front and rear mounts from the transmission? With the transmission bolted back in, is the transmission/engine package suspended between the engine mount and the left transmission mount? Are the front and rear mounts bolted back on to the transmission? Are the bolts for the subframe aligned 'easily' with the holes in the frame? Did you replace any of the mounts?
Sorry if these seem like inane questions, but in my experience these things only go back together one way, and you shouldn't have to tweak anything more than a quarter inch to get bolt holes to line up. Has the car ever been in a collision that may have twisted the (unibody) frame?

 

I had the engine supported with a support bar over the engine bay. During my transmission removal, I didn't loosen the engine mount at all. As for the top transmission mount, I loosened the three bolts on the mount, but didn't completely remove it for the removal. I ended up removing it for the install, thinking it would have aligned with the transmission again once I got the bottom mounts to line up. All of the mounts came off relatively easily. When removing the trans, I left the front and rear mounts bolted on, thinking I would just have to reattach them again upon installation. The subframe bolts all aligned with the frame somewhat easily, although it took a bit of trial and error to make sure everything was indeed aligned. However, when I tightened all the frame bolts, still both the front and rear transmission mounts didn't align. I didn't replace any of the mounts.

I bought this car used in 2023 and as far I know, the car hasn't been in any collisions/ had any damage to the frame, nor can I see any damage. I'll come back to this thread with pictures to aid with diagnosis/procedure.

 

Strange! Can you see the engine mount well enough to ensure there is minimal movement in the mount while lifting/rocking the engine? Reading into your description, you state you removed the top transmission mount for the install thinking it would align with the transmission again once the bottom mounts were lined up. So is the top mount not bolted in yet? If this is the case, I'd loosen the subframe bolts a few turns, get the top mount firmly bolted in, then try to get the bottom mounts aligned while tightening the subframe bolts.

 

I noticed that when I bolted in the subframe, the transmission was "rotated" towards the front of the car, so that it would have to be rotated towards clockwise (when facing the car from the front) to line up with the bolt holes. Because of this, I took of that top mount thinking it would get settled with at least the bottom transmission mounts.

Although it doesn't exactly describe my situations, I believe my pictures somewhat show my problem. Right now I don't have the subframe bolted in. However, this is approximately what the issue looks like when it does. If the front transmission mount sits in the ears of the cradle, there will be an offset of about an 1/2" to 3/4" in the rear, where the mount bolts to the subframe. If I try to line up the rear mount and attempt to bolt it on before the front, the front mount is completely misaligned and doesn't line up with the mount at all, I'd say about 1" to 1.5".

In my attempts to gradually shift things with jacks to see if things would eventually settle, I loosened the passenger side engine mount, seeing if shifting the weight/level on that side would do anything, which it didn't. For now, I'll get the subframe back in to further document my issues, and also try getting that top mount back in like you said. It's supposed to get cold and snowy this weekend, and it's been a pain working on this outside. I hope I get this solved soon so I can finally close the hood at least haha

 

I think the key is getting the top transmission mount bolted in. The engine/transmission package should be suspended between the engine mount and the top transmission mount. Then when you lift the subframe from below, the front and rear transmission mounts should align very closely with the subframe. Looking at your pictures of the front mount, it appears the top mount must be to the rear of where it should be. Get the mount in place and bolted up.

 

As Im working on it today, here is what I have so far. I just bolted in the transmission mount. The bolt holes do not align, which might go away with some raising or lowering. However, it looks like it needs some rotation. Will this fix itself with raising the transmission

 

With the engine mount bolted up and the transmission on a jack, you should be able to move the transmission to align with the bolts on the upper mount. There should be nothing preventing the fore/aft movement for alignment. Once the upper mount is bolted up, the subframe should align with the forward and rear transmission mounts.

 

Good news. I was able to bolt the drivers side transmission mount, as well as bolting the transmission to the mount. I got to bottom transmission mounts to align, both the front and the rear. However, I noticed that I can only get the bolt holes for the through bolt to align if I jack the engine and transmission. Am I good to tighten the bolts and torque them this way, or would it have too much tension on these two bolts

 

If all the mount bolts are in place torque them up. They are now in the same place, with the same tension, as before you took the transmission out.