Thanks everyone for your responses.

Raz - That's a very generous offer for you to come down here. Thanks. But it really shouldn't be necessary...its really not that big a deal (even though it feels like it at this point...) and I should be able to track down more help here. Craig lives a few blocks away as I found out, so I may try dropping him a line. Thanks for the offer though.

Matt - My motor mounts are a couple years old, but still in good shape. When I pry on the bellhousing, the motor does shift toward the front of the car significantly, but its hard to tell if the motor is sitting closer toward the firewall than it should. At any rate, I may try to support the engine like you suggest. Even if I can keep it front moving forward so much it would be good...I suspect my prying force is ending up just going into forcing the engine forward.

Ian - Thanks for the encouragement. Its good to know I'm not the only one. The alignment dowels are already disconnected, so the splines then?

Dale - The thought had crossed my mind that maybe there was some stuff on the input shaft. While I was driving, I heard some funny sounds coming from the tranny, and I wonder if something fell off and got stuck in there? I dunno. At any rate I may try to bolt the thing back up. I suspect it might be binding like Matt suggested. Hmmm. Yeah, so far I haven't wrecked anything, but I'm okay if I do at this point! I seriously have no idea how I'll get MORE leverage on that stupid thing. Not much room to move.

Are later 240 tunnels bigger? I now see why pulling the motor would be easier....!

Thanks guys,
More to come tomorrow I hope.

You're not getting caught on a wire, or an exhaust hanger or some sort of shifter peice or somthing correct? If not, how bad does it need to come out in once peice? you could lower the car onto the ground, tie a chain to the output shaft, tie other end to a car, and just let er rip?

Jordan

YEP, its true. Finally tonight, the tranny came out. I got a piece of wood, and hammered on the edge of the bellhousing through the engine bay, and underneath, at four different points alternating. After that, my friend was prying on it again with a tire iron. We both stopped, and I was about to pry a bit on the top when I heard a clunk. My friend had just wedged a breaker bar in there, and it just fell, on its own...it must have been really close I'm guessing. Yep, I'm pretty stoked.

After dragging the tranny out, everything looked fine. The bellhousing is kinda full of marks from the prying, but the splines all look fine. No gunk anywhere. The clutch looks pretty hooped....there appears to be a small chunk missing off it on the one edge. Don't remember that being there before......

Thanks everyone for all your input into this. It was a pisser for me, so I'm happy for the help.

Next up...clutch install. Couple questions.
1. Old flywheel removal/new install...how do I hold it in place while I untorque/torque the bolts?
2. Do I need to clean the flywheel before I put it in? I just had it resurfaced. Brake cleen?
3. I have two kinds of bolts that hold the pressure plate on....13mm bolts, and some Allen head bolts. Any preferences?
4. Does the spline/input shaft need to be greased or anything before I put it in? Would this help with the install (and possible future removal....)?

I sure hope this thing slides in easier than it came out.

Righty then. All is well.
Greg

You can hold the crank in place however you want - my preferred method is to get a buddy to put a 22mm socket and breaker bar on the front pulley bolt, and then to torque the flywheel bolts up. Use some blue loctite, and make sure the holes are clean and grease-free before you start.

Brake cleaner works good on any surface you want clean and dry. If it's just been resurfaced and you're putting it on for the first time, it's a good idea to wash it down with brake cleaner but it's not of utmost importance. Before you bolt up the flywheel, though, make sure the pressure plate rivits (inboard of the clutch surface, nearer the hub) sit down into the dish and you've got good friction surface contact. If you can't slide the pressure plate around a little bit without the rivits hitting the flywheel, you may need to get a chamfer cut into the hub section of the flywheel.

When you're bolting up the pressure plate, use a centering tool! This might have come with your clutch kit, or you might need to start tearing apart an old transmission to grab the input shaft. If you get the clutch off-center, you'll never get the transmission installed.

Whether you use the hex-head bolts or the socket-head bolts, it's personal preference. I prefer the hex head bolts myself, but you might need a thin socket to get on them. I've got a deep socket with a tip I ground down for close work that I use.

LIGHTLY grease the input shaft. LIGHTLY. Too much grease will fling out and coat your new clutch if you're not careful.

Just don't breath in the brake cleaner....it'll kill you

Too late....

Well, thanks for all the helpful advice everyone!

The good news is that the clutch and tranny went in without incident. I just got in from the garage, and it all went together nicely.

So, the bad news....I went for my first test drive. Clutch feels nice, engages fine. Got onto the road, first gear good, second gear....and as soon as the boost hits, something slips, the revs peak and no power goes back. F@$!
Third gear...same thing. It feels the same as before the clutch swap. Something is slipping bad as soon as the boost hits. Looks like the clutch didn't solve it. New bearing, disc and pressure plate. Its just not taking the power.

So, do I have to drive this thing for a bit to determine if the clutch just needs to get seated?
Or is it the tranny?
Looks like its all gotta come out again....?

Greg

Really goofy, Greg. It's gotta be the overdrive, which you can switch without dropping the whole tranny.

It COULD be the clutch not seating yet... You made sure that the rivits on the inside of the clutch (closer to the center of the clutch than the inside radius of the friction surface) weren't touching the flywheel when you assembled it, right?

Overdrive eh? Hmmmm, that doesn't sound as bad.

I checked the plate when it was in and I could move it around no problem........but........I forgot to verify that on the ground. Oh dear.....
Wouldn't I hear it if there were rivits contacting?
Crap.

I am late coming into this, but what kind of clutch?
Is it a stock clutch and disc? Or maybe it is an aftermarket disc on your pressure plate intended for a stock clutch disc? I had to grind a an additional 50 thou deep step in my flywheel to achieve proper clamping force with my old sachs sport PP and clutchnet kevlar disc. Before, I had that same PP, but the flywheel machined to the depth spec for the sachs sport/turbo disc (both are the same new thickness of about .275" (compressed so that they'd lay flat, but not squished)). I neglected to realize that my disc also made by F&S for a BMW 524TD was .325" thick...the pedal feel wasn't quite correct and it slipped nastily. The pedal should ramp up and sorta break through if the PP is working properly. If it feels kinda easy or the same all over, it probably isn't gripping quite right. Even the soft stock PP ought to have this ramp up and break through feel.
Anyway, just a thought if you have been mixing and matching. How many gentle miles did you give it to break in if it is a stock turbo clutch?
A dead OD usually slips very nastily in reverse and some in first. Not usually much in higher gears when not in OD. A slip in reverse is common with a worn cone clutch since the sprague can't help it keep grip IIRC. I don't remember much about that ghetto british POS known as the OD...I blame the british for most things that suck on a volvo...including torque rods, stock interheaters, ODs wiring and other such fun.

James,
Thanks for your response. The current setup is a 8.5" flat flywheel recently resurfaced, a new b230f F&S clutch disc, stock new PP, and new throw bearing. So its pretty stock. I haven't driven it more than 20 kms so far, so its definitely not broken in yet. As for the feel you're describing, its hard to say what its doing.....its not really ramping up like you're describing. The feel is basically what I'm used to in terms of how hard it is to push in etc.
Now, if the tranny slips in 1st and reverse the overdrive is in question?....but mine doesn't slip at all in reverse or 1st, even at a full 7psi of boost (I haven't turned it past this yet). It doesn't start slipping until 2nd at about 3 psi, after which is slips through all the remaining gears including overdrive. So the overdrive might not be the issue?
I still can't smell any clutch when it breaks loose either.
How long is a typical break-in period?

Any ideas?
Thanks again,
Greg

typical break in period on some clutches i know is 800km of city driving

If what's happening now is the same as before, it's not a normal clutch "slip". If that were the case, it would slip easily in 1st gear too. I rode in the car before the clutch job and it was the strangest feeling. It would pull hard in 1st gear. Then almst as soon as the clutch was out in 2nd, it would start slipping. Not nearly enough torque is required to make it slip in 2nd gear as it holds in 1st. I'd be tempted to say it's the o/d as well simply because there are no other possibilities, beyond the clutch slipping. Everything else is a mechanical connection...

Do you have another tranny? Actually, what was I thinking? I remember a Golf that was severely loaded down...seems to me there were two trannies in there... I did a tranny swap in the 122 in 2 1/2 hours. I'd be tempted to pull it out, have a look at the clutch and throw a different tranny in...

Yep, two trannies in the Golf!!
Yeah, I think that's a good idea Dale. Like you say, without any slipping in 1st it seems a little weird that it would be slipping higher up.
So pull the whole tranny? Or pull the overdrive? Would just the overdrive be easier?
The 2nd M46 has the larger output flange as well. I'm gonna need a different driveshaft to do it. Anybody got a later shaft (turbo one?) they wanna part with?
Thanks,
Greg

Swapping the output flange is a simple process...just undo the big nut on the end... They all have the same spline and outside diameter...

For the time involved, I'd bet a full tranny swap will take about the same as an o/d swap and your not dealing with any funky gaskets. Just my opinion but I'd rather leave it as a complete unit...