S4 Renault gearbox in neutral

[stevefh]

Hi all, gearbox, in neutral ,out of car with cross shaft with no attachments .How do I put it in 4th gear?

[Escape]

You'll have to put pliers to the cross shaft to be able to rotate and move it to select different gears. You can easily check when you're in 4th as the output will turn at the same speed as the input shaft. And it's one end of the range, the other being 1st, so a big difference in ratio.

[stevefh]

Thanks Filip, I need to turn the clutch shaft as I am having trouble aligning it and the bearing in the flywheel. I have tried moving the flywheel but would still not mate. I now have 2 different clutch alignment tools both of which visually seem to align the driven plate and the bearing centres.After 3 tries I have decided to get a solid mandrel made which has no play in it as the others had a little play.But as I have said it looked ok and I actually think the shaft was going through the driven plate but not into the bearing.

[Escape]

Are you trying to mate engine and gearbox in the car? That's always a bit tricky. But it shouldn't matter if you turn the crank or gearbox. In any case, any gear will do, as long as you can get some rotation.

Last time (in the car) I just used a socket that was a reasonable fit as an alignment tool for the plate and then managed to wiggle the box on.

[stevefh]

Hi Filip, I realise it shouldn’t matter but I am trying anything.Last time I did the clutch ,with engine in car, I used my most basic alignment tool and I wiggled it straight in. That’s one of the reasons  why I asked the question about movement at the end of the clutch shaft, but I realise it passing through a correctly aligned driven plate should make this irrelevant . I am on holiday for a few weeks , so I will try again when I get back with a solid ,accurately machined mandrel. More cost.Thanks again for your replies 

I will post a drawing of this mandrel.