I am replacing the 22re in my gen I 4runner.

The spindle is aligned.

However, I am not able to pull the engine in tight. I can thread the bottom bolts, but there is still a half of inch at the top and I can't get the top bolts to start.

I have spent half a day wiggling, jacking moving, but still can't get it to mate.

It seems as if the engine needs to rotate to align the bottom alignment dowel, but it is not rotating.

I have searched, but my search terms obviously aren't the right ones.

 

have you tried mashing the clutch pedal and sliding it together

 

Even though that crossed my mind, I thought that would do the opposite of which way it needed to go!

 

Gotta have a few bolts started first.

 

If your engine mounts are already mounted to the block, try removing the foot portions until after it mates.

If you have the bottom bolts already started, have you tried loosening the strap or whatever you were using to hold the transmission bell housing level while you had the engine out, sometimes that prevents the mating and letting it fall into place.

Have you tried loosening the transmission mount, maybe that needs to move a 1/2" forward rather than the engine.

Are you using an engine leveler on your hoist? I used one and that seemed to help a lot.

 

I swapped a W56 not too long ago (not an engine swap but the reverse of what you are doing). My question is if you have left the trans still fixed in place? You may need to loosen the cross-member mount and jack up or lower the trans to mate with the engine. Mine did not line up with the engine in its installed position.

 

I did leave the transmission in place. I have tried moving the transmission around, just not back.

 

I had a problem once with the lower brackets that bolt to the side of the block being misaligned. I could start a couple bolts but not all of them. No amount of shaking, twisting, or clutching would make things line up. I had to loosen the bolts on the side of the block enough that the brackets could move and managed to get things worked together after that.
If you loosened those brackets they may be off slightly. If you didn't, then ignore what I said.

 

be patient. it took me 2 days to pull the tranny, and a day and a half to put it back in.

 

I have taken the engine out and lubed the transmission shaft and tried again. Everything seems more or less lined up, but no cigar.

I have the splines lined up, and an even gap all around. However, the gap is too wide to use the stock bolts to pull it in.

I have read, not to use longer bolts to pull engines and transmissions together. I know that the load can be very high.

I assume that the transmission shaft is not going into the pilot bearing.

This is a one man show and I don't know what else to do.

Longer bolts or am I just going to mess up the pilot bearing?

 

If you use longer bolts or bash the shaft against the pilot bearing a lot then it will probably mess it up. Try backing the bottom bolts out if not all the way out and jacking the front of the engine up or the back of the transmission up. Also realign your clutch to the pilot bearing, put a little bit of lube on the shaft and try again. That might be what's holding it up too high.

 

Ahh man...I just assumed you had some help going on....only yourself must be pretty tough, I had a buddy which not only made the time go by faster but a heck of a lot easier.

 

Got it!

Only 4 days and taking it out 3 times.

Thank God, I bought a used engine lift!

Now if I could only remember how all those vacuum lines routed.

 

http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/

 

I’m at the same point of install with the transmission secured..I have a body coming to lend a hand,,dont expect too much trouble. Motor mounts are removed, Maybe a little hair around the pilot bearing…I’ll update this afternoon but working alone would be in vain ,,this is a task for 2. I just set engine in bay, only took a few minutes to determine a helper would make life easior

 

i know it's an old thread, but i've pulled the 22re from each of my 1st gens multiple times. i've always done it solo - i have a hoist, and for the last instance, i also have a transmission jack.

honestly, i've never had a problem getting them back together. if they don't slide together smoothly, they aren't aligned. fwiw, i have pretty good experience pulling other motors, too (my jeep 258 more times than i can count, subies, my dump truck, etc.). if you force them, something will break - usually the clutch disc, but sometimes the bellhousing.

 

Line up tools that come with clutch kits can leave a little wobble. A real input shaft would be best to align the clutch.

Not on my truck. I had a Chevy Chevette that would not line up even using a real input shaft to align the clutch. Friend of mine worked at a garage, and came over to help. He had me to disconnect the coil wire from the distributor, and he crawled underneath to balance the transmission. First bump of the starter trans slid home easy.

 

As Wallytoo mentioned, using the bolts to force the issue isn't a good idea.
From my experience, whenever the bottom two or top two holes mate up, but the other two don't, it means the angle of the engine isn't quite right.
The last time i did this the hoist I was using didn't have an equalizer. My top two just weren't mating up, so i climbed up and stood on the back of the engine just enough to drop it down a bit. Slid right in. If it's the bottom two than drop the angle of the front of the engine slightly.

 

the first time i used my transmission jack, along with the hoist, was to install the flathead 6 back into my dump truck. i did it out in my yard. it was the easiest engine install i've ever done. i lowered the engine into the bay, pushed the hoist forward, and the transmission input merged perfectly with the clutch/flywheel. obvious a bit of luck having everthing in perfect alignment at the initial setup, but it shows that when the alignment is correct, very minimal effort is required to get them together.

 

If you pulling engine only remove the motor mounts so you have more access to the top 2 bellhousing bolts. I installed my engine today and having motor mounts off made it so much easier to get those bolts installed.