The shifting symptoms you describe with the old tranny may have to do
with a bad pilot bearing in the end of the crankshaft. Did you check
that pilot bearing when you had the tranny out? If not, maybe it is a
problem now too.

Mark

Rick Cooper wrote:
>> On 5 Jan , 2016, at 12:03 PM, Rick Cooper wrote:
>>
>>> I'm trying to replace the manual transmission in an '83 Westy with one
>> from
>>> an '86 tintop.  Quite simply, I can't get the transmission to mate with
>> the
>>> 1.9 engine; there is some mechanical obstruction.  I think I'm far enough
>>> away that the input shaft has not even started into the clutch disc
>>> splines; the fresh grease I put on the input shaft has not been
>> disturbed.
>>>
>>> I don't think its an incompatible parts issue since they appear
>> identical.
>>> The transmissions are both stamped 091 301 103D, the pressure plates are
>>> marked "Sachs Typ M228" and the clutch discs are both Sachs and measure
>>> 228mm in diameter.  (The clutch kit from the 1983 is nearly new; the PO
>>> told me it had been recently replaced and I was hoping to re-use it.)
>> The
>>> input shafts appear identical; the clutch disks from both will slide onto
>>> either one of them.
>>>
>>> Why was I replacing the transmission?  Gearing problems -- usually
>>> impossible to shift into first from neutral; usually had to get van
>> moving
>>> in 2nd and then downshift to 1st.  Also issues shifting from 2nd to 3rd.
>>> It seemed less expensive to swap in a good used transmission than to have
>>> that one rebuilt.
>>>
>>> Can anyone suggest what the problem might be?  (I haven't done many
>>> engine/tranny swaps, but I'm experiencing deja vu.  I once tried to put
>> the
>>> engine from an '88 Chev S10 into a 1991 Chev S10.  Same problem; could
>> not
>>> get the engine to engage with the 91 transmission's input shaft.  Turns
>> out
>>> that GM had changed the input shaft size in the intervening years.)
>>>
>>> Thanks, Rick
>>
>>
>