Did you use an alignment dowel to keep the clutch disk spline in line with the pilot bearing (Edit: when you bolted the pressure plate to the flywheel)? (They make a special tool for this. I have made them out of wood before. I have been known to use an input shaft for this as well.) If you are getting that close it sounds like you are getting the input shaft splines in the clutch disk but not getting the shaft started in the pilot bearing. You may need to loosen the pressure plate and re-center the clutch disk. If the gap is larger than you reported then you may not be getting the splines aligned between the input shaft and the clutch disk. In which case you may be able to put the transmission in gear (fourth is a good gear for this) and rotate the output shaft (which rotates the input shaft) to get the splines to mate.
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96 3500 4WD, 47RE, gauges; 97 3500 4WD 47RE, gauges; 97 3500 2WD 5-spd; all club cab. 98.5 2500 2WD SB, 5-spd, gauges, quad cab
Last edited by clc : 07-19-2008 at 05:10 AM.
Reason: For clarity