I took some photos of my installed new SBC Stage 2 DD pressure plate and clutch, and it looks like the disc might be out radial alignment. Thing is that I was able to reinstall the trans, which you'd think would be impossible as it would put the dowel pins and bolt holes out of alignment too. Is it possible to even do that? Is it possible that the disc was actually aligned and it just seemed mis-aligned because of the camera angle? Or perhaps pushing the trans back in moved the disc back into alignment--and is that even possible given the clamping force of the PP spring?

And yes, I used the alignment tool. Thing is that it didn't securely "lock into" the blind hole in the center of the crankshaft end. I was able to pivot it slightly. I tried my best to keep it at what felt like the correct orientation, but I've never done this before so I'm not sure I got it right.

Here's the photo:

The best way to tell is to look thru the 3 openings around the edge and see if the friction disk is lined up evenly with the pressure plate surface in all 3 openings. Trying to eyeball it can be very misleading as it will look different depending on what angle your looking from.

I lost my alignment dowel and I just use my fingers thru those holes to line the disk up with the pressure plate. Seems to actually work better than the tool. I've always found them to be sloppy as you stated. The trans will probably go in but you may have to fight it a bit more.

I did have to fight it but I assumed that this was because it was the first time I ever did this and got the trans-engine angles wrong, not because the clutch was mis-aligned.

And it's hard to eyeball it because it's hard to tell when you're looking dead-on. Our eyes aren't meant to be able to do that without instruments.

Can you force a slightly mis-aligned clutch to go back into alignment with the trans while reinstalling it? I thought the clamping force prevented that.

It doesn't matter at this point. Its in.

pauleyman said:

It doesn't matter at this point. Its in.

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So it was aligned to begin with and it only looked mis-aligned, or installing the trans aligned it, but either way it's aligned now and no need to worry?

XC92 said:

So it was aligned to begin with and it only looked mis-aligned, or installing the trans aligned it, but either way it's aligned now and no need to worry?

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If you got the trans in then your good.

To answer your previous question the friction disk doesn't move due to the clamping force. The splined center hole actually can move around slightly by compressing the springs in the clutch disk. If you ever install a rigid/un-sprung disk in a car you'll find out how hard it is to actually align a clutch perfectly

XC92 said:

So it was aligned to begin with and it only looked mis-aligned, or installing the trans aligned it, but either way it's aligned now and no need to worry?

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Looked ok to me but either way doesn't matter. Trans is in. If you had any misalignment issues it wouldn't matter. It all goes away at the first clutch push. I don't think you did anyway. Relax. You got this.

pauleyman said:

Looked ok to me but either way doesn't matter. Trans is in. If you had any misalignment issues it wouldn't matter. It all goes away at the first clutch push. I don't think you did anyway. Relax. You got this.

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Good point! Release the clamping spring and the disc shifts back to where it should be, assuming it was ever out of alignment to begin with.

This problem solved, I now have another, steering-related one, potentially far more serious:

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/r...-bolt-all-the-way-into-joint-assembly.532049/