I HATE CARS NOW!!! lol. Im really not a happy bunny at the moment, got the gearbox off and put the new clutch in (should have seen the old one lol... nearly no friction plate ) erm come to put it all back together and noooooooooo, the flippin gearbox wont go on properly.

Its like at the point where its nearly ready for splines of the drive shaft bit to slip into the clutch plate bit... if you know what im talking about lol. But it just wont go. Its cos the gearbox is at a slight angle to the engine which makes it harder, tried pulling the gearbox up and wiggling it on, but nope, not having it... REALLY PISSING ME OFF!!!

Started at 11 this morning, then gave up at about 8 in the evening. Spent most of the time trying to put the gearbox back on Need someone who has actually done one on a fiesta before to help really lol - my teacher at college is the only person who knows as he done a couple on fiesta's. So goin to try get hold of him somehow 2moz. See if he can get his fat ass around mine to do it. If not, just have to get a pro out - which i dont want to do as it will cost a bomb and i have literally no money.

Was determined to get it done today - just the stupid gearbox. Hate cars now, hate ford, hate everything! lol

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have you centered the friction plate within the drive plate when bolting the clutch cover to flywheel? it sounds like its out of alignment which will make it hard/impossible to get the gearbox shaft into the clutch and bolted up, if it is centered try just rotating the flywheel a little bit to aling the splines and keep wiggling the gearbox and push without excess force.

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Will

Yea the clutch plate is all lined up, if anything, its less than 1mm out. Its 99.9999999999% perfect. Im going to try give the flywheel a little turn - or even the input shaft to get all the splines lined up. Hopefully that will work - someone else said to do that. Its literally nearly there, just needs to slide in pretty much, but it just doesnt want to lol.

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Well, guess what i found out while working on the car today... the clutch plate was the wrong flipping one! Even tho we checked in the book and on the computer at motor factors. The input shaft of the gearbox was bigger than the splines on the inside of the clutch plate, so went and got another ones with my mates, and checked it was the right size and fitted properly ect - all good. Clutch is now on, gearbox is still off lol. Reason being, the CV joint on the driveshaft at the gearbox end is fucked, because the inner part if the CV joint has come out of the CV joint itself lol.

Soooo, gotta take off the driveshafts out of the gearbox completely, fix them - not hard, then put the gearbox back on with the driveshafts out of the gearbox - should be a hell of alot easier as there will be more freedom with the gearbox (hopefully) wack the driveshafts back in, then starter motor, and fix a couple of wires that broke somehow, then, hopefully she will be back on the road with a nice new clutch and all good again! *Touch wood*

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By the sound of that it was neva going to fit then, Well its all good experiance

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Will

Yea it would never have fitted lol. Yep sure is good experience! Good fun too - NOT! Well not when you have as much hassle as i have had

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I dont know what to do anymore, ive just tried taking off the wishbone arm to take the driveshaft out, and the nut has rounded off, so thats not coming undone.

This car how not mentally and nearly emotionally reduced me to tears cos i have no more ideas on how to do it.

Ford said it would be about 300 quid to do it as they would have to start from scratch pretty much and i really dont have that money, even if i did, i dont know how i would get it there cos the gearbox and engine are currently being supported, so if i take the supports away they will both just drop out pretty much. I really dont know what to do with this car anymore, i want it fixed but i dont know how to accomplish it!

what is it that’s actually wrong with the CV joint? the inner star of the CV joint will come out of the CV bucket (cant remember the technical names) its only the gator that holds it together when the gearbox is removed, Don’t know what fiesta you have but if gearbox is still removed shouldn’t need to remove the wishbone to replace the Joint or gator.

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Will

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GEARBOX IS ON!!!! haha. Finally! Borrowed a jack from college, gave me more height, bit of messing about and it went on - the satisfaction and relief i got when it went on was just the best lol. After all the struggling! All wires and gear linkages put back on gearbox.

Problem now is - the bolt on the wishbone is proper rounded off - not good, and the bolt that clamps the suspension onto the hub is MEGA tight for some reason. Got a Snap-on impact gun type thing and even that wont undo it, so thats going on charge for a few hours tonight, hopefully that will undo that bolt.

Only thing i need to do is fix a wire that snapped - found out it goes to the alternator so it needs to be fixed, and put the driveshaft back in and im ready to go!

Im rather happy now that the gearbox is on lol. Learned a few things, good bit of experience too. All good fun... not!

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Sounds quite an adventure, I have to say it was episodes like that which eventually meant I had to get rid of my Fiesta.

Good to see you sticking at it

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