Dowel Pin at the top of the starter (No mention of this in 101 Projects Book Wayne!)

[AlwaysONe04]

So Im doing a cluth job on my 93' 325i and I come across what looks to be like a broken bolt at the top the starter. Because the tranny is completely in the way I figured I was in a bad spot. Some how I figured that it had to be a pin because I know that my starter is not threaded and there wasn't a nut at that particular spot on the engine side. So I got a punch and a 2 foot extention and a hammer and started pounding away. I wasn't even thinking about the bell-housing on the tranny being made of aluminum but thank goodness my punch was well centered on the pin. I was able to pound it out.

So did the clutch, went with the UUC stage 2 with the M5 disk. The tranny went on with difficulties but I was able to raise the bell-housing higher up than the gearbox and mate the splines. I thought this may be helpful to whoever is reading this. Also don't forget to put the light metal shield on the back of the engine block before you attach your new flywheel. I was careless enough to forget but somehow managed to slot it in using the opening at the bottom.

So getting the torx bolts in was a considerable task but it really helps from doing it from the back of the tranny, just make sure you lower it enough to see up there. Keep in mind again that the bell housing is made of aluminum so you dont want to put any kind of pressure on one bolt alone. Just work them in evenly and slowly.

So my top bolts are in but the starter bolts are what is next. It is very easy to get a wrench on the bottom nut and turn the bolt but, because of that dowel puting pressure on the mating surface you don't want to try to tighten the lower (easier) starter bolt and nut too tight just yet.

So basically now you have to remove the intake manifold just to tighten the top starter bolt properly so that the dowel pin can mate into the starter correctly. If somebody was to just skip this try to put the tranny in without the dowel pin ( you slackers) than when you start the car there is the potential of the starter ripping off the bellhousing (sounds unlikely but is very possible!) anyways, hopefully that helps somebody out there. Right now I stoped for the night half-way through taking my intake off, you gotta give yourself some time. If I see anything else new I will gladly post it.

[AlwaysONe04]

got the whole thing back together. Runs great!!

[Jeron]

I put in the same clutch. Did you go with street or street/track material?

[Scott Gilbert]

I had the same problem with the starter dowel pin, but I was determined not to take off the intake manifold. I put a little bit of grease on the dowel pin to help it guide into the hole. Worked great.