so i did the bellhouse swap and everything was fine till i broke a bolt, i pulled it all back apart only to have the new silicone i used hold tighter than the original factory seal. the first two times i pulled the transmissions apart the bellhouses came off with the gearboxs still closed and all the gearing inside, now the gear box part of the trans is apart with all of the gearing and rods exposed. the three rods are lined up i just can get the shifter to go back into them when everything is back together. is there some sort of ajustment or did i screw myself

anyone?

so am i the only one that did this?

I think people have had this happen before, its real quiet here right now (tends to be during winter) there are posts about it in these swap forums, look through them. Also check out auto trans to manual trans swap guide written by IggyEguana, I can't remember what forum its in but I think it was stickied. You can also PM people who have done successful bellhousing swaps, because several of them ran into issues such as this and figured out the solution.

so i figured this out myself, what i did was take off the shifter at the 6 bolt plate then i popped a pin out of the part that the shifter sat in with a hammer and nail punch, this let the 'shifter rod' loose. i then lined up this rod's nub in the three shift 'forks' and slipped the back half of the case back on, popped the pin back in some fresh silicone, bolt everything back together and it should be good to go. sorry if i got the 'terminology' wrong, ask and i'll try to help if i can

cool man thanks for updating us with your solution, I'm sure it may come up again sometime!