tranny snag

I've got an 88 and I replaced my clutch, and when replacing the transmission, I ran into a snag. the first time around we tried sliding it back on, and with about an inch of a gap, we couldn't push her on any tighter. Figuring the splines weren't lining up right, we back her off and played with the splines a little. Putting in on the second time, we were able to make more progress, but still couldn't quite close the gap. My friend suggested to simply slowely tighten all the bolts until it was on. So we tried that.

The two lower bolts went back in fine, and the reverse bolts just above went on fine too, but the ever so hard to reach bolts on the top are nearly impossible to tighten, and now the tranny looks pinched, with the ass leaning slightly down. Tried jacking the back up to angle it better, but the engine just goes with it and makes it impossible to reach the top bolts. I'm afraid of breaking something putting to much pressure on the bolts and I'm stumped.

I KNOW someone's replaced there clutch on an 88. Does anyone have any idea why my transmission won't go on without a fight? Is the something I should be worried about, checking, etc? Is there some trick to it that I'm just not seeing?

any help, please

Don't force the tranny in ny tightening bolts. If it doesn't slide in flush by hand, back it out.

When you tightened the pressure plate, did you center the clutch with a pilot shaft? Maybe the clutch plate is off-center.

Maybe you're not getting the tranny shaft into the pilot bearing. Maybe you replaced the pilot bearing with the wrong one. Take out the tranny and the pilot bearing and see if the shaft will fit in the bearing with the tranny out.