This one has threads only up near the shoulder, whereas the pic of the one he originally posted had the threads at the opposite end. Or are my old eyes deceiving me?

 

I noticed that too. Oh well looks like the OP is done with this thread. We may never know what the bolt is or where this Viewport is.

 

Here we are, on our back, under the engine compartment. That opening on the transmission housing where you can see cogs/gears is what I apparently mislabeled a viewport because, well, that's what it looks like. Just to the right of it is the mystery bolt.

 

That appears to be #51 shift shaft detente. Would also cause sloppy shifting.

 

Would loosening, over torquing or removing it cause clutch slippage? Or any of the reduced power symptoms I'm having?

 

I still don't think it's the no 51 item in the diagram above. His picture shows it is adjacent to the bell housing, which places it on the bottom of the engine. The bolt he is referring to is the long oil pan bolt.

specialagent - do you know exactly what the part numbers were for the parts installed - and the brand name of them all - everything from the clutch driven plate, to the slave or master cylinders that were replaced. I tend to agree with FMG that you have a clutch problem and or a mechanic problem and or wrong parts installed problem.

 

This is why they say mot all mechanics are created equal. Some may never reach basic credibility. Why, oh why are you removing bolts? This is is an engineered device, not a Jenga tower...

Losing faith in humanity as the "average intelligence" keeps dropping lower and lower.

 

I'm leaning towards clutch problem myself now. I had dropped a transmission off of an HHR the salvage yard as a dry run before possibly doing it myself, and after inspection it over I decided to take off my clutch again and inspect it myself and probably get a clutch kit.

That bolt, which I broke off over torquing, actually goes into the clutch not transmission so I'll get an answer as to what it does as well.

 

After another post by this person, we found out it was an oil pan bolt.
He showed a very good picture of it broken in the pan rail.
The bolt is in front of the flywheel.

 

Yup - sometimes it works, and sometimes it don't.

Anything I could add to this would not be accepted well.
I'm out on this one - I won't waste any more of my time on it.