Clutch Replacement

8. Clutch alignment tool you can either buy one or find a wrecked tranny and get an input shaft (call the tranny shops they will likely have one lying around)

9. Roughly a 1-inch diameter plastic plug to plug up the speedo gear hole.

10. Roughly a 5 inch long chunk of 2 by 4, now what you do with this is cut a groove in it for the tranny to sit level in (look at the back bottom of the tranny and groove it so it will match (does not have to be perfect) so the tranny can sit flat on your floor jack.

11. 12 mm flat wrench the longer the better.

12. Blue loctite.

13. White lithium grease

14. Grease gun

You will find that I may have missed the odd tool but this is just the basics and

Most important that I can think of.

I will give you step-by-step directions on exactly how to change out the clutch.

You should budget some time and research where and how quickly you can have

Your flywheel resurfaced and that the shop is going to be able to do it when you

Get it out

Getting the car ready: drive the front end up onto the ramps, block the tires (front ones on the ramps) Jack the rear of the car up to a point at which the car is pretty much level set the jack stands (depending on the stands you have will determine where you put them) if you have small jack stands you will need to put them under the frame near where the lower control arm attaches to the frame, if you have larger stands you can put them directly under axle shafts (this is how I do it with often back up stands on the frame).

If you don’t have ramps you will need bigger stands for the front to get it high enough if you put them under the front control arms, or you can put smaller stands under the K member.

I cant stress enough that you make sure the car is sturdy when it is in the air, because if it comes down you have nowhere to go, So when it is up and you are ready to get at it try and shake it lightly to see that it will not come down (better for it to come down when you are beside it then underneath!

The first thing to take off is the exhaust this will differ from car to car: If you

Have single exhaust or a custom bent exhaust you will need to determine whether

You can get around with the intermediate pipe being the only thing you take out or the complete exhaust (if you can get the complete exhaust off this your best bet)

On a fuel injected car with and h pipe you need to undo the two O2 sensors and the scavenge pipe (not sure of the real name) and unbolt it from the mufflers first, and then the headers.

If you plan to leave the mufflers use some wire to tie them up out of the way.

Driveshaft removal: Put the Ebrake on in the car you will shuffle under the car leverage (these bolts will be tight!) loosen them off one at a time (you will have to turn the with your 12mm wrench and possibly another wrench that you can use as extra shaft at least once to get all four bolts) If you have someone with you that can release the Ebrake it will save you from having to slide out from under the car each time. This is where that yolk comes in if you have nothing to plug the tailshaft you will want to drain the tranny before you pull the shaft (the drain plug is on the passenger side of the tranny there will be two plug the lowest one is the drain and the next one up is the one is to fill the tranny, you will need a 3/8 extension and a ratchet to loosen the plug.
Once you have all the fluid taken care of the next step is everything attached to the tranny: I start with the speedo cable it will be a 100mm bolt that holds a u shaped clamp holding the speedo cable in, undo this and have your little plastic cap ready to push into the hole as soon as you remove the speedo gear. Next up is the clutch cable you will need a 3/8 wrench to remove the cover, once you have that done you will see that there is a little hole and a big hole in the fork the cable will be resting in the little hole you need to push the fork forward to get enough play in the cable to shift it over to the big hole where it will slide through and out of the fork, take a look at where the cable goes through the bellhousing, there is a c-clip all you need to do is pull that straight out sideways and you can remove the cable from the bellhousing there will; also be a few wires for neutral safety(clutch switch) and reverse lights undo these, anything you undo try and tie up so they are not hanging in your way.
Shifter: this can be done a few different ways, You can take the shifter surround plastic off on the console, and take out the four bolts that hold the boot in place remove the rubber, and leather boot’s you will also need to unscrew the shifter ball to get the boot off. You will see two shifter bolts you will need to take these off, if you want or need the extra couple of inches the shift tower can give you take off the four bolts holding it on and remove it, take some duct tape and tape over the opening to keep dirt from entering this area!

Or you can do it the easy way IMO get your jack under the tranny undo the crossmember bolts and lower the tranny enough so that you can undo the two bolts holding the shifter to the tower, then lift the tranny back up and push the bolts in to the crossmember to hold it up again.

There are 4- 17mm bolts holding the tranny to the bellhousing I usually use numerous extensions and a wobble on the end to get at these bolts, take them out, and then you can undo your tranny mount from the crossmember. With your special 2x4 lift the tranny slightly to release the tension on the crossmember, and remove it. At this point you are ready to pull the tranny, do one last check to be sure that you have not missed anything. If its all good then let jack down slowly until the motor has settled to neutral position then pull the tranny backwards on the jack you will need to lower it slowly while pulling it back to keep the angle’s correct so it does not bind. Ok you have the tranny out of the bellhousing lower it to the ground and pull it right out from under car so it is out of the way.
Bellhousing: most of the bolts can be loosened with a wobble extension or you can use a flat wrench on some of the top bolts from the top, you will also need to undo the starter, as well as a couple of bolts through the aluminum flywheel shield to the bellhousing. You may need to finesse it off the two dowels it uses to center itself, after you are sure that there are no bolts you can pry near each of the dowels to get the bellhousing out.
Clutch: undo the clutch bolts, leave two across from each other still threaded in a bit as a safety you will need to pry the clutch off the dowels when you have it pretty close to being out undo the bolts and take the clutch right off the fly wheel.
Flywheel: If you are lucky enough to have gotten an impact wrench then this is easy, undo all but one and leave it loose but still holding, jiggle the flywheel from side to side to get it loose, when it is you can undo the bolt and take the flywheel off (! be careful the flywheel is not really light roughly 15 lbs).
Pilot bearing: This is the greatest trick I have ever learned, you pump grease into the end of the crank filling it up flush with the pilot bearing (as full as you can get it) take a 3/8 extension put a (I believe a ½ in socket is proper size) backwards on the extension and pound it in to the center (best to try this before you put grease in to make sure that the socket will fit all the way in) you are using hydraulics in its simplest form to push the bearing out from behind with the grease, you may need to refill with grease a few times as the bearing comes out. When you have it out clean all the grease out from the end of the crank. Use a socket to pound the new bearing in, be careful to make sure that you put it in straight.
Take the flywheel to have it resurfaced.
Clean up all your parts while they are out, take a look at the bearing retainer on your tranny and if it is rough use a little emery cloth to take off any burs that may be there, get everything ready to go back in.
Replace the release bearing on the clutch fork; coat the inside of the bearing lightly with lithium grease.
Put the Aluminum flywheel shield back on the dowels
Reinstall the flywheel, a little dab of loctite blue (make sure its blue not red)(red=very bad) tighten the bolts with the impact (do not sit there with the impact hammering away, it needs to be tight not stripped)
Clutch: Take your new clutch and pressure plate make sure the pressure plate is in the correct way (it will say right on the plate ”engine side”) put the clutch onto the dowel screw in a couple of bolts to hold the clutch, now take your clutch alignment tool and center it in the pilot bearing that will allow you to be able to get the input shaft to slide into the end of crank, using loctite blue on the bolts tighten them up using a criss cross pattern with the alignment tool still in place. When it is tight try inserting the alignment tool a few times to make sure that it slides in easy, and that it is lined up perfectly.
Bellhousing: insert the clutch fork on the fork ball center the bellhousing on the dowels and tighten using a criss cross pattern again making sure that you are not binding on the dowels, make sure all the bolts are tight and the starter is reinstalled as well as the couple of flywheel shield bolts are reinstalled and tight.
Tranny: there are a few ways to do this the first is, Get the tranny balanced on the jack using your special 2x4, you will need to line the tranny up with the clutch fork and slowly push it into the bellhousing there is no real easy way to do this but you will need to be patient and just line it up as best you can and slowly push it in be careful not to knock the clutch fork off the ball (This is usually the hardest part to do it has to be perfect to go in, Just keep trying).

The other way is to get the tranny on your chest and lift it up and slide it in (if your strong enough to do it this way, and have the room, it can be easier because you are better able to change the angles that you are trying to work with than you can with the jack.

Once you have the Input shaft correctly in the pilot bearing, and the release bearing correctly on the bearing retainer the tranny should be up tight to the bellhousing tighten the bolts make sure that everything is straight and nothing is out of place.
Shifter handle: if you used the easy method then now is the time to reinstall the handle, snug up the bolts then double check to make sure the handle is not backwards, then tighten.
Crossmember: Using the jack lift the tranny and reinstall the crossmember.
Clutch cable: reinstall the clutch cable through the bellhousing and push the clutch fork ahead in order to get the cable through it again, reinstall c-clip and cover.
Speedo cable: reinstall the speedo cable and hook all the electrical that you had to unhook.
Driveshaft: Take the yolk out and quickly insert the driveshaft and yolk so as to keep from making a mess, reinstall driveshaft to the rearend Take the Ebrake off and put it in neutral so you can turn the drive shaft snug the bolts up use a little loctite blue (red=very bad) on each one then put on the Ebrake and tighten the bolts again you will need to rotate the driveshaft at least once to get a good pull on the bolts.
Fluid: If you did not have a yolk you will need to fill it with tranny fluid, I recommend Dexron III that’s what I use, how I do this is get a clear chunk of plastic tubing that’s flexible and will slide onto the spout of the oil can (I know all gear oil lids are like this on liter jugs) then using a small hose clamp I tighten it to the spout, this allows you a little freedom to pour the fluid into the fill hole (mentioned earlier), fill it until it starts to run back out the fill hole (make sure the tranny is level) it will take a roughly 2.2 liters.
Exhaust: Reinstall your exhaust just the opposite as you took it off, get it bolted to both the headers and the mufflers, and tighten to the headers first then the mufflers.
Make sure you do a complete check of all your work that you did not miss anything and that all bolts are tight.
Adjust the clutch if you have the factory quadrant you need to reach down and pull the clutch pedal towards you then push it down to the floor, if you have an adjustable you already know (or have instructions).
Lower the car off jack stands and take it for a ride!
Your done have fun!