How To R&R a Clutch

[Garret]

Removal & Replacement of a Clutch
written by Garret

1. Break loose front wheel nuts with car on the ground
2. Jack Car up and Secure with Jackstands
3. Remove wheels
4. Jam a screwdriver in the veins of the brake rotors and remove the axle nut after taking off the dust shield/cotter pin. This is a 1 1/4 nut make sure you have a deep socket otherwise you'll end up rounding off the nut. Do this on both sides
5. You need an 18mm wrench place on the balljoint securing nut, then a 15mm socket on the balljoint bolt and remove them. Same on both sides
6. Put an oil pan under the tranny.
7. Loosen the sway bar bracket bolts on both sides, they are 13mm you'll need a 13mm wrench and a 13mm deep socket, chances are good you'll break them but you may get them off without breaking, a quick trip down to the hardware store will get you some new ss shorter bolts. Upon reassembly now is also a good time to shim the swaybar for traction.
8. Get a picklefork and pound it in and push down to remove the balljoint from the spindle, failing that get a big pipe or what you used to raise and lower the jack inbetween the axle and the control arm and pry down (Prybar works also).
9. Remove drivers side axle and place it aside
10. Go over the passenger side and bust out the 13mm socket and remove the bolts holding the equal length halfshaft to the bracket take those two out then pull the axle out and set it aside.
11. Unplug the speed distance sensor and Reverse switch
12. Go into the car and unhook the clutch cable on the inside of the car then hook it from the arm.
13. Unbolt the bobblestrut from the kframe, 15mm socket & wrench will do this, also a good time to clamp some 3/8th heater hose onto the bobble strut to help with traction
14. Undo the Speed distance sensor housing from the tranny 13mm bolts, beware when you pull this down as alot of oil will come down.
15. Undo the tranny shield bolts 10mm
16. Remove the starter you'll need some long sockets and extentions for these bolts 15mm will take care of them. Pull it back and rest it on the turbo support bracket.
17. Loosen up the bolts that hold the tranny to the engine and front motor mount, but don't remove. 18mm sockets on these.
18. Remove the shifter cables and clips that hold them onto the bracket.
19. Place a jack under the tranny and remove the 13mm bolts on the driver side engine mount.
20. Remove the bolts holding the tranny to the block & lower the jack
21. Using a prybar slide the tranny off of the block. Don't worry about it crashing to the ground I've done this over 20 times. The only time this is a problem is when it's a 525 as they have wimpy cases... If you're really worried about dropping it you can just place a blanket below it.
22. Drag the tranny out of the way and give yourself a pat on the back you're at the point of no return.
23. Loose off the bolts holding the PP to the flywheel REMEMBER to do this in a Crisscross pattern to avoid warping, 13mm on these the trick is to have a 13mm wrench as well and hold it on a bolt that is away from the one you are loosening and just keep going around until you have them all loose then remove them and take down the PP and clutch.
24. Now remove the flywheel bolts with an 18mm socket... same rules as the PP.
25. Reinstall resurfaced flywheel make sure not to get your dirty finger prints on it if you do a quick blast of brake clean will fix it up. Then do the final torque at 65-70ft/lbs. Note: Use loc-tite when installing them.
26. Now install the new TOB on the input shaft of the tranny and test fit the clutch to make sure it goes on the input shaft no problem.
27. Now place the clutch and PP on torque these bolts down to 21ft/lbs. Don't worry about getting the disk centered as these clutches automatically center themselves.
28. Now for the hardest most stressful part, getting that tranny back up. Two ways of doing it.

The Garret Way - Get under the car with your head facing the passenger side and your feet out the driver's side. get the tranny on your stomach and then put your legs so your feet are flat ont he ground but your knees are bent. Then HUMP, Hump with all your might and get that tranny up then slide towards the tranny and now with your hands rock the tranny clockwise and counterclockwise until it lines up with the input shaft and after a while(can take 1 minute or a half hour) of struggling it will just magically "slide" over and get it over and get some bolts put in.

The dowel pin way - Cut the head off of some bolts and then cut a grove into them so you can screw them out you have to make them about 2 inches long then get the tranny up, Hump method works good and then get it onto those dowels and slide it over and push the tranny over, if the input shaft doesn't line up with the clutch slowly rotate the engine using a 15mm socket on the pulley until it does, then bolt it up.

Both ways work well I prefer the hump method personally but they both work. Reassembly is the reverse of install. Just remember to fill up the tranny with 2 quarts of 5w30 non synthetic oil and you're good to go. All of this was off the top of my head so some of the bolt sizes my be "slightly" wrong anyone let me know if we missed something.


Written by Garret!

Updated thread on July 11th, 2005 by Frank Katzenberger

[XxhorizonxX]

dont forget. might not have anything to do with the clutch. BUT if your main seal is leaking make sure you replace it when you do a clutch install so as to not ruin the nice pretty clutch with grease from the leaking seal. its SO much easier to do while you got the tranny out. also. make sure if your tranny is greasy to give it a good cleaning. looks better in there. also be sure to refill the tranny with 10w30 and not GEAR OIL! they dont like gear oil!

[phantomrt]

I've had my 523's, 543's and 568's out a bunch of times on '90+ cars. Problem with these is that the differential housings will hit the K-frame before you can pull it away from the engine enough to get the input shaft out. What needs to be done is to remove the mount below the radiator and scoot the entire engine/tranny assembly towards the radiator as far as you can. Usually as far as the heater core hoses will let you and then some. During this, the A/C belt tensioner pulley should come off for clearance over on that side.

If you can get the tranny out and back in without removing the front engine mount and without destroying anything, you are a much better mechanic than I am.

[Frank]

Thank you Garret for the writeup! If anyone would like to have changes incorporated, please PM me. Please feel free to also add your experiences and opinions in PM.


Frank