So, mostly from a post I made about a year ago or more, I am making a DIY guide for a clutch replacement job. This is meant only to supplement a repair guide such as Haynes. These are just some important things to do and some advice as to some techniques. Please PM comments as you see fit, and I will improve the guide with any good recommendations.
The Times & Labor Guide (Mechanic's Bible) quotes 7.0 Hours for a clutch repair including the flywheel. I would plan on at least double that if it is first time. It might take that long if you move quickly and have a shop / lift. If you do it on the ground, I wish you the best of luck, you are brave. So why would you want to do this yourself? Check this out.
A recent (Aug-2007) quote for a clutch and master/slave cylinder job at Merchants Tire & Auto Center in Charlottesville VA is as follows:
$692.11 for clutch / pressure plate
$345.79 for clutch master and slave cylinders.
Total $1067.90
Now, I have heard reports of the clutch job generally costing $400-$600, so this is a high quote, there are probably places you could have it done for less – you could at least buy the parts yourself, that would help.
Here is approximately what it would cost me to do the job: $65 for a pair of remanufactured master and slave cylinders on eBay, $95 for an OEM clutch kit on eBay (clutch disc, pressure plate, TO bearing, alignment tool), $25 for rear main crankshaft seal, $25 for new transmission fluid. Total: $210 plus one weekends time or less.
Now if anything goes wrong or you find bad axles or something like that, that will cost extra, but you can bet that the auto place will charge you for any tiny little thing that they find. Sometimes even stuff that is included in a normal clutch job they will make into a big deal and charge you for.
On to the info:
I now have an Act HA3-HDSS + 5th gen lx tranny, smooth as silk, grips like a mofo. It’s a long and tedious job. It took me two full days, but I ran into some hurdles with switching to the other tranny. Make sure you can have the time to do the job right. Don’t do it right before a road trip, unless you have a backup car. Rarely do you not hit obstacles that may be very time consuming.
Definitely replace the rear main seal on the crank, and I'd suggest the oil pan gasket too if it needs it, while you have the tranny out and the cross member and down pipe off. It is much easier with straight access to the oil pan. Check your output shaft seals (the seals where the axle and intermediate shaft plug into the transmission), CV boots and ball joint boots to see if they are leaking or cracked, and get new ones before hand if at all possible so you don't have any delays while working under the car.
Once you get everything unhooked and clear of the tranny, following the Haynes manual procedure, undo both side engine mounts (just the big bolts at the top of the mount, so the engine will be able to tilt forward so that you can get the tranny out). Support the engine block by a weight spreading board on the oil pan (the more surface area to distribute the weight the better, so that you don’t damage the easily bendable oil pan), and completely remove the tranny mount.
You will have to of course remove the lower ball joint and steering ball joint on both sides, and the radius rod on the right side (you will have to partially remove the front splash guard to get to the front nut, I think that was 17mm all around for that), otherwise it will prevent the tranny from dropping. It is a lot easier to do this before you try and remove it, otherwise you will be stuck holding the tranny while trying to remove this and it will be a nightmare.
Instead of removing the two power steering hoses from the mechanical part of the vehicle speed sensor, very gently undo that weird tall 10mm bolt and wiggle the whole sensor out (be careful, the nub the bolt attaches to is 1/4 inch cast aluminum, fairly east to snap), and put everything in a bag and zip tie or twistem it so the gear doesn't get dirty. Put a clean rag or paper towel in the hole in the tranny so dirt doesn’t get in. Depending on the hoses you might have to do that when you tilt the engine/tranny forward.
Be careful when removing and putting the tranny back on, there are two alignment sleeves (1 inch long hollow sleeves that fit ½ inch into the tranny and ½ inch into the engine) that are easy to crush and a bitch to fix. They are important and need to not be crushed because a bolt has to slide through. They are just for aligning the tranny to the engine block.
MAKE SURE you draw a simple little diagram and label all 10 tranny bolts. They are different sizes and are designed to go in a specific spot. You don’t want to get them mixed up. I'd put them in little sandwich bags and number the bag corresponding with the picture. That is a big important step, so you know where they all go.
If you keep the other parts separate you should be able to easily remember where it all goes. What I did is took a clean bench and starting making two (left and right sides of car) neat rows at one end, and worked in one direction as I removed things. This is an ordered process, so if you do this, you can just work backwards when putting things back together. Arranging the parts linearly will help keep you in line as to what to do next.
While the tranny is out, take the time to clean the bell housing and release fork with brake parts cleaner, and then lube the input shaft splines, inside and front of release bearing throw out bearing, slave cyl rod socket, and all contact points of the release fork with high temp caliper grease.
Definitely either get a new flywheel or have your stock one resurfaced. If you don’t have it resurfaced, there is an 80% chance that you will have engagement chattering, and you will likely void any warranty on the clutch kit. Don’t just scuff up the Flywheel, take it to a machine shop and resurface it. It cost me like $40 at Fisher Auto Parts, and took maybe 15 minutes... It is cheap enough that it is simply not worth the risk of voiding the warranty or having to tear it all apart to fix the chatter (or just dealing with it forever and not fixing it).
Don't forget the loctight or other thread locking compound on the flywheel bolts, and torq them to 76 ft/lbs in a criss-cross pattern just like you should tighten the lug nuts on a wheel. If the flywheel spins put a block of wood on the right side – wedge it between the frame and the teeth, which should hold it just fine.
Then put your clutch disc on, put the alignment tool in, wiggle it until it is as centered as possible, and tighten up the pressure plate bolts slowly in a criss cross pattern. Once they are all snug and the pressure plate is flush with the flywheel, torq those bolts to 20 ft/lbs. Don’t torq them fully one at a time, do like a half a turn and go to the next until they are all at 20 ft/lbs, so that it seats properly
Then you have to get that tranny lined up and slid back on, this can be a real bitch. Then it is just crankin' bolts and reattaching stuff, you are in the clear at this point!
The Times & Labor Guide (Mechanic's Bible) quotes 7.0 Hours for a clutch repair including the flywheel. I would plan on at least double that if it is first time. It might take that long if you move quickly and have a shop / lift. If you do it on the ground, I wish you the best of luck, you are brave. So why would you want to do this yourself? Check this out.
A recent (Aug-2007) quote for a clutch and master/slave cylinder job at Merchants Tire & Auto Center in Charlottesville VA is as follows:
$692.11 for clutch / pressure plate
$345.79 for clutch master and slave cylinders.
Total $1067.90
Now, I have heard reports of the clutch job generally costing $400-$600, so this is a high quote, there are probably places you could have it done for less – you could at least buy the parts yourself, that would help.
Here is approximately what it would cost me to do the job: $65 for a pair of remanufactured master and slave cylinders on eBay, $95 for an OEM clutch kit on eBay (clutch disc, pressure plate, TO bearing, alignment tool), $25 for rear main crankshaft seal, $25 for new transmission fluid. Total: $210 plus one weekends time or less.
Now if anything goes wrong or you find bad axles or something like that, that will cost extra, but you can bet that the auto place will charge you for any tiny little thing that they find. Sometimes even stuff that is included in a normal clutch job they will make into a big deal and charge you for.
On to the info:
I now have an Act HA3-HDSS + 5th gen lx tranny, smooth as silk, grips like a mofo. It’s a long and tedious job. It took me two full days, but I ran into some hurdles with switching to the other tranny. Make sure you can have the time to do the job right. Don’t do it right before a road trip, unless you have a backup car. Rarely do you not hit obstacles that may be very time consuming.
Definitely replace the rear main seal on the crank, and I'd suggest the oil pan gasket too if it needs it, while you have the tranny out and the cross member and down pipe off. It is much easier with straight access to the oil pan. Check your output shaft seals (the seals where the axle and intermediate shaft plug into the transmission), CV boots and ball joint boots to see if they are leaking or cracked, and get new ones before hand if at all possible so you don't have any delays while working under the car.
Once you get everything unhooked and clear of the tranny, following the Haynes manual procedure, undo both side engine mounts (just the big bolts at the top of the mount, so the engine will be able to tilt forward so that you can get the tranny out). Support the engine block by a weight spreading board on the oil pan (the more surface area to distribute the weight the better, so that you don’t damage the easily bendable oil pan), and completely remove the tranny mount.
You will have to of course remove the lower ball joint and steering ball joint on both sides, and the radius rod on the right side (you will have to partially remove the front splash guard to get to the front nut, I think that was 17mm all around for that), otherwise it will prevent the tranny from dropping. It is a lot easier to do this before you try and remove it, otherwise you will be stuck holding the tranny while trying to remove this and it will be a nightmare.
Instead of removing the two power steering hoses from the mechanical part of the vehicle speed sensor, very gently undo that weird tall 10mm bolt and wiggle the whole sensor out (be careful, the nub the bolt attaches to is 1/4 inch cast aluminum, fairly east to snap), and put everything in a bag and zip tie or twistem it so the gear doesn't get dirty. Put a clean rag or paper towel in the hole in the tranny so dirt doesn’t get in. Depending on the hoses you might have to do that when you tilt the engine/tranny forward.
Be careful when removing and putting the tranny back on, there are two alignment sleeves (1 inch long hollow sleeves that fit ½ inch into the tranny and ½ inch into the engine) that are easy to crush and a bitch to fix. They are important and need to not be crushed because a bolt has to slide through. They are just for aligning the tranny to the engine block.
MAKE SURE you draw a simple little diagram and label all 10 tranny bolts. They are different sizes and are designed to go in a specific spot. You don’t want to get them mixed up. I'd put them in little sandwich bags and number the bag corresponding with the picture. That is a big important step, so you know where they all go.
If you keep the other parts separate you should be able to easily remember where it all goes. What I did is took a clean bench and starting making two (left and right sides of car) neat rows at one end, and worked in one direction as I removed things. This is an ordered process, so if you do this, you can just work backwards when putting things back together. Arranging the parts linearly will help keep you in line as to what to do next.
While the tranny is out, take the time to clean the bell housing and release fork with brake parts cleaner, and then lube the input shaft splines, inside and front of release bearing throw out bearing, slave cyl rod socket, and all contact points of the release fork with high temp caliper grease.
Definitely either get a new flywheel or have your stock one resurfaced. If you don’t have it resurfaced, there is an 80% chance that you will have engagement chattering, and you will likely void any warranty on the clutch kit. Don’t just scuff up the Flywheel, take it to a machine shop and resurface it. It cost me like $40 at Fisher Auto Parts, and took maybe 15 minutes... It is cheap enough that it is simply not worth the risk of voiding the warranty or having to tear it all apart to fix the chatter (or just dealing with it forever and not fixing it).
Don't forget the loctight or other thread locking compound on the flywheel bolts, and torq them to 76 ft/lbs in a criss-cross pattern just like you should tighten the lug nuts on a wheel. If the flywheel spins put a block of wood on the right side – wedge it between the frame and the teeth, which should hold it just fine.
Then put your clutch disc on, put the alignment tool in, wiggle it until it is as centered as possible, and tighten up the pressure plate bolts slowly in a criss cross pattern. Once they are all snug and the pressure plate is flush with the flywheel, torq those bolts to 20 ft/lbs. Don’t torq them fully one at a time, do like a half a turn and go to the next until they are all at 20 ft/lbs, so that it seats properly
Then you have to get that tranny lined up and slid back on, this can be a real bitch. Then it is just crankin' bolts and reattaching stuff, you are in the clear at this point!
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