Damn I hate these ******* things!! Mazda made a terrible design choice. After soaking the nut in pb blaster for a day. Hitting it with a $400 impact gun, kicking a 2' breaker bar. I can't get the ****** to budge. Now I can legpress over 800 lbs so kicking that thing with a 2 foot breaker bar i should be hitting it with atleast 1000 ftlbs and the bitch won't move. ARG!!!
Sorry I had to vent somewhere... Sooo lets make this thread usefull.

How important is it to resurface your flywheel when you install a new clutch?

 

we used a 3/4 impact gun and it worked wonders. sucks you had to go through that.

 

find a diesel shop, they get those bitches right off.

 

fawk i'm using a 1/2" impact. still wont come off. i'm thinking about just starting the car and running some emery over it just to get the glaze off. old hotrod diy ghetto style. I'm not going to pay hundreds to get the car towed a few miles just to get the flywheel off.

 

My 1/2" impact gun has taken every nut off except one, on a rebuilt TII. I ended up taking that engine to a friend at the Ford dealer so he could use a 3/4" gun on it. Penetrating oils won't soften threadlockers, but heat will. I have an acetelyne only pencil tip torch for those rare occasions now.

 

This makes me feel good knowing I have to take mine off very soon!

 

I have the Mazdatrix 3' socketed bar and blocker; bought it ages ago for my first rebuild. Does the job sweetly.
http://www.mazdatrix.com/toolmisc.htm
49-22000 and 49-22001

Getting the wheel off the e-shaft, different story. That takes finesse.

 

nooobbb

I dont even use impact gun and I never had a problem using a RB flywheel nut/holder OR a cold chisel with flattened tip/hammer. here's my technique. tighten the large nut first (this is to break the thread lock) and then go counter clockwise. OR maybe there is a lock washer just like the pre-RX-7 motors.

 

thats the easy part. smack the step on the flywheel (NOT THE SURFACE AREA) with a beefy hammer. usually one whack on each side or one whack period does teh job. leave the nut threaded on a bit to avoid the flywheel falling and damaging you or itself.

 

Used my roommates butane cooking torch to heat the bitch up for 15 minutes than hit the nut with a chizzle and hammer for 5 minutes. nothing. then threw heat on it again for another 5 minutes and the impact took the nut right off. I've never seen so much ******* locktite in my life. I'm discusted.. lol
it's off. i totaly forgot about heat and that's what got it!

 

Also known as, 'finesse.'

'Brute force' implies explosives.

 

Getting back to the original question of re-surfacing. What they do when they resurface is also restore the correct step for proper seating of the components to the flywheel.

 

OMFG!! So I have a steel light weight flywheel.... The ******* shop that resurfaced my wheel not only resurfaced the clutch contact surface, but the pressure plate mounting area. the ******** took off about 1/3" of the flywheel off. Now I can't mount my ******* clutch to it, and i noticed it after i got home and they were already closed for the weekend. So I'm without my car for who knows how long. These ******** better buy me a new flywheel...

 

Sounds like you need one of these,

http://www.powerhawk.com/pages/SWENCH/swechfront.html

Steve

 

relax noobbb. you can always install a spacer

 

They are supposed to resurface both areas. That is what restores the proper step as I stated in my original post. If you just resurface the friction contact point and do not adjust the pressure plate mounting point then you will not have the proper seating friction. I have had many lightened flywheels resurfaced and never had an issue after wards.

 

no i'm telling you.they resurfaced the friction portion about .0001" and the mounting area 1/3". The flywheel is fucked... the clutch won't even bolt all the way down...
1st pic is what it used to look like 2nd pic is what it looks like now...

 

see those recesses next to the bolt holes. see that they're gone, now the friction pad on the pressure plate is over hung where those recesses are supposed to be. i can't actually even bolt it down. as tight as i can get the bolts the pressure plate isn't fl;ush against the fly wheel and the clutch is fully engaged on the flywheel and the pressure plate teeth. not the friction surface the teeth thingy's. I've never been this mad.

 

I'm with Wacky, just put some washers/spacers between the flywheel and the pressure plate. It will work exactly the same as before. Just get some spacers that make up the thickness they removed and insert them between the two.

 

Not sure what the machine shop was thinking, but there is a spec for the distance between disc mating surface and the lands for the pressure plate. I don't see it in the FSM but the last high performance clutch I bought included that measurement with installation instructions. When I had the flywheel turned, the machine shop had to pull the alignment pins for the pressure plate so they could machine the lands to maintain that distance. Unfortunately I didn't keep the spec sheet.

I went out and measured an S3 flywheel that I have and the distance between the disc face and lug is 0.644". From what I remember, most of the lightweight flywheels have seperate lugs so the clutch assembly will stand proud. Since I've never owned a lightweight flywheel, I can only speak from what I've read here on the forum.

 

they dont have the spec in the FSM, they want you to replace it

 

he was joking abou the spacers. you don't trust your life to some washers...

 

the RB aluminum flywheels use spacers. http://www.mazdatrix.com/flywheel.htm #95180

 

Well how do I figure out how big of a spacer to use?

 

thats a good one! do you have a stock flywheel to measure?