DemonicPupil

Well, I think my clutch went, or the pressure plate... or the throwout bearing (or is it a release bearing on these?) either way... i was cruisin and was no more than 10- secs from home and stopped at a light.. tried to go and my car started giving me crap.. i got it goin thru it in second... got home without stopping.. stopped and now i can't get the car to go into any gear while it's running

the gears grind if i try to put it in gear so i think the tranny is ok... whenever the clutch was NOT depressed.. it used to make a funny noise.. kinda like a grinding or whining... not real loud... but you knew the clutch was engaged =\ so i'm not sure exactly what the hell happened but i guess now i gotta go get a clutch kit...

I'm going to be trying to do this out on the road... is this going to be impossible?? I just need to take the tranny off and slide it backwards enough to do the work, right?

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

How does your pedal feel?

DemonicPupil

pedal feels tight.. yet loose... it doesn't drop to the floor easily.. but it doesn't feel like its pushing on the pressure plate... it has the same resistance all the way to the end

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

If you have a friend handy, have them push the clutch while you watch the slave cylinder. See how much movement you get on the fork. My guess is you wont get much. I am NOT dismissing your original assesment of the situation, but 90% of the time on the FC, the clutch hydraulics are to blame.

Rat

DemonicPupil

i had my girlfriend push the clutch... the fork is moving... looks to be moving about an inch or two... i tried extending the bar on the back of the clutch pedal... but it didn't do me any good

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Any noticeable difference if you pump the clutch pedal?

DemonicPupil

nope.. doesnt get tighter or looser

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

Well, that rules out the hydraulics..

DemonicPupil

If it grinded/whined when the clutch as engaged(in gear or not) and now it doesn't do it at all anymore... what could have been whining and what disengaged to stop the whining and stop me from getting the tranny into gear?

i'm kinda bothered by the fact it stopped whining.. to me that would mean that the clutch is disengaged, yet it still won't let me go into gear? It isn't making any noise at all now.

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Were you having any symptoms of a failing clutch before the random failure? i.e. has it been slipping when you got on it? In case you've never been in a car with a worn clutch: When you suddenly give it gas, did the rpms increase like it was an automatic, and then catch?

It's extremely rare that clutches spontaneously fail on the street. (not counting racing purposes here)

If you were experiencing clutch slip, then its definatly a good possibility that its the clutch.

as for repairing it on the street: It shouldn't be that bad, if your street is lightly used. I wouldn't do it on a main street or anything, though. To completely remove the transmission you need the 4 bolts that hold the drive shaft in place, remove those, then the shaft. You'll have 5 (6?) bolts that hold the bellhousing to the engine (as well as the starter in place), remove those. Put a jack under the transmission, and then remove the bolts for the tranny brace.

I'd say it would take you a good 4 hours on the street. I know I can do it in about 1.5ish in my garage. Its not that bad.

EDIT: About your question. If the clutch was getting worn, it might be a busted spring. The clutch discs have springs in them, if they broke, there's no pressure being put out on the clutch anymore, you won't be able to shift, and it won't let you into gear.

DemonicPupil

I was noticing some slippage occasionally... one of my huge problems was getting it into first gear sometimes... especially as the car got hotter and what not... if i had driven it all day... my top speed was also something like 120 if i was lucky... so yea i think the clutch had some symptoms.. I'm headed to Autozone to get a clutch kit now... I don't wanta cheap one.. but I don't have time to screw around cuz this is my daily driver and no garage around here has time to fix it till next week... Any special tools I will need? Will I need any grease? Is a torque wrench a necessity or can I give the bolts a good hand tightening?

Hopefully I can do it in 4 hours.. I'll be trying to do it at night worse of all.. but I got one of them nice hanging lights that run off the battery...

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

If it was slipping, I'm guessing a spring in the clutch went out on you. Its sorta common on sports cars. I've seen it a lot more on cars that myself and my friends drive (we're a bit hard on our vehicles sometimes ), vs. my wuss friends who just wear theirs out normally

Everything on the tranny side is regular bolts. you'll need your normal sockets (10-17 or 19?).. whatever.

You don't actually NEED a torque wrench, of course it helps though. . On thing to remember is that when you go to torque down the bolts that hold the pressure plate onto the flywheel, the haynes manual says somewhere around 20 Ft/lbs of torque.. that's not a lot at all, so be VERY careful not to snap them. For reference, our lug nuts get 80-90 Lbs of torque. The only other tool I can think of to make your life easy is a clutch alignment tool, but i'm sure your kit will come with that (its just a plastic shaft with splines). If you're mechanically intelligent, clutches really don't get easier than these ones Just remember to take it slow, especially when you're dropping the tranny. I've often forgot one or two wires going to the tranny, and that will hold you up. you do NOT want to have to fix wiring tonight, too.

On thing you may want to grab is some bearing grease, if you don't ahve any, as you need to grease the shaft that the throwout bearing slides on.

Keep us posted.

DemonicPupil

bleh i didn't get the message for grease in time... maybe if i'm really lucky there will still be a decent amount on the shaft or i'll just go to the shop next door and try to con them out of some grease... if they ain't got time to fix the clutch... maybe they got time to hand me a handful of grease... I think I'll wait till tomorrow to start this project... I don't really wanna do it at night when i can't see a damn thing...

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

It will be easier tomorrow. I'm sure they'd give you a handful of grease.. all you need to do is take your throwout bearing with you tomorrow morning, and get a good finger-full of grease and put all along the inside of the bearing. Good call on waiting until light, i think. You'll probably have some now-completely-blackend connection shoved up at the top of the tranny somewhere... it'll be easier

DemonicPupil

Only thing is that I just checked out the kit and it doesn't have the damn alignment tool.. I'm a little peeved.. it's an 8 mile hike to go give them any **** about it... so here's to hoping.. thanks for your help... anyone know anything about these DuraLyte clutches?? is it going to survive me?

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Wow, that sucks.. That's okay, though,.. . the old schooler's didn't have alightment tools either. Here's what I'd do (seems to be a lot of that advice in this thread, here's hoping it has some merit!) I'd use whatever thin metal/plastic you have (such as a putty knife), or the top of a one gallon ice cream lid or something. Make it the same size as the grooves on the clutch disk. That should allow you to hold it in place while you align it. not as nice as a real tool, but, you should be able to make something work.

Unfortunately, I've never heard of DuraLyte, I can't vouch for them at all.

DemonicPupil

update...

Well I got the tranny out, the new clutch and pressure plate on... some random peices of **** fell out when i was taking off the old one.. looks like the clutch was warped or something (thin metal plate between the asbestos) it was wavy and messed up... some small peices of metal and a small metal ring fell out as well

On to the shitty news... With the car less than a foot off the ground, you can imagine the trouble i had getting the tranny out... i ended up just leaving it under the car cradled on a jack and my exhaust (which had to be taken down and laid on the ground, only thing left still in the air is where the downpipe connects to the header...

Now getting it back in has been a royal pain in my ***... jacking it in doesn't work... so i've ben trying to do it by hand... put the tranny on my chest and benchpress it into place... unfortunately the bell housing bolt on the very top is a PITA to line up while you're under the car so I can't seem to get it lifted back in... woe is me...

DemonicPupil

oh and did i mention i was doin all this in the middle of an alley on city property and all the feckin tranny oil poured all over me and the road?? pure redneck man.... pure redneck

blk87Turbo2

iTrader: (23)

What about the flywheel?? Won't the clutch wear funny or drive funny if he doesn't get the flywheel turned?? If so and he needs to get it turned, he's going to need the gigantor socket that's required as well as a hell of a lot of torque. Just a thought that occured to me while reading this thread.

DemonicPupil

fly wheel seems to be in good shape.... looked nice and clean... smooth (figured that's a good thing)...

VWMattu

I would suggest replacing the pilot bearing (it's on the engine side). It's cheap and easy to screw up especially if you bolted down the clutch disk without an alighment tool. If you were doing it a few weeks from now, I'de mail you the one I have.

If the pilot bearing was messed up, you'de see symptoms similar to your original problem, but since you found all those parts, that points to a desintegrated clutch disk...

Matt

DemonicPupil

With all my tranny oil going to waste... what should i be putting back in it? and am I suppose to fill it from where the shifter is? also... how do i know when it's full (but not TOO full, har har not when it overflows =P)

DemonicPupil

now it's smoking pretty bad under load... just burning some crap out of the exhaust since I dropped it down? or worse? alot of white smoke... and there's a faint amount of it just at normal idle... clutch seems to be working perfectly... can i jump it or do i need to wear it in a little?

DemonicPupil

seems all is well except gear oil in the tranny... not looking forward to trying to find a way to get it into that hole in the side

some pics of all the wonderful extra parts... because no job is complete without extras.... oh and some asbestos on your face...

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

heyo. Glad to hear that all is well in the land of DemonicPupil. Was that smoke just some tranny fluid burning off?

Either way, for the tranny fluid: you MUST get that topped off as soon as possible. To make your life easy, go to an autoparts store, and for about 5-10 bucks, they'll have a little manual pump that simplify putting fluid in greatly. I'd recommend draining and changing it all at once, but that's me If you change it all at once, just put in the recommended amount (I think 2 Qts? Check that in the FSM). Might as wel do the differential if you're under there with gear oil, too.

With that pump, that'll be a 20 minute job.

Without the pump, plan on spending about an hour and half squeezing and funneling tranny fluid through tubes and bullshit

and for break in: Take it easy on the clutch for about the first 150-300 miles, after that, you should be golden.