Hmm..giant nut is off but flywheel seems very much attached
 

Got the tranny, p. plate and clutch out in about and hour. Fired up the compressor and got the nut off no prob. But now it seems the flywheel is stuck on there. I beat the hell out of it all the way around. Then I tried getting a crowbar under it and give it a quick pry...nuttin. What gives? I put some breaker spray on it and I'll try tomorrow morning. Any words of advice on this? Also, if I need that flywheel puller, does somewhere like autozone have it or do I have to go to Mazda? If it is Mazda, do the rent that thing out? Thanks guys.

Got a dead blow mallet? Try rythmically tapping the edge of the flywheel around the Perimiter, Led Zepplin works well for this

I attached a puller and ran it down tight with the impact gun.....taped the head of the puller lightly with a copper hammer and it popped right off. Put the nut on loosely so the flywheel does not "fly off".

Todd

get a puller, bolts into those to little holes, put a washer on the end of the middle of the puller. and then hit it with a hammer, be careful, it will fall off suddenly. If you have any more questions. PM me, i JUST put the tranny back in

1) Find a bolt sitting around that fits in the 2 holes on the flywheel (or counterweight if you've got an aftermarket flywheel and auto trans counterweight). Thread that bolt in and make SURE it's a perfect fit.

2) Loosely thread the flywheel nut back on, but leave it far enough away from the flywheel so that the flywheel CAN come off. Look around for a SMALL piece of steel plate (or circular stell/almuinum/whatever plate is even better) (like just BARELY large enough to fit onto the inner diameter of the flywheel nut). If you can't find one, buy one somewhere.

3) Put that bolt in your pocket, hop in a car, and drive down to Murray's (or something of that nature).

4) Park at Murray's, walk in and head towards the back. Find another bolt (preferably grade 8 so it doesn't want to bend as easily) about two and a half inches long, with the same threads as the bolt you tested in the flywheel.

5) Make sure they are the same thread. Buy two of them bolts (they usually come in packs of 2 or 3).

6) Ask the guy behind the counter if you can rent the slide hammer puller (I forget which one it's called, but it's the long, somewhat skinny box.. I'd say about 2 1/2 feet long, by 6" high, by 1 foot wide maybe. It'll cost around $80 or so. You "buy" it then return it.. that's what it's there for. If you couldn't find a circular steel plate thingey the right size, see if they can help you find something like that at Murray's (or whatever store you're at).

7) Hop back in the car, drive back home, hop out of the car, walk in the garage and get that thing hooked up. Take the bigger of the two steel brackets, put the long bolts through them ***with some washers*** on the head side of the bolt. Thread them kinda tight, make sure they're as even as they can be, and now thread the slide hammer into the hole in the middle of the bracket. At this point, put the circular steel plate on the flywheel nut and hold it there while you tighten the slide hammer up to it.

8) Tighten the slide hammer up to the plate (which is pushing on the flywheel nut, but is pulling on the flywheel) pretty tight.

9) Use the slide hammer to pull at it for a few whacks. Tighten it up some more. Use the slide hammer some more, tighten it up some more. Use the slide hammer some more.. some more.. some more.. Tighten it back up. At this point it might be getting tough to tighten, you can take a wrench and use it as a lever to tighten the slide hammer (if it's like the one I used, it's got a pole through it so you can hold it on both sides and twist it to tighten it).

10) Keep at it.. it WILL come off eventually, you might have to give it some good ol' heave ho, but it WILL come off.

Now say "holy crap that sucked" and hope you never have to do it again.

By the way.. don't just go to the local hardware store to buy the bolt.. it'll probably bend, plus they don't have the puller you need.

I used to use pullers, etc. and after breaking stuff and exerting a lot of unnecessary force I figured out how to do it the easy simple way.

Get a 4-5lb sledge hammer.

Put the nut back on the e-shaft, only a few threads, this will catch the flywheel from flying across the room and hitting you on the toe/head/arm.

take aim with teh sledge on one of the clutch mounting pillows on the outer edge of the flywheel. You want to make one, long heavy blow at a time. Hit it squarely on the pillow so as not to disform it. Hit it HARD 3-4 times and it WILL come off. Sometimes, alternating hits from opposite sides of the flywheel (12, 3, 6, 9) will work better.

I have not used a puller in over 20 flywheel removals, and I have yet to damage an engine or flywheel with this. I have amazed many an onlooker by this demonstration of the 30 second flywheel removal.

In the past I have spent many hours fooling with pullers as well, only to screw up e-shafts, flywheels, break bolts, adn pullers.

Ok, it came off. Now before I took it off I coulda swore I saw a little oil seeping out around the e shaft but when I got the wheel off the rear main looked fine. Car is an 88 with 45,xxx miles. Think it's worth getting a new rear main? Will just a regular seal puller work of this? Lastly, on installing the SR flywheel. The counter weight goes on first and installs with just the giant nut...is this correct? Then the flywheel bolts to it with the 6 bolts that SR supplies? And before I put the clutch on I just have to tap in the new pilot bearing and seal? Oh yeah, please note, I don't have to drive the car...it's pretty much a garage decoration for a while.

yes yes and yes also the pilot bearing seal too and put good grease on th e pilot bearing too

can any one find pics of these slide hammers and pullers that your talking about cause i dont really know what they are

Any recomendations on where to get the rear main? Dealer, autozone, napa? And to prove I have no life, I'm in the process of polishing the tranny while it's out....man I need a new hobby.

Don't feel bad, I polished mine a long time ago too. I am currently in the process of putting the damn car back together.

Here is my semi-polished one for sale on EBAY:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1838664826

This man knows what he's talking about :). If you don't want to fuck around, this is the way to go. I've done multiple clutch jobs. Won't take more than a few well placed hits.

DeadBlow Hammer has less potential to cause damage. IMHO

If you have one heavy enough, yes.

Never damaged a f/w with a sledge hammer. Only a regular hammer. Regular hammer = hearing imparement and fucked up f/w that won't budge.

Sledge works great when you have a 9lbs alum flywheel sitting inside.

find a long, thick chunk of wood. put it across the flywheel. hit the wood hard with a hammer untill the flywheel loosens up.