Am I screwed? Pic inside
 

While trying to pop the pilot bearing back in to the clutch, i accidentally pulled the snap ring out of the clutch, so now it's sitting on the pilot bearing instead of inside the clutch.

Is there anyway to get this ring back in without removing the tranny? Ugggggggghhhhh please let this be fixable. Let me know!

Fixable. I had a friend with the same issue earlier today. It's the throwout bearing just to clarify. The pilot bearing is the piece of crap inside the eshaft. lol

That ring is pretty flexible. Be careful.

You need to apply light pressure on the ring equally on all sides to push it into the pressure plate. I had the same issue and could not get the wedge collar into the pressure plate without dropping the tranny (do not risk damaging the wedge collar). If you bend the wedge collar at all, it's basically worthless so I would recommend just dropping the tranny and doing it right.

So the wedge collar could theoretically be slid back in to the pressure plate from the inspection hole? I just put the engine/tranny back in realllllly don't want to drop the transmission now...


This car will be the death of me.

Rdahm, how did your friend get it back in the PP?

Theoretically? Yes. However, I couldn't find a practical way to get equal pressure all around the wedge collar through the inspection holes, using the tools I had at the time.

I can't find a manageable way either....

Looks like tomorrow I'll be dropping the tranny..

Any tips getting the top 3 bellhousing bolts? I don't have a 3 ft extension or anything ridiculous like that :/

I think you can get them from the engine bay if I recall I think that's what I did last month when I dropped mine

I get the upper most bolt from the engine bay behind the UIM. The others I get from under the car with an extension.

He sent me pics and said he got it back in. As mahjik said, that's risky business.

I believe the top bolts are all reachable when the UIM is off.

This is exactly the same picture I posted basically in my build thread haha. But like I said in my build thread, just push it as if you were going to disconnect it from the engine. Push the ring towards the front of the car and it'll come off. Then push it back in.

I've been trying to do that :( You were able to guide it in with a couple of screwdrivers?

Pull out the slave cylinder, push the fork with your fingers untill you get the ring and bearing to snap.

your better off removing the tranny to snap that ring back in..like majik said he couldn't apply even pressure to get the ring to snap in and I couldn't either..I spent 2 hours trying to snap it in through that small sevice hole..

At the time I had just droped in the engine so I decided to yank it back out and drop it back in..it took me less than 15 minute to yank the engine out and snap that ring back in the pressure plate and drop the motor back in.

listen to mahjik and make your life easier!! good luck.

Hmm not going against any of you guys, but I was able to get mine back in less than 5 minutes. I used two screw drivers (one on each side) and then just pushed it back in until it snapped/popped. Then I turned the clutch to make sure it was in all the way around.

Or you can do like they said, just drop it but since I guess I got lucky, I didn't have to do that :)

This is what mine looked like, basically the same identical picture haha

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/1b32c267.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4/dcba4616.jpg

The only problem with pushing back in from the inspection hole is that you may risk moving any of the teeth on the wedge collar which, as Mahjik said, makes it basically worthless without pulling the tranny and straightening it out.

This is because it loosens the connection between the throwout bearing and pressure plate and may disconnect them while driving. Ask me how I know.

IF you manage to put an even amount of pressure, it will go in fine, but it's not something I could do.

Hardhitter, I tried the two-screwdriver technique and came up empty handed. I felt the collar going in at a bad angle and I didn't want to bend it :(. I ended up dropping the entire tranny.... was definitely a PITA to do by myself, on jackstands lol. getting the tranny back on the engine by myself was the worst part. Lots of cuts and bruises lol... but the problem is fixed :icon_tup:

14mm flex head gear wrench works for me.... but hurts your hand like FCK

I did everything the hard way because I only have basic hand tools.... 14mm box wrench and a GANG of elbow grease.

Benching the tranny while trying to guide the spline in the clutch hole - not fun.

I see damage to the fingers of the wedge collar in that picture. To me that's too much risk that it will pull loose again while driving.

Like Mahjik said, I'd drop the tranny. The wedge collar is fragile and pulled loose for a reason. If you can find a way to get it back in there thru the inspection window I'd be very concerned that the damage is still there and it will pull through another day while you're on the road.

Hmm...the fingers of the wedge collar as in the fingers that keep that locking ring into the clutch or what?

I'm trying to see the damage so I can check it out this weekend when I double check everything. Is there anything I can do to check it to see if it's safe?