I will be dropping my tranny this weekend, with the help of a friend, to try and solve my clutch issues:

A little background on my problem - Leaving my parking lot at work the other evening and, as I am pulling out of the lot, I have trouble getting the car into 1st gear. I push the clutch all the way to the floor and it really does NOT want to go into gear. I manage to get it into gear but it didn't sound too good. Definitely felt like the clutch had not fully disengaged. Anyway, I manage to limp it home (about 4 miles) and I put it up on jack stands. Note - car shifts fine when it is off. Problems occur once the car is started

I pull the inspection plate and I see that wedge collar is pulled out about 1/2" from the clutch cover and the clutch release collar (thowout bearing) is basically still inside the wedge collar. So, essentially it seems like three pieces (wedge collar, throwout bearing, and clutch fork) have mated to become one. I had a buddy mash on my clutch while I was looking through the inspection hole and it looked like the clutch fork moved about 1/4". There was barely any movement at all...

Given the fact that I really don't have much separation between the three pieces, I am concerned about being to separate the tranny from the clutch. I have been studying the FSM (J-12) and it mentions to insert a screw driver through the inspection hole and try to pry the release collar (throwout bearing) away from the wedge collar and clutch cover. In the event that process did NOT work, the FSM went on to say that I should separate the clutch cover from the flywheel by loosening the clutch cover installation bolts and separating the clutch cover from the flywheel.

My situation is a little bit different, as my wedge collar is pulled out about 1/2" from the clutch cover. I tried, with a screwdriver, to push the wedge collar back into the clutch cover but it didn't move.

I was just wondering if someone else had experienced this before and had a tip for getting my three pieces separated. That would make removal so much easier...

Sorry for the long thread, but I am trying to be as detailed as possible

Also - I am currently running a bonez street comp clutch setup with about 16k on it...

 

This is my opinion...Plain and simple...The easiest way to do it is to unbolt the clutch from the flywheel...You have to use a wrench but it doesnt take long at all...

I have watched several videos and read several threads about how to pop the throughout bearing out...But I could never get it to work...

Thats just my .02 cents...I dont know if I helped you at all..But I tried

Thanks,
Shawn