This Just In

[melicha8]

You know what's in? My Clutchmasters Clutch and Fidanza Flywheel. Now...200.00 for installation? I have the money but that's money down the drain for any profficient wrenchhead(me maybe) I have just about every tool for every car(hyperbole) but I don't have the lift to drop the transaxle from the bottome of the car. It doesn't look hard at all, I would need a Manual too. That I will be getting soon though. My b-day is coming up. So here are the questions for all you knowledgable mechanics?

1)Is it possible with the 2 1/2 ton lift and blocks that I have to take it out?

2)On a scale of 1-10(1-installing exhaust, 10 installing turbo) what would it be? 7 or 8 I think.

3)How much is it to get the flywheel resurfaced?

4)What kind of potential complications will I run into? One of the slips that I got said I should check engine rear main for oil seal leaks(What does this mean?)

5)Will I have to drain any of my car's vital fluids like oil?

6)Will I need to buy any new gaskets or anything to replace old ones?

7)Any ricers wanna buy all the stickers I have, -1 Horsepower guaranteed?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide. And thanks once again to Rafi

 

[joshyellomp3]

#1 Guess so, i'd use ramps
#2 6 or 7, if youve ever done a clutch before, 10 if you have not
#3 Cheap, but if you just bought one, it should already be done.
#4 Only hard part is physically moving the whole assembly, it is not as easy as on a rwd car. you shouldn't have to worry about the main rear seal as the car is realitivley new
#5 You should probably replace the trans oil w/redline or equiv, my buddy did his civic si and spilled the s*** all over himself. so be careful
#6 no
#7 see answer to #6

 

[joshyellomp3]

#1 Guess so, i'd use ramps
#2 6 or 7, if youve ever done a clutch before, 10 if you have not
#3 Cheap, but if you just bought one, it should already be done.
#4 Only hard part is physically moving the whole assembly, it is not as easy as on a rwd car. you shouldn't have to worry about the main rear seal as the car is realitivley new
#5 You should probably replace the trans oil w/redline or equiv, my buddy did his civic si and spilled the s*** all over himself. so be careful
#6 no
#7 see answer to #6

 

[melicha8]

I'm not so affraid now I guess/ Ramps would be a good idea. I'm not a moron so doing this job would'nt be too difficult to me. THis is what I have at home: empty two car garage, jacks and stands, full tool chest with all size torque wrenches and sockets, I will ave the manual his weekend.
I just want to make sure that when I loosen a screw it won't cause an engine wide leak

 

[LinuxRacr]

If you just bought a Fidanza flywheel, you need NOT resurface it.

 

[70]

I would drain the oil too, just in case. And have a little stand or something to hold the tranny up...Bad ju-ju if that puppy falls on you.

Personally, this is just me, I would replace every gasket that is messed with in the removal of the tranny...I'm sure the ones on there are fine, but I'd have an extra one just in case something tears.

Um, and have fun taking off the flywheel...I've heard it can be a real pain in the ass on some cars.

I remember seeing a picture once of two guys with a six foot breaker bar on a massive wrench with the motor out of the car and welded to some metal thing that was bolted to the floor...And they still wrestled with it for awhile before it finally gave.

Oh yeah, how do you plan on stopping the motor from spinning??

 

[mazdadan]

Before you start, there is no reason to drain the engine oil, but I would recommend draining the tranny fluid. After you reinstall the tranny, fill it back up with some high quality stuff like Redline.

The main thing is make sure when you have the car off the ground, there is enough clearance to drop the tranny. Since you are going to have to remove the axle to get the tranny out, you may not want to use ramps in the front because you will have to reassemble stuff so you can put the wheel back on. Personally, I would either put the ramps under the front frame rails, or just use high quality jack stands. You should also have an extra set of hands or a transmission jack when you are removing it. The trannies aren't too terribly heavy, but you wouldn't want it coming down on you without warning...lol.

The rear seal on the motor should be fine if there are less than 100K miles on the engine. Very rarely does the seal go bad any earlier. This seal is underneath the flywheel. Other than that, there shouldn't be any gaskets that need replacing, however just as a precaution, I would change the clutch pilot bearing and the release (throwout) bearing. If it is not greased up well, put some lithium grease on contact points of the clutch release fork. This will eliminate a "creaking sound" when you push in the clutch.

I totally agree with StuttersC with the flywheel. This is the biggest pain in the ass to remove for certain cars. The protege should be fairly easy if you have impact sockets and something to hold the flywheel from turning. When I changed the clutch on my old RX7, it was hell getting the bolt off....damn thing is torqued to over 300ft/lbs. I needed a wrench that looked like something from Land of the Giants to get that thing off. Your brand new flywheel will NOT need any resurfacing. In most of the cars I have done clutches in, simply sanding the flywheel with some emory cloth was sufficient. I just used my palmtop sander. The only time you really need to take it off and resurface it is if there is bad scorching or there are deep grooves in it.

Overall, I would rate a clutch job between 6-8 in difficulty. Just take your time and being detail oriented helps. I usually take zip-loc bags and label them with which bolts came from where. Lots of shops will just guess and there will be parts left over they just chuck in a "mystery bolt bin."

I am not a complete expert with clutches, but I have changed quite a few, so I hope this helps a little...Good Luck

 

[20ESGUY]

definitaly agree with mazdadan on the use of jackstands...ramps are kinda out of the question since you have to remove the front crossmember and at a minimum the left side wheel. It shouldn't be a bad job at all probably a 6 or so on your scale. Couple of tips to make the job easier are, yourself a hand held vacum pump to bleed the slave cylinder, a good 1/2" drive impact...preferably air powered, a good universal socket, and some hydro clutch fluid. The vacum pump is incase you have to disconnect the salve cylinder, usually you do, if you try and bleed it with the old pedal method you'll be there forever.

 

[melicha8]

Thanks for the advice guys. This doesn't sound too hard. I have breaker bars of all sizes and pullers too. I wouldn't use a ramp because I don't have any I have jack stands though. It seems like ramps wouldn't be any use because you have to take the wheel off. Why would the flywheel move anyway? Wait I'm dumb nevermind. Thans a lot