clutch replacement

[91GSR]

saturday night i was out at the local drag spot and i went up against a copmletely stock automatic saturn mommy car....to my embarrassment off the line i slipped my clutch all the way thru third gear and lost /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

so im going to replace it tomorrow. i have had a new clutch sitting in my house for about 4 months but never got around to changing it cuz i didnt need to. now with this most recent embarrassment it needs to be done

basically i am wondering who has done this and how hard it is going to be. reading thru the manual and on vfaq and they make it seem like this is going to take a week. im hoping this isnt true. looking for insight on the project to make things easier for me.

 

My clutch started to slip all of the sudden, It wasn't the clutch tho, it was the Driverside axel seal. The tranny fluid pooled in the bellhousing. So since you will be in there, I would recomend replacing the driverside axel seal and the T-case seal. It is super easy w/ the tranny out of the car as well as the t-case removed..

 

[89coltgt]

It is not a bad job. It is best to have the flywheel resurfaced as well. The vfaq is a good how-to imo. What clutch are you going to be installing?

 

[Terry Posten]

Two people that know how to work a wrench will take about 5 hours.

That is working steady but not fast.

 

[91GSR]

to the first reply...its a GSR not a VR4 so there is no t-case, to the second reply its just an OEM replacement exedy clutch and pressure plate along with throwout bearing, and i dont think i will have any help on this, just me working my ass off. guess i should try to find someone to help eh?

 

[89coltgt]

The only tough part to do by yourself is wrestling the trans back in, unless you are Polish /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

+1 on replacing the seals and having the flywheel surfaced.

Nothing sucks like getting the car back together and finding out the one seal you didn't replace is the one that's leaking. In your case it will just be the two axle seals (the input shaft seal cannot be replaced without disassembling the trans.) They're cheap insurance.

Be sure you take your flywheel to a good shop. Even some parts stores advertise that they can surface flywheels but often they don't measure the step height correctly and they just turn the flywheel down on a brake lathe instead of using the proper machine to get the proper surface finish.

 

[Terry Posten]

Honestly, the T-case only adds about 5 minutes to take down and put back up. You never even take the rear driveshaft out of the t-case tail. Just lay it down on the ground and move on.

If you have a good floor jack, it can be done by yourself. That is how I did my last time I had a broken 3rd gear rail.

It does add an hour or two. Figure on taking a full 8-10 hour day.

 

[turbowop]

I can drop the transmission on my car in under two hours by myself taking my time. Installing it is another matter, however. Sometimes I can get it right back on, sometimes it takes me a half hour just to line up the damn input shaft. Either way, I can get the thing back into the car by myself with the use of two floor jacks. After the summer of '05 I had that sh*t down to a science.

 

[dsmless]

hey man I can lend a hand no problem to change it between the two of us and a cherry picker it can be done in 4 hours tops, it took me average 6 hours to do a awd clutch change and have it back on he road

 

[91GSR]

awesome...i will be doing it at the langley auto hobby shop so i will either have it on a lift or just use some jack stands. cant decide which might be easier. judging by what u guys r saying about getting the tranny in/out i think ill just use stands so i dont drop the damn thing lol.

 

[91GSR]

so me and sam (dsmless) spent about 5 hours doing this yesterday...only to forget to bleed the clutch. after he left and i went to drive it back to my parking spot i was like...whoa that not right. so i had my wife sit and pump the clutch while i was working the bleeder valve and it still is acting funny. oh i installed my 1g shifter as well, i like it a lot more than the giganto truck shifter lol. i also need to replace my reverse sensor plug thing. the plastic was kinda dry rotted and it broke.

so..in short. if anyone has a reverse sensor i need it, if anyone knows a good way to bleed a clutch to make it work right lemme know. thanks.

 

[dsmless]

hey man sorry to dip on you, but night class sucks, the quick and dirty way is to get some clear hose and a clear soda bottle put some fluid in it and let the one side of the hose sit inthere, the other side slide over the bleeder nipple, pump the clutch once it should stay stuck to the floor, do this 3 times, let the clutch sit on the floor, check your reservir level and top off, close the bleed port and remove the hose from it, then pump your clutch pedal a couple times youll feel it get a little hard, thats it dude, oh and make sure you get the cotter pins installed in the shifter linkage along with the washers, call me if you have any problems, luck man

 

[91GSR]

i did the cotter pins last night before i drove it. thats all good. ill try this tonight when i get home and see if it changes anything. i was talking to billy and he was sayin that its possibly my slave cylinder got messed up...

 

[dsmless]

could be but not really we just unbolted it and moved it to the side, but if its not disengaging the clutch then it could be, if its that thats a easy fix two bolts and a hydraulic line there like 40 bucks at autozone, also thy the shift linkages since you changede the shifter, I had to do this for my dsm when I got a short shifter had to make them longer in the linkages at the shifter base

 

[91GSR]

yeah my linkage is all good. i drove it around last night. took it out of the parking lot and it did alright. shift a little hard but thats cuz im not used to the brand new clutch and a short shifter. did fine tho. i think letting it sit after bleeding it on monday night got it sorted out. im gonna go home today and check it out again to see.

 

by far the toughest part is lining it back up. Helpful to have two people for that.
Make sure to get your flywheel ground, not just turned on a lathe, that is the only way to eliminate the hotspots.

 

[Terry Posten]

Did you space/shimmed the pivot ball properly?

If you left it alone when you had the tranny out, re-used all of the hardware (pivot ball and fork) and did not add an extra washer behind the ball, then you may have a problem.

 

[91GSR]

what is this pivot ball u talk about? the inside of my tranny was CAKED with clutch dust, and i pretty much knocked out what i could and left the rest, i know it could contain asbestos so i didnt wanna get to involved with it. i changed out the throwout bearing, is it something in there? i know what fork ur talking about, it is connected to the rod that the slave cylinder pushes on when u push the pedal down. if i have to pull my tranny again im not gonna be happy, that was a pain.

btw an update, it is driving better now, i think the system got all the air out, but now my pedal engages like 1/8" off the floor. i barely have to lift it and the clutch hits. is this because its new or is this bad? also i get what sounds like grinding but i dont think it is while driving above 15 mph. i think i might have a vaccuum leak somewhere too, i hear a crazy whistling/whining sound coming from my hood, but only sometimes. and it happens whether im moving or sitting still. i wish i could describe it better but its nothing ive ever heard before.

 

[GVR4_1057]

The pivot ball is what the fork clips on to. It is inside of your transmission case. If it was as dirty as you say you may not have noticed that it unscrews. If your fork is centered in the transmission window(as we discussed )you should be ok on this one.

You can adjust where your clutch engages or disengages by adjusting the actuator rod on the clutch master cylinder.

As for the strange sound. Does it vary with RPM or is it a steady sound?