How hard is clutch installation?

[96Firebird]

Me and a buddy are going to be tackling a clutch job on my summer car ('02 Trans Am) sometime in the near future, after I finish picking out the parts. Most likely going to be a Monster Level 2 clutch/pressure plate, new stock 28lb flywheel, new pilot bearing, new slave cylinder/throwout bearing, new adjustable master cylinder, and a speedbleeder. I've been doing a bunch of reading/youtube watching, and it seems like a pretty straight forward job. We are hopefully going to be doing it my buddy's dad's house, he has a lift and a bunch of tools. I'm hoping to finish this all in one day, but this is my first time tackling a clutch job. I can do the basic stuff, am actually doing rotors and pads all around on my winter car tomorrow, while I change over to summer tires.

Anyone have any tips/tricks, or words of encouragement... :\

 

[jlee]

Shouldn't be too bad in a RWD car. Mid engine or FWD/AWD/4WD is shitty.

 

[AdamK47]

Shouldn't be too hard.

I'd go with a dual disc clutch personally. The Monster Level 2/3 is OK, but it's not going to have the feel and durability of a quality clutch.

 

[96Firebird]

I'd love to go with a dual disc clutch, but I just can't afford it. I am spending more than I want to already, being unemployed at the moment. But the car is pretty much undriveable right now, and I need to get it fixed. I could get the McLeod RST Twin, but then I'd also have to buy the flywheel separately (mine is probably shot from driving without the clutch disengaging all the way). All-in-all, the package from Tick would be ~$500 more. Just isn't in the budget...

 

[leper84]

The only hard thing about that job is clearing the transmission tunnel when you go back in with it. If you try and line it up with the engine like normal the top of the bellhousing won't have enough room to go up. Easiest way I've found is to tilt the front of the transmission down, keep an eye to make sure the input shaft doesn't catch the flywheel or pressure plate and gradually lift/ tilt it backwards until you have enough clearance to get everything lined up.

It sounds confusing reading it but once you get under there you'll understand. You'll also need a puller or a slide hammer to take out the old pilot bearing.

Most important of all take your time and stay relaxed. And gj on not buying a Spec clutch.

 

[crashtech]

Something which has screwed me up in the past is that clutch alignment "pilot" tools are not the be-all end-all. You have to get good visuals of the edge of the disc if possible to see that it is actually centered on the pressure plate, failing that, ensure that the pilot is truly perpendicular to the flywheel before tightening. Most commonly, gravity will tend to make the friction disc slide downward a bit.

Sometimes the back of the engine doesn't want to stay down once the tranny is out, if you are on the floor just put a jack under the balancer to angle it down for re-installation. (A little pressure won't hurt it.)

 

[bruceb]

Should not be a hard job. You do need the clutch alignment tool to center the disc and a torque wrench to tighten the pressure plate. Check how the flywheel looks. It is burnt or checked, it needs resurfacing. Also on most rear drive cars, the motor will likely tip down a bit when the tranny is out. I find it is easier to reinstall the tranny if it is on a tranny lift and also much safer that way. Also a tool to turn the driveshaft output shaft comes in handy, as you can then slightly turn it one way or the other to line up the clutch splines. You can make this tool by just getting a used (junk yard) front yoke from an old driveshaft.

 

[96Firebird]

I plan to do the loaner program and get a bearing puller and slide hammer from AutoZone, unless my buddy's dad has those parts. Actually will probably need to loan out their disc caliper tool for my rear brakes on my winter car, did the fronts today but didn't have the tool for the rear. Didn't think I needed it, turns out I do...

Thanks for all the advice so far, hopefully the parts won't take long to come in and I can get it done soon. I took the Trans Am for a quick drive today after I washed it. Its weird, sometimes the car will go into gear and sometimes it won't. Today, it went into gear (although not easy like it should). All shifts were notchy too, after a couple minute drive it went back into the garage... Don't want to mess up the transmission too!

 

[96Firebird]

Plan on getting everything put in tomorrow, hopefully it goes smooth and we don't run into any issues...

 

[lsd]

The hardest part is just getting enough clearance to do the job but you have that covered with the lift. Just remember to use the star pattern when take the pressure plate off and on and use loctite on the bolts IF you want extra security.

 

[96Firebird]

Yeah, the flywheels bolts came with the blue GM threadlocker with sealant, and I got red Loctite for the pressure plate bolts, which is what Monster recommends. Hopefully we can get it done in about 5 hours, because my buddy has a family party to go to tomorrow.

 

[skyking]

you can remove pilot bushings with nothing more than grease, a bolt, some tape, and a hammer. Does not work on totally trashed bearings though.

 

[96Firebird]

I loaned the bearing puller and slide hammer from AutoZone yesterday. I have to take apart the bearing puller though, because it is too wide to fit in the pilot bearing when all the way closed. So I have to slide in the free side, then slide in the other side and put it back together when it is in there. I've read some horror stories about the pilot bearings, most people trash the existing bearing trying to get it out. Hopefully it comes out easy...

 

[silicon]

I loaned the bearing puller and slide hammer from AutoZone yesterday. I have to take apart the bearing puller though, because it is too wide to fit in the pilot bearing when all the way closed. So I have to slide in the free side, then slide in the other side and put it back together when it is in there. I've read some horror stories about the pilot bearings, most people trash the existing bearing trying to get it out. Hopefully it comes out easy...

let us know how the job turns out!

 

[crashtech]

We used to pack the hole in the bushing very well with grease, then find a punch that was a very close fit to the hole and whale on it with a BFH. The punch would act like a hydraulic ram and make the grease pop the bushing out.

 

[96Firebird]

The pilot "bearing" was actually one of the easiest parts of this job, partly because it wasn't even a bearing. I suspect it used to be a bushing (some people like to replace the bearing with a brass bushing), and it looks like it got chewed up pretty bad. Not even close to the same ID as the new pilot bearing, which fits nicely on the input shaft. Didn't even have to take apart the bearing puller to get the teeth it, since the ID was so large...

Probably one of the sources of my vibrations. It came out with about 5 whacks of the slide hammer. The other source for my clutch troubles was probably because the clutch that was in there was trashed. Missing springs, broken spring pieces falling out, clutch disc was almost worthless. Flywheel had hotspots, didn't look good. I'll have some pictures of that tomorrow. I'm not sure if it was previously installed incorrectly, or if it was beat on by the previous owner, or if it was just a bad clutch or too many miles, but it looks bad...

The hardest part of the job was actually getting the bellhousing off. The bitch was stuck to the motor, the pins that help line it up just didn't want to let go. Took a half hour of banging with a mallet (and triple checking for more bolts that we may have missed) to get it off. We greased the pins before putting it back on.

All in all, everything went pretty smooth. We have about 5 hours into it so far, but my buddy had to leave for a birthday party so we got cut short. We got the new clutch and pilot bearing in, new slave put in, remote speedbleeder put on and routed to the engine bay, new adjustable master cylinder installed, transmission hooked back up, and hydraulics bled. All that is left to do is reinstall the torque arm, transmission crossmember, exhaust, put the shifter back on and put the console back in. Then adjust the master cylinder and possibly rebleed, we'll see.

Edit - You can't pack anything behind the LS1 pilot bearing because the crankshaft freeze plug is right there, and can pop out and drop into the oil pan.

 

[96Firebird]

Got everything back together today, and the car drives MUCH better. No vibrations (except from the exhaust), no grinding, goes into gear easy, and no noises. It was $1000 well spent, now I just have to wait for the ~500 mile break-in period to end so I can have some fun!

Here are some pics of my old clutch and flywheel...

 

[boomerang]

I wonder, if you had that flywheel ground, is there any market for it? Could you get more for it than the cost of refacing it? The last clutch I replaced eons ago I had the flywheel refaced but the car was my fun car, not my daily driver so I had the time to wait.

Also really surprised to see that much wear on the pilot bearing. How many miles on the car? When you start thinking about the circumstances where the input shaft is actually spinning inside the bearing versus spinning as one with the bearing, that kind of wear is amazing, at least to me.

 

[bruceb]

That was really shot. It should have been changed about 7K miles earlier. And a broken spring in the pressure plate as well. I take it that was the OE clutch from GM ?

 

[96Firebird]

After checking around, there doesn't seem to be much of a market for refaced flywheels, at least not for these cars.

The bronze pilot bushing was probably replaced at some point by a previous owner, since these cars were supposed to come with pilot bearings from the factory. I'm beginning to wonder if they used the wrong size bushing, since the ID is not even close. I think this is what was causing my serious vibration when decelerating in gear, it is much smoother now. I'm hoping that didn't cause any damage to the input shaft bearing...

I'm trying to figure out what the clutch was, no luck yet... The car has ~106k on it, but like I said, I think someone has been in there before because of the bronze pilot bushing.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Well done. Clutch replacement can be a duanting task for the typical shade tree mechanic. I've done a couple on Honda/Acura, it's no picnic. Without a lift I wouldn't even bother to try.