Romeo’s Clutch Swap, day by day

A shot from earlier in the evening... Tristan encouraging Dave to find endless pics of naked women, and Dave drinking more of that strange yellow liquid.

 

 

        LOL< at all the posts.    Tristen and I just got back 5pm from my machine shops place.   Have the flywheel here and know the mad dash to see if we can get it installed.   If anyone is good at wrenching feel free to come by.

 

 

             OK so after sleeping in till noon today, I went back out and attacked the car.

 

           Actually I just skimmed my last post and realized that in my rush to get ready Friday night, I did not post what happened after we got back with the flywheel.

   OK we got back here with the flywheel Friday around 5pm.  Tristen cleaned up the bolts and I showed him how to put red lock-tight on them and we installed the flywheel.   No problems looks good as new.

          Pics are

 

Everything was looking great.   Flywheel was perfect, new clutch was lined up using my clutch alignment took, it was installed and thinking we might even have this thing on the ground Friday night.   Well until we started to put the trans back in.......   After nearly 3hrs of trying to get it on, I said, there must be something wrong.  I have done dozens of trans axle clutch installs and nothing has ever taking this long.   I told him sorry its just not going to happen. 

              Alright, forward to Sunday, I went out and got to looking it at.  I thought to myself, the only reason this thing should be taking this long is if "I" didn't get the disk aligned right.   So I pulled the trans out, found a socket that matched the inside of the flywheel and an adapter that matched the diameter of the clutch disk.  I found it was not perfect but still within the norms, however I still went ahead and loosened the pressure plate and made sure it was PERFECT. 

           I started putting the trans back on, this time using long bolts in the bell housing so I could get 6 bolts installed, then slide it straight into the engine.   It still stopped about 2-3 inch's from going all the way in.   I had been rotating the CV shafts with it in gear to make sure the splines on the input shaft were not binding.  Once they meshed up, I thought I was golden.  I didn't think much of the fact that I could not turn the CV's anymore as now I was fighting engine compression, which is normal.    I tried and tried again, this bugger just would not go on.   Finally I grabbed a 19mm socket and 1/2 ratchet, and tried to turn the engine by hand, I gave it a little yank, uhm, it won't move, I put some weight into it, and guess what, still no fricking movement.   I go back to the trans, loosen off the bolts so everything is slack, go back to the engine and turn it, moves just fine.   At this point, I new what was wrong.  PISSES ME OFF TOO.  I have now wasted nearly 2 days on this thing.  ITS THE WRONG PRESSURE PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!   I pulled the trans completely out of the car again, and sure enough, I find places on the pressure plate where it must have been lightly rubbing and finally bound right up. 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.   I was getting really mad at that point.          So I went into the garage sat down and relaxed for a few mins.    

Well here are the pics, showing his old pressure plate vs the new one.  The outside diameter of the old one was about 8.5" the new one is 9.5-9.75"    I also found several area's on the pressure plate that stick out into the ring gear area.   I don't believe they should be sticking out that area, and I hope that it is a one time mistake on Clutch-nets part.    

             I am going to be sending all this pic's to Clutchnet and see what they can do, Tristen needs this car done ASAP, so we need the correct pressure plate here NOW.  

Well here are todays pics, I am heading to get some sleep.

Capt Fiero wrote: ITS THE WRONG PRESSURE PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

...

Well, that certainly sucks!

Geez, for what that clutch cost and the major inconvenience this has caused you guys, I'd think the retailer should be responsible for air-freighting the proper pressure plate up here pronto.

 

Any updates on this?

I'm curious as to how this clutch feels as mine is on its last legs and I'm thinking of getting the same 6 puck one you're putting in.  Mine's been slipping since the Aircare 'tech' rode the pedal earlier this year.

Hey Davie boy, do you have a MIG welder at your house, or should I raise my one from the dead (Basement) and bring it out?

 

   So I take it you don't have one of your own then, eh? Well, time to dive into the basement!

Well, the welding wont even come to paying you back for what you've been doing, especially with my relative lack of experience (Enough to do the basics, but not enough to do fancy things).

 

           OK for any interested parties, Romeo will be here Friday evening working on the car till whenever we decide to quit for the evening, and Saturday until we get it done.  Feel free to pop by anytime after 4pm on Friday and as early as 11am on Saturday.  (don't know the exact time we are starting or ending, so if you want to come earlier or later, drop me a line on my cell.  

       New pressure plate was installed, we fought with it till after 10pm Friday only stopped when it was so dark it became hard to find parts if the light was not shining directly on it.

      Everything snapped together Saturday. All was great until I started hooking up the hydraulics and noticed the clutch release arm was loaded. (it shouldn't be, there should be 1/2 inch to 1 inch loose travel before it engages the pressure plate)

I had Romeo grab a 1/2 drive ratchet and 19mm socket and tried to turn the motor, it was locked up solid, I slowly backed out the bell housing bolts and the engine started to move............................................        FU(&*)(CK   &nb sp;

              New pressure plate is also wrong, had to pull the trans back out and contact Clutchnet for a 3rd time, awaiting word back from them.