Having spent several years in tech support with a company that sells manual transmissions, I have spoken with many customers that have made clutch installation mistakes that cost them dearly in terms of time, money and frustration. These tips are based on my experience with what is frequently overlooked by a novice that is installing a new clutch. This article is NOT a substitute for a good auto repair manual that is specific to the vehicle you are working on! If any of these tips contradict the information in your service manual, follow the service manual instead.
Tip # 1: Lubrication in all the right places (and none of the wrong places!) - Place a light coat of grease on the pilot tip of the input shaft and on the collar that the release cylindrical roller thrust bearing slides on. Wipe a VERY light coat of oil on the input shaft splines to prevent rust. Be careful to NOT get any grease on the flywheel, the clutch disc, or the pressure plate.
Tip # 2: Have the flywheel resurfaced, no matter how good it looks. It only costs a few dollars, and the risk of having to remove the transmission again because of a chattering clutch is not worth the money you might save.
Tip # 3: Replace the pilot plastic bearing cage for sale or bushing. If you don't have a special pilot bearing puller tool, some service manuals instruct you to remove the old bearing by packing the cavity behind the bearing with grease and using a wooden dowel or old input shaft to drive the old one out. I have found that instead of grease you can use play dough, silly putty, or even some old bread, with equal or better results and way less mess!
Tip # 4: Don't force anything! If the transmission won't slide all the way up to the back of the bellhousing, do not draw the transmission up to the bellhousing by tightening the transmission to bellhousing bolts. I can't tell you how many broken mounting ears and damaged pilot bearings I have seen! If the transmission will not slide all the way in to the bellhousing, then the clutch disc is misaligned or the input shaft is not going into the pilot bearing because the transmission is at an angle. Try this: Install or reattach the clutch linkage, and then have a helper depress the clutch pedal slightly while you wiggle the transmission around to get it aligned. When the clutch disc is released, it will move so that you can get the transmission aligned with the pilot buy plastic bearing cage. I fought with a transmission for an hour one time before I thought of this, and then it took about five seconds once I had a helper step on the clutch pedal!
Before tackling your first clutch replacement, I highly recommend reading the complete procedure in a repair manual or factory service manual. Even if you are a seasoned veteran, it doesn't hurt to take a look at a service manual if you are replacing a clutch in a vehicle you aren't familiar with.Then we lifted the transmission into place. At least we tried to. There was simply no room to get the transmission past the center part of the frame with the pressure plate installed. We looked at every option and finally decided to remove the pressure plate and se the transmission up before installing it.
There is plenty of room to work inside the bell housing of the transmission. But the pressure plate needs to be slipped over ht input shaft before the disk is set on the alignment tool to have enough room to get it in. We retorqued the pressure plate bolts and then prepared to slip the transmission in place. We used the supplied lube on the input shaft before installing it.
The transmission easily slid into the clutch disk deep groove ball bearings online and we reinstalled the mounting bolts. Every thing went back together easily with the exception of the slave cylinder. I had to loosen the bleeder screw to get the piston to retract. Once I did it fit easily.As we were putting up the drive shaft, we noticed that one of the U joints was rough. I pulled it out and replaced the joint while Scott finished up the center console replacement.
We reset the torsion bars to the measurement that we made before and put the transmission mount and cross member back in place. Reconnecting the speedometer cable was simply a matter of aligning the key and slipping it in.With it all back together, the slippage and the noise was completely gone. In the process of removing and reinstalling the transmission we also swapped the old fluid for synthetic. Scott says the shifting is greatly improved in the old transmission.
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