Clutch Replacement
 

Well, I printed out the pages from the m.net clutch section in the "garage" there. It seems pretty straight forward to do, although some things are going to be a slight bitch.

I started by getting the thing WAY off the ground... probably about 20" now with some tall jackstands...

1. Spent about an hour cleaning under there... half a bottle of Simple Green and now I can see what I'm doing.
2. Removed DP and cat (to be reinstalled w/test pipe). Stock exhaust cars will have an exhast bracket that also uses two of the bolts on the left side of the tranny.
3. Removed reverse/neutral sensor wires just in front of shifter on top of tranny, accessible from underneath.(plastic clippies)
4. Removed speedo cable. (plastic ring thing, only hand tight)
5. Removed two bolts holding clutch hyd assembly and zip-tied it out of the way.
6. Removed three bolts on PPF that attach to the tranny. Tranny at this point settles about three of four inches and is simply resting on the PPF. I have discovered the I cannot slide the PPF to the side to remove the tranny without supporting the tranny in some other fashion... otherwise the entire engine would rock back as the only other attachment point for the entire trans/motor assembly is the 2 motor mounts.
7. Removed center console, top shift boot cover, lower shift boot cover, shifter. Both of the shift boots are shot. Ordered replacements from Rosenthal along with a replacement water outlet plug, CAS o-ring, front/rear tranny seals, and a rear main seal.
8. Soaked all tranny bolts in Liquid Wrench for overnight tenderizing.
9. Forgot to ad, removed DRIVESHAFT. 4 bolts hold it to the differential. I used the emergency brake to keep the thing from rotating to get them off. Breaker bar necessary, couldn't do it with just the 1/2ratchet. Once the bolts are out, the DS will simply drop out. You can actually push it forward an inch or two to help clear the PPF, then it simply pulls straight on back... very light.

Done for tonite. Tomorrow I'll use both my jacks to support the tranny and start removing the bolts. As discovered by reading the excellent writeups at m.net, the top passenger side bolt is the tricky one. It incorporates part of a bracket for the clutch hydraulics and the main wiring harness to the back of the car. All 10 other bolts should be no problem.

Things to think about before starting this: You've gotta have some good tools. A full set of metric 3/8 and 1/2 sockets/drives/extensions/swivels/adapters. You've gotta have a breaker bar. I weigh 250lbs and it was everything I had to get the PPF bolts off with my 18" 1/2drive breaker bar... I'm going to try and do it without my air tools, but won't hesitate to break out my 2' cheater bar.
We'll see how creative I get tomorrow with my 2 floor jacks and how to lower the whole thing uniformly once unbolted. Should be fun!

#1/2: Both shifter boots, big one is on top, small one is still attached to shifter, obviously destroyed.

#3: PPF bolt location and speedo cable

#4: Shows all 3 PPF bolts and the two bolts that hold the clutch hyd assy to the tranny

#5: Shows the clutch hyd assy zip-tied out of the way.

#1: Left side bolts. Don't think the top one is accessible through the top... must double check tomorrow... but should be no issue from underneath.

#2: Right side bolts... again, top one is the bitch with the incorporated bracket for the hard hyd-line. One of the clips for the wiring harness is also in the way up there. I think it's also accessible from the top with a breaker bar that will angle back on itself a little... might be easier. Lower bolts are a piece of cake.

More pics:

#1: Spline where driveshaft goes into the tranny.
#2: Driveshaft on workbench.

Turbo is also off. I noticed that my DIY oil drain flange gasket was leaking... just ordered one through ATP. That little LG phone sucks bad too, don't get one.

nice writeup. I wonder how much of this I could recreate from memory having done it so many times. ;)

You know what I've found to be most useful to get those tranny case bolts out? Harbor Freight (or some reputable brand) wobble extensions. You just link them shortest to longest with the 17mm on the end and go to town. It's enough to get the wrench below the car where you can wail on it. Only the 1/4" ones seem to be too weak to survive but the 3/8" ones are seemingly tough enough.

LINKAGE: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=31203

Matt

wheres your throwout arm boot? :)

Just something i noticed. Saw much of that stuff yesterday right before i caught you on flashchat. except I was fixing an annoying exhaust rattle on my 97. That same car might be seeing a new clutch before too long as well.

:werd: :vash:

are you guys dropping the exhaust when you are doing this? Just wondering. I had the engine pulled out when I did my clutch job.

The two times I've done it I leave the exhaust in but disconnect the midpipe from the cat. Get just enough room to drop the tranny out. This was before the turbo, and as of right now I'm still using the stock midpipe. With a 2.5" DP right to the cat you might have issues.

Pre-turbo, I think I disconnected mid-pipe back, but post-turbo, I've taken the whole exhaust off.

It all depends on how the downpipe and attaching pipes are connected. I just did a trans swap with a rb header and it was a bitch- but I got it in. Just required some serious contortion work with the trans. Once you figure out it works, you remember just how you need to go about getting it back in. I'm curious to see if I can drop mine with the b2000 bellhousing and a 3" downpipe. I cut all those large cast bosses off the bellhousing that weren't being used- and that's what usually catches on the subframe. - rob

luckily i can just deattach the lower half of my DP. I'll be ripping the tranny off sometime early spring to remove my lightened flywheel and upgrade my pp.

Progress tonite!
 

To answer questions: I couldn't have done it with my Begi DP in the way. Throwout arm boot is on the workbench.

1. Started tonite by configuring a rope as pictured below, with a simple rope pulley so I can control the rear height as I lower the front with the jack.
2. Removed two rear bolts from the PPF. Tried to push PPF over to the side but the damn wiring harness prevented a good deal of lateral motion, so I unclipped all the little clippy things and draped the harness over the top... conveniently, the PPF then was held up in the air by the harness. THE PPF ONLY WEIGHS ABOUT 10lbs... VERY LIGHT!
3. Made a small tranny holder out of a 2x4 scrap.... WORKED GREAT!!!
4. Started removing bolts. Thank you Liquid Wrench. All the bolts came out without much fuss... yes, I had to pull hard on some, but not extreme. I cracked them a all a little at first until they were all loose, then started fully removing. I used my 18" 1/2drive breaker bar with a couple extensions and a swivel to get at the top bolts, but again, nothing too radical.
5. Prior to removing the last bolt (top left), I took up the slack and some pressure on the rope, and I positioned the jack and took up a little slack with it... then took the last bolt out.
6. I jiggled ever so slightly and the tranny came free. Then I proceeded to back it out about 5 inches. Then back/lower/back/lower/back/lower... etc... until it was far enough back that it would clear everything.
7. I alternated lowering the front and rear being careful to always keep the rear and inch or two above the front. IT WILL LEAK OIL OUT THE REAR OF THE TRANNY IF YOU LOWER THE REAR TOO MUCH!
8. Once it was fully down, I lifted the front off the jack, lowered the rear fully, and then dragged it out.

Hints:
1. The pics will show a few SNAFU's. There are two wiring bendable retainers on top of the tranny that I didn't know about. After I'd lowered it about 4 inches, I noticed I was hung up. A short search revealed I hadn't undone those bendables.
2. Pull the clutch hydraulic assemble as far out of the way as possible... it will get hung up as you start lowering if it doesn't completely clear.
3. Do not let the PPF fall to the floor. I suspended mine with the wiring harness but had first tried to hold it up with a spare jackstand.
4. Don't be in a hurry.
5. Have a quick way to tie off the rope underneath the car. Lucky mine would reach a jackstand or I would have been screwed when I noticed I was hung up
6. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, ASK A FRIEND TO HELP YOU! I did it solo, but won't ever again.

#1: Rope pulley to control height of rear from below car WORKED GREAT!
#2: Jack cradle. Without this, I'm pretty sure the tranny would have just rolled over on its side. I used this block of wood to jack the car up with, so the cup on the jack left fairly deep indentions on the bottom of the block to help hold it on.
#3: Ready to lower
#4: Not so fast, forgot this little guy
#5: And these little guys.

#1: Halfway out, you can see the wiring harness holding the PPF up.
#2: Out on the ground, prior to lowering the rear fully. Once the jack was all the way down, I just went in from the front and moved it off the jack.
#3: Before
#4: After (you all know my thing about cleaning)
#5: The business end!

See you tomorrow.

this thread is making me want to have someone else do it...Where did you get you spec from man?

It was $310 shipped for the 1.6 StageII.
http://www.jdsperformance.com/spec.a...iata&fcmd=cars

I noticed simple green and Toyo t1s tires?

fuck cleaning the tranny, who sees it but you? I have adopted the opinion that the grease you cleaned off is a protective coating :)

^I'm with stupid^

Its really not all that hard.

Make a new one that fits the part of the tranny at the very top of that cradle pic and you'll love it. It should be centered on the very front of the "flat spot" but extend to the drain plug. That is the balance point of the tranny. You get it stable enough there and you wont need the rope.

You'll be able to raise and lower and maneuver the tranny with JUST the floor jack.

Oh and even though the PPF is 10 lbs, it still hurts when it slams down on your forhead. I ran a bungee across the underside of the car to hold it up--plus it wont pull the harness and starter into the metal gasket and make it so hard to get the tranny back in.

now you can see if have any new leaks.... :inout:

15" Konig Heliums and 195 T1-R's... work great.
As for the dirt, it does help see new leaks and I've noticed that when you take your car in to the shop to have it worked on, the cleaner your car is, the better the mechanics treat it... if I ever need it taken in.

Before I take it down, I also intend to clean the majority of the undercarriage and dif... I know... I've got a sickness.

I can't blame you for wanting to have her clean, I'm the same way...its bad.


thanks...you still running stock flywheel?

Thursday progress.
 

THE BELLHOUSING AND TRANNY
1. Started by finishing cleaning up the inside of the bellhousing.
2. Tried to take off tranny drain plug but requires (24mm?) socket... so I tried the big crescent and started to round off corners. Hmmmm.... How to drain the oil??? Solution: place end of tranny in bucket and set on end... BINGO! Oil all drains out. Tranny weighs in the 50-70lb range.
3. Removed and replaced rear tranny seal. Evenly tapped around the edge with a small screwdriver and came out easily. New one inserted by slowly tapping around until seated using a small piece of wood scrap and small ball-peen.
4. Removed inner tranny case cover. 6bolts on the cover that hide the input shaft and front tranny seal. THE FRONT TRANNY SEAL IS IN THE COVER, NOT ATTACHED TO THE TRANNY. I cleaned everything and removed the old seal with a hooked dental pic. Just be patient. Don't worry about destroying the seal, just don't gouge the seat. Tapped back in with flat punch.
5. There are two more things in there. One is a standard gasket around the perimeter of the case. I was very careful about removal and used my old one. The other thing in there is a very small stainless ring (don't even know what to call it) with an indention in the ring. The indention fits in a small slot separating the two circular halves of the cover. I did not note which way the indention faced upon removal but re-installed with the indention facing the cover.
6. A thorough bath in bearing grease (everything was bone-dry upon opening) for everything and reinstall.
HINT: To unclip the pivot arm, pull the two two skinny (clothes hangar skinny) rods straight out of their holes. You will pull the top one up and bottom one down. With these out, the pivot arm will come out letting you remove the throwout bearing.
HINT: Do not pull on the tranny input shaft. I did and it came out about 1/2 inch. I don't know how much further it would have come out, but you don't want to know either. The input shaft also spun very freely as I had the car in neutral upon starting this.

#1: Bellhousing showing the original case gasket I reused.
#2: Back of case cover showing old seal removed and new one waiting install. Also shows thin metal ring with slight indention.
#3: New seal installed and metal ring in place. To secure metal ring while it was facing away from me, I just use a slight dab of bearing grease on the sides. Worked like a champ. Again, I placed the slight indention towards the cover.
#4: Shows everything reinstalled and the pivot arm in place. Yellow boxes show the small clothes hangar clip thing that holds the pivot arm in it's place.
#5: Front of the case. The small ball thing on the left next to my thumb is the cup that the pivot arm sits on and "pivots" around.

Hint: If you don't drain the oil out of the tranny prior to taking the case off... well... let me know what happens.

Actual CLUTCH/FLYWHEEL REMOVAL and INSTALL OF SPEC
First, this was the easiest part of the whole thing by far. Six bolts on the pressure plate, six on the flywheel.

1. Taking the pressure plate off was easy. I cracked each bolt about a full turn before backing them out... in there pretty good though. I had to wedge a short piece of wood between the flywheel teeth and the ground to keep it from turning. All bolts came out no problem. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LEAVING THE TOP BOLT FOR LAST. If you can't figure out why, then you're probably as smart as me. Once that last bolt is out, the pressure plate and disc just come off.
2. Removing the flywheel was just as easy. Block of wood to keep it from turning. Leave top bolt for last. It takes some muscle but again my 18" breaker was enough.
3. Cleaned behind the flywheel. Rear main was definitely leaking... but after 140k miles I'll forgive it. The thin metal gasket between the bellhousing and the block is bolted in place at the top... didn't see a reason to take it off. I cleaned behind it best as I could though.
4. Pulling out the rear main seal took a few minutes. I didn't mind scratching it or even destrying it, but I didn't want any damamge to the metal seat it's in. I used a couple dental pics and a very tiny flat bladed scredriver and after a bit of coaxing, it came out. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Whe you put the new rear main seal in, don't push it in as far as it will go, it just needs to be flush with the lip. I pushed mine in a little far, but just made sure it was "evenly" too far in and I'm hoping for the best... shouldn't be a problem.
5. Reinstallation of my "new" flywheel (I got a used one on m.net and had it resurfaced so I didn't have any down time). Was easy. Don't forget to install the new bearing... tapped in with a small ball peen (took about 5minutes of VERY LIGHT TAPPING). The flywheel is heavy, just don't drop it before you get that first bolt in.
HINT: Clean all the flywheel bolts with a wire brush as they'll have threadlocker residue on them... nothing you can do about the other end, maybe a Q-tip in there. I used Threadlocker Blue and torqued to specs.
5. Install of the disc and pressure plate was easy. The alignment tool works as advertised. The studs on the flywheel were little tight for the holes on the pressure plate, so a rubber mallet came in handy. All said and done, the disc was off-center maybe 1/2mm... I think that will settle out first time I push one the clutch.

Cleaned up and done for tonite. 1 clutch istalled.
Tomorrow, fill tranny with 75w90 gear oil... thinking about Redline or Royal Purple. The fluid that came out was brown/clear and clean... very surprising for original oil. I take it the shifter cup takes the same oil. I'm gonna turkey baster it out and replace.

#1: New parts.
#2: Block after cleaning.
#3: Flywheel attached.
#4: Clutch attached
#5: What 10psi does to the stock clutch. Can you smell it from out there?

One question. Do inch pounds translate directly to foot pounds?
Ie, does 48inchlbs equal 4ftlbs.

yes

Cool!
PS: my O2 clamp arrived yesterday. I intend to install it prior to tuning... but after the cluth. Great instructions.

thanks for all the detail man.

However, I'm not really looking forward to this work.

I didn't see a new clutch slave. I just learned, dramatically, what happens when your slave fails. $10 to rebuild yours or $30 to get a new one. Do it now.

Ben

That's damn good advice. It was replaced about 20k miles ago.

But now on to tonights' progress!
First, I don't know how some of these guys do this shit by themselves. I honestly couldn't have done it without a guy who I think I'm going to let win at our Army/Navy/Poker party tomorrow as a reward.

The tranny is in!

1: Replaced the small water cap on the back of the motor as suggested... totally easy since the engine is rocked far enough forward you can get at it from the top fairly easily... even with my big hands.

2: Filled up tranny with Royal Purple 75w90 as it was either that or Valvoline. Tranny capacity is 2.1qts. I took exactly 2 quarts and not a drop more to the top of the fill hole... then I spilled out a few ounces on the install, so I'm glad I bought three bottles. Also going to baster out the shifter oil and fill with same. I was at Pep Boys earlier and took a chance on a 24mm socket! Yup, that's the one to get the tranny drain bolt out... so I fully drained it. No metal shavings in the magnet!

3: Zip tied all the crap up near the top right side of the flywheel (wiring harness/clutch hyd line) out of the way, as some of it looked like it was actually hanging down in the way, then looped the rope around the rear and positioned the tanny on the jack with my little form fitting wooden block.

4: Used small spare floorjack and 2x4 to lift front of engine to angle the rear down. YOU CANNOT RE-INSTALL THE TRANNY WITHOUT DOING THIS! I used the clearance of my cold-side intercooler piping as a reference to know when the engine was rocked far enough back.
HINT: I'd try to as much of the jacks' extension as you can and use as short a piece of wood as possible. This will decrease the chance that the jack will "jack-knife" out if you happen to kick it with your foot.

5: Began the slow and painful process of lift rear/jack front/ slide forward... for about 20 minutes until we had it in position. Be careful to keep the PPF out of the way and there is a heat shield on the tunnel on the drivers side next to where the shifter goes. That thing got caught up twice (must remember to bend it back in place tomorrow).
HINT: If you're using a rope to lift the back, place the rope as far back on the tranny as possible. We placed it to far forward and as we moved the tranny forward, the rope was actually pulling the tranny back. We had to reposition.
CAUTION: As the rope is looped around the tranny and the tranny at that point is round, when you pull up on the rope, it has a tendancy to also ROTATE the tranny off the jack (I had about 2mm of good metal still holding on to the wood)... wipes sweat from brow... notices hand is covered in oil and grease... feels forehead with other hand to see if grease now on forehead... notices other hand also covered in grease... sees friend laugh his ass off.

5: The tough part about mating it up was simply not knowing what it felt like. We had good spline contact when the tranny was still about 1.5" away and didn't know it. You've got to get the tranny to about 1" from the block before the bolts will take thread. We got it as close as we could by muscling it, then whacked the shit out of it with a rubber mallet and got the few extra millimeters we needed for a bolt to take hold. Once one bolt was in, I immediately put one in the opposite side and cranked them down evenly alternating sides. Then I put one in the Left top and got the 5 easy bottom ones. I tightened them all up as much as I could with a 3/8 ratchet just for the meantime.
HINT: I verified we were on thread by turning the crankshaft (22mm socket) and looking in the rear of the tanny to see it turn (guess I left it in gear afterall).

6: Getting the PPF back on was a little challenging. We let off some pressure on the front jack and push up on the tranny to get it ON, then push the front of the engine back up to get the PPF Tranny bolts to line up. The rear PPF bolts went in by hand, no problem. Once the PPF was in and tightened down, we removed both jacks and STOPPED.

No good pics today as the previous pics should illustrate well. I did snap a shot of the Tranny drain plug magnet after I cleaned it. There was a little gunk on it, just dust. EDIT: I just looked at the pic, sorry it sucks.

For the guys that are afraid of doing this....its not all that bad. I have done it 4 times now and the last time it took me 5-6 hours. Most of that time is spent bitching at my tranny brecause its 90lbs and I dont have a tranny jack. Getting it out anf back in is not hard at all. The hardest part is realigning the tranny with the input shaft and the top two bolts holding the tranny to the engine.

The hardest part for me was getting the bolts loose and then it was all cake lickily we have light trannys i doubt it is 100 lbs more like 60 or so. Definitly a one hander.

The tranny is just over 80lbs.

Give Sam credit, he had another 80lbs of grease on there :)

^ lol

Thanks for the detail! I'm not looking forward to this but my post has a garage with lifts and a parts counter, so that oughtta help ;)

I had my clutch changed while I was in AIT with a stock replacement (wasn't turbo yet) because my wife grenaded it trying to pull a U-haul with the miata from Tampa to AZ.. The flywheel was all rainbow colored when they took it off. (my VW mechanic brother-in-law was nice enough to do it in his spare time)

With a lift this is no problem taking off the coils helps on the top bellhousing bolts as well.

No action all weekend on this... finally got around to "almost" completing it.

1. Backed out the bolts I'd installed one at a time and cleaned them... once all were in and tightened down with 3/8 ratchet, I torqued them to specs. The only one that gave me any real hassle was the top right side one under the CAS sensor. I just couldn't get it to torque at the max end of the recommended range, so I settled for the low end. The angle was too extreme for the number of extensions I had to use.

2. Getting the clutch hyd line bracket on the high bolt was done by feel as I couldn't see with my hand up there.

3. To re-install the clutch slave cylinder, just push the plunger back in the cylinder. It will go back in with a little force, allowing you to slide the plunger in under the shift arm.

Everything else went fine. I reinstalled the reverse, neutral, and speedo cables to the tranny, and torqued the four bolts on the PPF to specs.
Once I had all the tranny bolts torqued and the PPF bolts torqued, I removed the jack that was still holding the front of the engine up a little.
I also re-attached all the plastic clips for the wiring harness to the PPF.

4. I used a turkey baster and sucked out as much of the shifter cup fluid as I cold, then used paper towells and q-tips to scour the bottom... then refulled with Royal Purple.

5. To add back the small amount of RP that I spilled on the re-install, I used a short piece of tubing that came with my MityVac on the RP bottle, that conveniently has a pointy outlet perfect for attaching a hose to. Once I got a little dribble out, I secured the cap.

6. I stuck the shifter back in it's place, secured the two rubber boots and put the center console back in place. Then I gently pumped the clutch a few times... it felt good, no need to take up any slack as of yet.

I've also got an aftermarket frame brace I put back on and as usual, everything got doused one last time with Simple Green so it's nice and shiny. All done.

I can't fire it up until I get my order of Manifold Studs from Begi... hopefully be here Friday... then spend the weekend driving around town to expedite 450 miles. Just to be safe, I think I might just disconnect the wastegate for the break-in miles. Looks like early next week for the dyno... DAMN, that reminds, me, gotta install the 305's and O2 clamp. Well, the wife works all weekend, so plenty of time to install and drive.

But for now, clutch change complete.:bigtu:

Did you adjust the position of the transmission at the ppf? The distance from the rails to the ppf when tightened?

Clutch Change Reflections...
 

Just thought I'd drop some hints for those of you thinking about doing this.

1. Don't be afraid... it's not that hard.
2. If you've got something else to drive, great... plan on doing it a little at a time over the course of a week after work. No need to try and do it all in one weekend. Your arms will get tired and you'll lose patience and concentration.
3. Get a friend to help you, at least with the re-install. Simply from a safety aspect, one guy to pull the rope and steady the tranny while another moves the jack around is key... plus, if you get hurt and drop the thing on your head, nobody will be there to call 911.

Some things I'd consider.
1. You saw the nice little mount I made for mine. Next time I do this, I'm going to take an hour and make a real one that sits under the center of gravity... hopefully I can fore-go the rope entirely. I'll use a good piece of 2x6 and shape it exactly to the bottom... then cut neep grooves in the bottom of the mount so it attaches to the jack, not simply sits on top.

2. Have 2 jacks. YOU HAVE TO LIFT THE FRONT OF THE ENGINE TO REINSTALL THE TRANNY. You could simply use a piece of wood wedged under there and hammer it in place... but you wouldn't have the adjustability needed to wiggle the entire thing up and down to re-install the PPF... it just makes life easier with one jack on the engine and one under the tranny.

3. The right tools are key:
14mm and 17mm sockets- tranny to bellhousing (I think PPF's are 17mm too)
Large Crescent Wrench- removing reverse sensor and speedo cable... only a crescent will do. A regular wrench or small crescent won't be able to apply enough pressure
14mm and 17mm box or open-end wrenches- holding nuts on two of the R side tranny bolts.
12mm socket- removing clutch slave cylinder
2 floor jacks
24mm socket Tranny drain bolt
At least two feet of extension and one swivel for your ratchets. no need to get crazy with your attachments. For the top-most bolts, my extensions were something like Ratchet, 6" 1/2 ext, 1/2-3/8 piece, 12" 3/8 ext, 3/8 swivel, socket. Only my 3/8 sockets were 6pt for 14mm and 17mm... my 1/2 sockets in that size were 12pt... plus the 3/8 stuff was plenty robust and weighed less when holding it up there.
Torque Wrench
Zip Ties- for pulling things (clutch slave, wiring harness) out of the way.
Simple Green, Q-tips, plenty of paper towells. Of course you'll need a few other things, but these are the absolutes that you shouldn't skimp on.

I'm going to ad my entire cost for this thing up here... don't get alarmed.

Spec Stage II= $310shippied
Royal Purple 75x90- $10qt= $30
Front Tranny Seal= $3.95
Rear Tranny Seal= $12.95
Front Main Seal= $17.95
Small Shifter Boot= $24.95
Large Shifter Boot= $22.95
CAS O-ring (didn't do)= $4.95
Water Outlet Cap= $4.95
Total= $432.65+shipping from Rosenthal for parts= +/-$450

Tools Bought (don't really count them)
22,23,24,26mm sockets $3.95ea= $17
Big floor jack from Sears= $80
4x6ton 22" SUV jackstands from Northern Tool= $40
Torque Wrench (always borrowed before) also from NT= $38
Total= $175

Good luck when you give this a shot, hope this writeup helps others save some time. I only bled three times during this whole thing... A NEW RECORD!

:cool: That's a hell of a writeup.

Nice!

Where the tranny mates to the PPF, there were distinct grooves cut in the PPF. I was able to align it back in the exact same place simply by jacking up the front of the engine, which effectively pushes the transmission back... side by side wasn't an issue, there was maybe 1/4 inch of play and when I had the forward/back distance on target, the side/side was perfect.

There is an "up/down" spec that positions your driveshaft at the best angle. It also controls the height of your shift knob(which probably means nothin to anyone).

From a flat placed across the frame rails, the bottom of the ppf at the transmission should be up 2.22" plus or minus .197"

Wow...I remember hearing about this angle spec for the PPF a long time ago, now. Didn't even think about it last time I changed my clutch. Guess I wasn't thinking there was enough slack in the setup to make a difference...guess what I'll be looking at this weekend ;)

DAMN! When I get home and measure this, is the fix to simply use my spare jack to raise the front of the engine until I get the correct distance and then tighten... or what?

If you loosen the ppf bolts to the transmission, the back of the engine/transmission will drop. You will need the jack at the transmission or ppf to adjust.

I tightened, pulled the jack out and found I needed to support it less with the jack cause it didn't drop enough. Took a few tries to get it within spec in a free state without the jack touching.

SAM -
Are you telling us that you "DID NOT" replace the REAR MAIN SEAL?

um how come i've never heard of this before? damn, oh well it is where it is

+1 and over 10K miles ago....:eek:

I haven't fixed mine yet, but I'm sure it isn't at the right height (PO had the clutch done). Reading on m.net will tell you that after a clutch change, there is often a lot of driveline noise on deceleration. Apparently, this is minimized in certain cases by getting the ppf properly aligned.

Did I say that... which post and I'll correct it.
I definitely DID, YES, AFFIRMATIVE, POSITIVE change the rear main seal... it was the original and was leaking a little!

The only thing I didn't replace was the CAS o-ring as it was done about 15k miles ago with the timing belts and a few other things.

Post #27 -- https://www.miataturbo.net/forums/sh...1&postcount=27
You go on to explain that the rear main seal had been leaking, but you hadn't mentioned your sequence of events on removal and replacement of the rear main seal prior to the flywhell re-installation.

The only reason that I had posted was because to a novice person performing a clutch/flywheel repair/replacement, this step should never be omitted if you are removing the flywheel. The rear main seal almost always needs replacement (unless you don't mind leakage). :bigtu:

Thanks a bunch for pointing out that omission. I even bolded a key part I read in Chiltons about replacing the thing when I edited post #27.

i have a problem with my clutch install... im stuck on the 3 14mm bolts on the right side of the tranny! i have every other bolt(17mm) secured, just the 14mm bolts im having problems with... they wont go all the way through! i tried jacking the engine, jacking the tranny, jacking both, still no help. how did you get yours in spam? please help me! ive been without my baby for almost a week now! i started with taking off the tranny on sunday evening-8hrs... monday changed clutch and flywheel-1 1/2 hr. wednesday put the transmission back in-2 hrs. tonite started to put all the bolts in and spent 3 hrs only to attach all the 17mm bolts... please help!

Those 3 bolts hold in the starter motor. You might need someone else to hold it up and in place so you can get the bolts started.

check the metal gasket between the tranny and motor. make sure it's flat against the tranny and that none of the harnesses or clutch lines are not stuck between them.

DISCONNECT the battery. it's a good place to short something out and burn yourself.

its flat. i have all the other bolts in place... im probably going to loosen the starter so i can start the threading...