My plan is to pull the motor without the transmission so i dont have to redo the fluid (its brand new). Putting in an ACT XTSS and Fidanza flywheel. Any tips?

 

Ugh, I would never pull the motor without the trans. Sorry I can't help you, I just wanted to waste your time reading this post. Please carry on.

 

You cant save the fluid and put it back in?

 

If you're pulling the engine to do the clutch, you're crazy. Way easier to drop the trans. Cut a small bottled water bottle and hose clamp it to the tail shaft. That'll keep your fluids in. If you're of reasonable stature you can just wiggle the trans out onto your chest. If not, put the floor jack under and to the side, then work from the other side and pull it out onto the jack. Way easier than pulling the engine.

If you have to pull the engine then...
Try to pull the heater hoses from the rear of the head and the pump return if you're not replacing them rather than messing with the heater core, since those to locations are much heavier metal. Once the engine is hanging, unbolt the motor mounts from the subframe and block. When installing, don't bolt the mounts back in until the engine is near its final position. I found installing the pax side first and then the driver side worked best. Thread bolts to the block first, then subframe.

I just did this two weeks ago and having done it with the trans too, I think w/o is easier.

 

Just spent all that money on clutch/flywheel and your gonna go thru hell to save a few bucks on some fluid??

 

yeah here's a tip:

DUMP THE GODDAM FLUID.

unless of course you need to save that $10 to buy a brain.

 

you really think its worth it to jack the car up high and drop the tranny? I guess if you think so then ill try it this way. Ive never pulled a motor from a running car before nor done a clutch job. Should be fun

 

That's the way I did mine. That said, I did say back at the time that if I was doing a clutch AND a full DIY turbo install (making mani, DP, exhaust, charge pipes again) , I'd pull the motor and tranny. Easier to do everything at once including tapping the pan. If you have everything else done, drop the tranny.

I'm a little shaver, so I welded up a cradle that fit on my floor jack to hold the tranny. That way I pulled it, dropped the jack and just rolled the jack as far to the rear as possible. Got at least a couple of feet to work in.

Get the car as high as possible. Top slots on my jackstands weren't enough to work comfortably. I put another 4" of wood under the stands and then put them all the way up. Just jack front a little at a time-say 4-5", let down on stands, do the rear, alternating to keep the car fairly level as it goes up.

 

Seriously, just jack the car up and drop the tranny. I did it this way when I installed my ACT the other day. The whole process is easy. Though I would definitely not trust jackstands to hold that thing up in the air while you're struggling with the tranny. I used four spare rims under the tires, far more stable than some shakey *** jackstands I think.

Brotip: Tilt your motor towards the back of the car when you're putting the tranny back on. The motor has a tendency to tilt forward without the trans which makes putting them back together difficult. Do this with a jack or have one of your bro friends push on it while you try to mate them back up.

Also, if you're just trying to shimmy the thing onto your chest, tie a rope around the turret area and run it inside the car tied to a piece of wood or something to keep the thing elevated in the rear. This way when you pull it off you're not putting all the weight solely on the input shaft.

Then once the thing is back together and you're getting ready to bolt the PPF back up, jack the trans up a little bit to realign everything and then tighten all the PPF bolts. Done.

If you don't have a universal joint and a bunch of extensions you should get them.

 

Heres how I did mine.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/810280/6

Remove the stick shift and seal the turret. I looped a rope around the transmission and around a board up through the shift stick hole in the transmission tunnel to support the rear of the transmission and I used a jack at the front.

To save the fluid, just unhook the rear of the drive shaft and drop it. Then pull the transmission with it. Be sure to mark the universal joint and the diff flange to make sure to realign it when you reattach.

 

I do have both. Thanks. I went and looked underneith for a bit to brainstorm the mechanics of it tonight while i sleep. Went out for the last time on the stock clutch and it was slipping like hustler dropping the soap in jail,





because he likes to bend over and take it like a girl.

 

Drop the tranny. **** taking out the motor. Way easier to just jack the car up and drop the tranny dude. Goodluck! The first time is always the hardest.

 

I have done it various ways

1st time:
Dropped the tranny from underneath, with a lift
2nd time:
Dropped the tranny in my parents garage on jack stands
3rd & 4th time:
Pulled the motor and tranny WITH the driveshaft zip tied onto the transmission. Kept the fluids in and all was good.

If i ever do a clutch again with a motor in the car ill just drop the transmission, but i will have a friend there to help my bench it back into place and line it all up.

 

Ziptie the driveshaft in place and you won't lose any fluid.

 

dump the gear oil in a bucket, tard.

 

fwiw- my buddy cut the trans end off an old rx7 drive shaft and uses that as plug when pulling the trans. Definitely an idiot proof solution.

 

Me too!

But I ALWAYS do everything the way Lance Schall does it. He's like a beautiful long-haired Shaman on the top of the Miata mountain. I would climb up there without sandals to hear what he has to say about oil changes and power window switches. Sometimes I dream that he is my passenger, and while driving he notices that my voodoo shift **** keeps working it's way lose. He bends down to see if I there are any signs of locktite left on the threads, and I catch him take a quick glance up the skirt I'm wearing. "There surely isn't any locktite up there" I tell him. He wraps his muscular hand around the shifter and jerks it ever so slightly in each cardinal direction. He tells me I could use a new OEM bushing...I wish he'd said bush-wacking. He notices that one of my eyeball vents is missing, and asks what happened. I tell him it's attached to my fleshlight, with his avatar pasted onto it. He tells me to pull over at the next roadside motel, and that I could use a new rear wheel bearing and that my door cards aren't original.



Dude...you're making this too hard. Pull motor = 2-3day job, drop tranny = 1/2day job. I did it on a lift, but wouldn't hesitate to do it again on jackstands. It's not bad, and you should change your fluid (and surely shifter lube) anyways. Consider those 2 quarts a flush if you just put them in. If it was that expensive go buy a friggin' bucket. If the car's not high enough to drain into bucket it's not high enough to change the clutch yet.

 

Why do people think dropping the tranny is hard? I mean if you're under there and disconnecting the bolts anyways, might as well disconnect the DP, DS and PPF and drop it while you're under there.

get a clean container, drain fluid into container, then refill with said fluid once it's back in place....

This is a 2-3 hour job with the correct tools.

 

machismo and I did it in 119-179 minutes.

 

until he lays the tranny on its side and **** goes oozing out the turret. which it probably will do even if you drain it

yeah so the tranny drop is super easy. I've done it three times by myself with just four jackstands, a harbor freight racing jack, and the stock scissors jack, a block of woot (scissors jack too short to reach motor for tilt control). And wobble extensions. easy as cake. put cardboard down under everything to A) absorb aforementioned fluid and B) to act as a 1/8" thick creeper + tranny cart.