is that seal easily replaceable? I've filled my shifter turret 3 times since I've gotten my car (almost 2 years ago). Every time I check it, it's empty, which leads me to believe by my awesome skills of deduction, that it's leaking.

 

Apparently from what I understand it isn't. The turret also has it's own drain plug, so make sure it's not leaking out of that.

 

See post #39 here. http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...al+leak&page=2

It looks like its just a metal to metal seal with no rubber. So if it leaks, its gonna leak and there is no way to fix it. If that happened to me, I'd drain the turret of oil and just grease the shifter ball.

 

hahaha

 

Fish must be sensitive. I asked my wife last night f I could use a bucket to cool the parts I was about to torch. She said "That's my fish bucket, if anything is left on it all of the fish are goin gto die." Apparently bleach is ok, so I had to scrub this bucket with bleach when i was done using it.

Stupid fish.

 

haha, as a saltwater aquarium owner, I can attest to that. Those stupid fish are the most fragile things ever. Emotionally as well as physically. God forbid something changes drastically in the tank, then they get all stressed out and die.

Back to the topic at hand... Since my last throwout bearing lasted all of 4,500 miles and 1.5 years, I'm installing a new clutch kit now. I'm relatively liberally applying Mobil 1 synthetic axle grease to the spline where the TOB rides, should that suffice as "hi-temp grease" as the Haynes manual calls for? I figure if it's good enough for my wheel bearings and spindles, that it should be ok for a throwout bearing and driveline...but I've been wrong before.

 

On the alignment tools:

The one that originally came with my eBay kit was crap, and led to over an hour of frustration before I borrowed a real (solid) one from my uncle and lined it up right.

I've never bought a new OEM or ACT clutch, always used, so don't know how good their tools are, but proper alignment will make the mating process MUCH easier. It's actually only really useful for assembly, since the clutch itself will self-align the first time you depress and release the pedal, but it's amazing how much easier it is when you've got it spot-on.


EDIT: Grease? What grease?

 

you don't grease anything when you install a clutch? I dunno, anything that spins around anything else, I like to grease that baby up

 

4.5k for throwout bearing doesn't seem right. How heavy was the clutch? Maybe this gives a little credence to installing a clutch overide switch. Isn't the switch put in place to specifically reduce wear on the TOB? Or, Am I mixed up?

 

You are, indeed, mixed up. TOB can take wear any time it's doing it's function of moving the release fork. Although, 4500mi is impossible for one that didn't have a defect to begin with.

You are thinking of the override switch so that you are not putting pressure on the crank thrust bearing with the pressure plate spring before the thrust surface has an oil film to ride on.

 

yeah, I think I got a faulty kit... The TOB was literally in 7 pieces when I took the tranny out. The clutch and PP looked fine (stock, too)