Diy clutch/flywheel install
10-11-2013, 11:06 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Diy clutch/flywheel install
There are quite a number of threads on doing this, but I thought I would try to write this up as well since I'm in the middle of doing it. It's really not hard, just very time consuming and requires a few specialty tools. I'll try to list them all at once so there are no surprises. So let's get started!
Phase 1: get the car up.
You will need:
A TALL floor jack.
8 TALL jack stands.
How long it took me:
30 min
Procedure:
This is the most crucial part of this whole thing. You need to safely get your car up as high as possible. The higher the better, you will be spending a lot of time under it. You need to be as comfortable and as safe as possible.
1: position your very tall jack under the rear differential. Why? Because it's going to be too tall to fit under the car to jack it up by the frame. If your jack fits under the side it's simply too short.
2: start jacking up the car by the bottom of the differential as high as it will go.
3: place your jack stands under the frame on each side near the rear where the owners manual says is the correct jack point.
4: lower the vehicle onto the stands. (Make damn sure they are both the same height!).
At this point you should be up on two jack stands, hopefully they are both only half way extended.
5: place your jack as far front as possible on one side and start jacking the car up by the frame just high enough that you can fit another jack stand on its lowest setting under it.
6: lower the car onto the new stand.
**** is going to be hairy right now. Make damn sure no one goes under this thing at this point. And be careful not to lean on the car.
7: go to the other side and repeat the procedure so you have all 4 jacks under the frame.
8: jack up the car by the frame next to each jack stand to raise them higher. Get it as high as it wil go. If one jack stand is going to be drastically taller than the other, you may have to make multiple passes. Remember it is ok to be uneven front to rear, do not ever get uneven in a cross cross pattern!
After the 4 jack stands are as high as they will go, it's time to set your secondary stands.
9: place a jack stand underneath each A-arm on all 4 wheels. So now if something happens to one of the four primary jack stands, one of these secondary stands will catch it.
10: place your tertiary support. Use your tall floor jack and position it under the rear diff. At this point it will not be tall enough to reach the diff, so you will have to use something to place on the jack to make up the difference. Jack it up until it touches the diff and then leave it.
Now you have 9 points of contact and it's much less likely that you will have an accident.
Phase 2: remove the exhaust.
How long it took me:
2.5 hrs.
You will need:
Impact
Air ratchet
Hand ratchet
PB blaster
Flat faced hammer
Creeper. (Buy one, you need it.)
Baggies
Sharpie
Here is the exhaust section from the FSM:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/coupe/2004.5/ex.pdf
The first thing you should do is soak all exposed bolts with PB blaster. Trust me it will be much easier than wrestling with these damn things dry. Some will need coaxing with the hammer.
You will be removing the entire thing from the cats back. Including the brace that holds the cats and the o2 sensors. Remove them and just wrap them around the cats and out of the way. Take all your bolts and put them in a baggie, spray some PB blaster in the Baggie and then label where they came from with the sharpie. Don't skip this step and don't put all your bolts in a big sloppy pile. Take the time to be slow am organized.
Now you should have an unobstructed view of the drive shaft and tranny.
Phase 3: remove the driveshaft.
How long it took me: roughly 30min
You will need:
Ratchet (I think they are 12mm)
Universal joints for ratchet. (Plural)
Extensions (plural)
Impact
1: roll your *** under the rear diff and check out the drive shaft side. You see 4 bolts holding the shaft to the diff. You'll need to unbolt them and the top ones are not fun.
Ok, I'll tell you the easy way to get at bolts that are in tough places. Take your impact, your multiple extensions and universal joints, and build a extension that will arch downward so you can put the impact on it easily. When you buy the universal joints buy some with a lifetime warranty, because using these like this frequently WILL blow them out. It's just a matter of when.
2: after all 4 bolts are out you will have to manipulate the joint to get it off. If the plate isn't parallel with the mounting surface, it will get jammed up. So rock it, pound it with a rubber mallet and keep at until it falls. Just make damn sure your face ain't under it.
3: once the diff end hits the floor, you can simply slide the other end off the output shaft of the tranny. It's splined, so it needs to be wiggled a tad. Fear not, the driveshaft is really light, just a little awkward. Yay for carbon fiber!
Phase 4: wire harness removal.
How long it took me: about 45min
You will need:
17mm socket
15mm socket
Curved needle nose pliers.
Flat head screw driver.
1: disconnect all of the Molex connectors. There are two to the o2 sensors, one to the starter motor, one to the position sensor, and one at the very very top of the transmission that you won't be able to reach until you drop the back of the tranny.
2: remove all the brackets holding the wires in place, including the catalytic converter brace. When you remove a bracket, be sure to run the bolt back in the same hole it came out of so you don't loose it.
3: after they are removed, the whole harness should hang down except for the one connector toward the rear of the transmission. Label your loose bolts as you should and label your brackets.
Phase 5: remove the shifter.
How long it took me: about 10min.
Tools needed:
Your hand
10mm socket
12mm ratcheting box wrench
1: go inside the car and remove the shift knobby from the shifter. Use two vise grips. Wrap a towel around the ****, and secure the vise grip.
2: remove the plastic shroud by reaching in the shift boot toward the console and pulling up.
3: disconnect the ribbon cable the connects the HVAC controls.
4: wrap another rag around the shifter shaft and secure the second set of grips.
5: holding the shaft straight with one set of grips, grab the other set that's holding the **** and lefty loosey. Turn it HARD and be very careful not to bend the shaft of the shifter. Be careful, mine damn near gave me a hernia.
6: after the **** is off, pull the shroud and boot of the shaft. You'll be staring at a piece of round cotton, pull it off.
7: now there is a round ring with a rubber boot in it. Remove the 3 10mm bolts and take the whole thing off. Then remove the boot.
8: now you are looking at a metal plate that appears to be the shape of a triangle. Remove the 3 bolts and the whole shifter will pop up.
9: go under the car and look up at the rear of the tranny by the output shaft. You'll see a square rubber boot. Peel it down and there will be the bottom of the shifter attached to the gear select lever by a single 12mm bolt. Take your ratcheting box wrench and heave that sucker loose. Label it and set it aside.
10: remove the shifter from inside the vehicle. Don't loose the spring.
Phase 6: remove the tranny! Finally!
Tools needed:
15mm ratchet
17mm ratchet
Impact wrench
Assortment of extensions and universal joints for ratchet.
Transmission jack (i bought the 80 dollar one from harbor freight)
How long it took me: about 2 hours.
1: start from the engine bay. Point a bright light from under the car up toward the engine bay at the firewall. Now look down. You'll see two 17mm bolts sitting close together at the top. One has a wire clamp attached to it and the wiring harness running through it. Yell, scream and cuss and remove the clamp, then move the harness out of the way. Get your socket in there and remove the two bolts. It's all downhill from here, this is the hardest part.
2: there are a couple bolts on either side right below those that are hard to reach, but it can be done. The heads are on the transmission side. Roll yourself under the transmission with your head toward the rear of the car. Give the bell housing a big hug and grope around for them. The passenger side will be relatively easy to reach. The driver side however is a whole other story. Use your universal joints and extensions to get to it.
3: there are two 15mm bolts holding in the starter that bolt through the bell housing. Remove those and set the starter on the cross member.
4: keep removing bolts on both sides EXCEPT the two bolts on the very bottom of the bell housing on the engine side. Just loosen these. You don't want the transmission hanging by the input shaft.
5: position your transmission jack toward the rear of the transmission. Furthest from the bell housing. I put it directly on top of the fluid drain plug and it truthfully could have stood to go back a little further. Jack up the erm...jack until you have the weight of the tranny. Wrap the belt around it and ratchet it down.
6: unbolt the crossmember closest to the rear of the tranny.
7: slowly lower the jack until you can get your hand in and disconnect the last piece of the harness. Move the harness aside.
8: jack the transmission back into place so the remaining bolts are not binded up. Remove the bolts.
9: lower the jack an inch or two and simply roll the transmission back. If it does not simply slide off, then there is a bolt loose. Try to find it. The transmission should EASILY seperate.
10: roll the transmission out from under the car. This is where you will find out if you jacked the car up high enough!
You have now "cracked the egg". Youll see the pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel assembly.
Phase 7: remove the pressure plate.
Tools needed:
12mm socket
Impact wrench
PB blaster
Bucket
Rubber mallet.
How long it took me: about 30 min. Your time may vary.
1: using your impact wrench, remove the bolts that are holding on the pressure plate. They probably have lock tite on them so If you don't have an impact, your gonna have a fight on your hands.
2: after the bolts are off, put your bucket underneath it, and soak the whole thing in PB blaster. I used damn near a whole can. Get it inside and out, soak that mother.
3: take your rubber mallet and start beating it on the outside. Hopefully the clutch will drop on the inside, keep beating and spraying until it does.
4: now take a large flat head and start prying the pressure plate loose where the tiny studs are. It's gonna be tight. Just gently pry one side, then the other and keep working until it comes off. After you get a large enough crack between the pressure plate and the flywheel, the cluth will drop out, so be prepared for it. Keep prying and working the pressure plate until comes off. Be ready for it, it's heavy.
Phase 1: get the car up.
You will need:
A TALL floor jack.
8 TALL jack stands.
How long it took me:
30 min
Procedure:
This is the most crucial part of this whole thing. You need to safely get your car up as high as possible. The higher the better, you will be spending a lot of time under it. You need to be as comfortable and as safe as possible.
1: position your very tall jack under the rear differential. Why? Because it's going to be too tall to fit under the car to jack it up by the frame. If your jack fits under the side it's simply too short.
2: start jacking up the car by the bottom of the differential as high as it will go.
3: place your jack stands under the frame on each side near the rear where the owners manual says is the correct jack point.
4: lower the vehicle onto the stands. (Make damn sure they are both the same height!).
At this point you should be up on two jack stands, hopefully they are both only half way extended.
5: place your jack as far front as possible on one side and start jacking the car up by the frame just high enough that you can fit another jack stand on its lowest setting under it.
6: lower the car onto the new stand.
**** is going to be hairy right now. Make damn sure no one goes under this thing at this point. And be careful not to lean on the car.
7: go to the other side and repeat the procedure so you have all 4 jacks under the frame.
8: jack up the car by the frame next to each jack stand to raise them higher. Get it as high as it wil go. If one jack stand is going to be drastically taller than the other, you may have to make multiple passes. Remember it is ok to be uneven front to rear, do not ever get uneven in a cross cross pattern!
After the 4 jack stands are as high as they will go, it's time to set your secondary stands.
9: place a jack stand underneath each A-arm on all 4 wheels. So now if something happens to one of the four primary jack stands, one of these secondary stands will catch it.
10: place your tertiary support. Use your tall floor jack and position it under the rear diff. At this point it will not be tall enough to reach the diff, so you will have to use something to place on the jack to make up the difference. Jack it up until it touches the diff and then leave it.
Now you have 9 points of contact and it's much less likely that you will have an accident.
Phase 2: remove the exhaust.
How long it took me:
2.5 hrs.
You will need:
Impact
Air ratchet
Hand ratchet
PB blaster
Flat faced hammer
Creeper. (Buy one, you need it.)
Baggies
Sharpie
Here is the exhaust section from the FSM:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/350Z/coupe/2004.5/ex.pdf
The first thing you should do is soak all exposed bolts with PB blaster. Trust me it will be much easier than wrestling with these damn things dry. Some will need coaxing with the hammer.
You will be removing the entire thing from the cats back. Including the brace that holds the cats and the o2 sensors. Remove them and just wrap them around the cats and out of the way. Take all your bolts and put them in a baggie, spray some PB blaster in the Baggie and then label where they came from with the sharpie. Don't skip this step and don't put all your bolts in a big sloppy pile. Take the time to be slow am organized.
Now you should have an unobstructed view of the drive shaft and tranny.
Phase 3: remove the driveshaft.
How long it took me: roughly 30min
You will need:
Ratchet (I think they are 12mm)
Universal joints for ratchet. (Plural)
Extensions (plural)
Impact
1: roll your *** under the rear diff and check out the drive shaft side. You see 4 bolts holding the shaft to the diff. You'll need to unbolt them and the top ones are not fun.
Ok, I'll tell you the easy way to get at bolts that are in tough places. Take your impact, your multiple extensions and universal joints, and build a extension that will arch downward so you can put the impact on it easily. When you buy the universal joints buy some with a lifetime warranty, because using these like this frequently WILL blow them out. It's just a matter of when.
2: after all 4 bolts are out you will have to manipulate the joint to get it off. If the plate isn't parallel with the mounting surface, it will get jammed up. So rock it, pound it with a rubber mallet and keep at until it falls. Just make damn sure your face ain't under it.
3: once the diff end hits the floor, you can simply slide the other end off the output shaft of the tranny. It's splined, so it needs to be wiggled a tad. Fear not, the driveshaft is really light, just a little awkward. Yay for carbon fiber!
Phase 4: wire harness removal.
How long it took me: about 45min
You will need:
17mm socket
15mm socket
Curved needle nose pliers.
Flat head screw driver.
1: disconnect all of the Molex connectors. There are two to the o2 sensors, one to the starter motor, one to the position sensor, and one at the very very top of the transmission that you won't be able to reach until you drop the back of the tranny.
2: remove all the brackets holding the wires in place, including the catalytic converter brace. When you remove a bracket, be sure to run the bolt back in the same hole it came out of so you don't loose it.
3: after they are removed, the whole harness should hang down except for the one connector toward the rear of the transmission. Label your loose bolts as you should and label your brackets.
Phase 5: remove the shifter.
How long it took me: about 10min.
Tools needed:
Your hand
10mm socket
12mm ratcheting box wrench
1: go inside the car and remove the shift knobby from the shifter. Use two vise grips. Wrap a towel around the ****, and secure the vise grip.
2: remove the plastic shroud by reaching in the shift boot toward the console and pulling up.
3: disconnect the ribbon cable the connects the HVAC controls.
4: wrap another rag around the shifter shaft and secure the second set of grips.
5: holding the shaft straight with one set of grips, grab the other set that's holding the **** and lefty loosey. Turn it HARD and be very careful not to bend the shaft of the shifter. Be careful, mine damn near gave me a hernia.
6: after the **** is off, pull the shroud and boot of the shaft. You'll be staring at a piece of round cotton, pull it off.
7: now there is a round ring with a rubber boot in it. Remove the 3 10mm bolts and take the whole thing off. Then remove the boot.
8: now you are looking at a metal plate that appears to be the shape of a triangle. Remove the 3 bolts and the whole shifter will pop up.
9: go under the car and look up at the rear of the tranny by the output shaft. You'll see a square rubber boot. Peel it down and there will be the bottom of the shifter attached to the gear select lever by a single 12mm bolt. Take your ratcheting box wrench and heave that sucker loose. Label it and set it aside.
10: remove the shifter from inside the vehicle. Don't loose the spring.
Phase 6: remove the tranny! Finally!
Tools needed:
15mm ratchet
17mm ratchet
Impact wrench
Assortment of extensions and universal joints for ratchet.
Transmission jack (i bought the 80 dollar one from harbor freight)
How long it took me: about 2 hours.
1: start from the engine bay. Point a bright light from under the car up toward the engine bay at the firewall. Now look down. You'll see two 17mm bolts sitting close together at the top. One has a wire clamp attached to it and the wiring harness running through it. Yell, scream and cuss and remove the clamp, then move the harness out of the way. Get your socket in there and remove the two bolts. It's all downhill from here, this is the hardest part.
2: there are a couple bolts on either side right below those that are hard to reach, but it can be done. The heads are on the transmission side. Roll yourself under the transmission with your head toward the rear of the car. Give the bell housing a big hug and grope around for them. The passenger side will be relatively easy to reach. The driver side however is a whole other story. Use your universal joints and extensions to get to it.
3: there are two 15mm bolts holding in the starter that bolt through the bell housing. Remove those and set the starter on the cross member.
4: keep removing bolts on both sides EXCEPT the two bolts on the very bottom of the bell housing on the engine side. Just loosen these. You don't want the transmission hanging by the input shaft.
5: position your transmission jack toward the rear of the transmission. Furthest from the bell housing. I put it directly on top of the fluid drain plug and it truthfully could have stood to go back a little further. Jack up the erm...jack until you have the weight of the tranny. Wrap the belt around it and ratchet it down.
6: unbolt the crossmember closest to the rear of the tranny.
7: slowly lower the jack until you can get your hand in and disconnect the last piece of the harness. Move the harness aside.
8: jack the transmission back into place so the remaining bolts are not binded up. Remove the bolts.
9: lower the jack an inch or two and simply roll the transmission back. If it does not simply slide off, then there is a bolt loose. Try to find it. The transmission should EASILY seperate.
10: roll the transmission out from under the car. This is where you will find out if you jacked the car up high enough!
You have now "cracked the egg". Youll see the pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel assembly.
Phase 7: remove the pressure plate.
Tools needed:
12mm socket
Impact wrench
PB blaster
Bucket
Rubber mallet.
How long it took me: about 30 min. Your time may vary.
1: using your impact wrench, remove the bolts that are holding on the pressure plate. They probably have lock tite on them so If you don't have an impact, your gonna have a fight on your hands.
2: after the bolts are off, put your bucket underneath it, and soak the whole thing in PB blaster. I used damn near a whole can. Get it inside and out, soak that mother.
3: take your rubber mallet and start beating it on the outside. Hopefully the clutch will drop on the inside, keep beating and spraying until it does.
4: now take a large flat head and start prying the pressure plate loose where the tiny studs are. It's gonna be tight. Just gently pry one side, then the other and keep working until it comes off. After you get a large enough crack between the pressure plate and the flywheel, the cluth will drop out, so be prepared for it. Keep prying and working the pressure plate until comes off. Be ready for it, it's heavy.
Last edited by Tackett; 12-20-2013 at 07:49 AM.
06-25-2014, 06:42 PM
#4
Registered User
Your post was very helpful to me. I changed out the clutch and throw out bearing and did most of the work myself. Took me a little longer than it should have because when I was laying on the engine to take out the top two bolts I sprained one of my ribs on that bar that goes across the engine. hahahaha have a nice pillow now. It wasn't as bad as some of my friends said it would be. A impact made the job go much smoother. Thank You for taking the time to post this. Also I made a low profile tray with wheels to roll under the car with me. with all the things I needed. Tools, containers and bags for the bolts and parts.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Gruppe-S
Body Interior
13
05-16-2016 10:42 PM
