See post 4 for full info, basically I'm 99% sure my CSC took a dump, I'm pulling my transmission out and will try to document any differences from the clutch DIY posted here. I don't have a camera, and am going very slow because I don't have new parts or the desire to replace more than I have to.





I'm curious if anyone has replaced their own clutch on the HR, I have a small slave cylinder issue (son of a ****ing *****) where it puked its guts all over the road tonight, and since I have a nice JWT clutch/flywheel I'm thinking Nissan would bill the crap out of me.

Anyway, I've got the Nissan service manual, and the amount of stuff that it says to remove to do the job is downright ridiculous, and I know for a fact isn't necessary, however, I know there are some differences in the coolant log setups between the de and HR, and the fact that it is a concentric slave vs external slave.

I get the differences in the slave, and am not concerned (aside from getting covered in tons of brake fluid). I however, am curious if anyone encountered other deviations from the DIY's on here.

Going to start tomorrow, not looking forward to this at all

 

did you have the recall done on the cylinder?

 

Yeah, frankly I'm not too sure what the problem is. I had and still do have a bad headache, so chasing the fluid under the car isn't going to happen at the moment. I'll refill it tomorrow, put a drip pan under, pump some fluid down and see where it leaks from.

Its weird to me, the pedal will literally stick to the floor, as if the slave cylinder is somehow pinned in a collapsed position. I'm afraid there could be an issue with the pressure plate and slave connection that caused this failure. I only have 10k miles on this setup, and actually fairly mild driving on it.

 

Ok.

So far I have found a big difference that I'm not sure the importance on yet. The Crank position sensor is in the top right side of the motor instead of (as I understand the DIY I'm reading) the bottom right. This means there is no easy way to remove it before the transmission. There is a bolt holding the transmission to the engine just to the side of the sensor.

So far I have found that either the mechanic who installed my JWT setup or the Nissan dealer (or a combination of both) have left a bolt loose (the one right next to the sensor described above), sheered off the heads to the bolts everyone snaps putting in test pipes, and broken a ton of the clips holding connectors in place (requiring zip tie engineering).

DIY and replace what you break is the only way to go with some of this stuff.

Seriously, put a bolt in but don't even get close to tightening it, wtf guys.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnxtG0ClhE

This conversion looks like something I would pay a fair bit to be able to do. E-mailed the company and will be calling one of their retailers tomorrow (who one of my best friends does a lot of business with) and see if they can get me the bracket, fork, and any needed lines. Even $300-400 would be worth it for everything without hesitation because of the terrible troubles this damn CSC has given me.

 

Ok, lots of little updates (if anyone cares?).

Got the transmission down, really similar to the DIY's here, the basic differences are really minor. I did make a transmission jack adapter, it worked better than I hoped for. I'll post pics of that and how I made it (it looks like crap) when I'm all done (and add it to the DIY's).

The slave cylinder definitely was the source of my brake fluid mess, looks like it should be easy enough to replace now that the tranny is down.

I learned a lot of little tricks that might be helpful for you guys if you attempt your own clutch installs, hopefully I can get some good pics during reassembly to help.

 

I am reading. Just waiting for it to be done.

Pictures, and details would be great. That video isn't that helpful.

 

Ok, well, I did verify that it was my slave cylinder. I took it apart and now understand how this little thing works. The throw out bearing is mounted on what can be thought of as a piece of pipe with about 3/16" (rough number) wall thickness. There is a little rubber seal on the bottom outside and inside edges. These seals .... seal ... with the "base" portion. The base portion is essentially two pipes (one larger and one smaller), sealed at the very back edge. The TOB thus slides forward and back, the pipe its on, between the small and large pipes of the base. Clutch fluid fills and pushes the TOB forward.

My outer seal on the upper (TOB part) piece had a torn section about 1/4"-3/8" long where you can see the fluid escaped. This in turn deems the whole unit as junk.

I'll post pictures of all this later, I just have to borrow a camera, I have an old digi cam thats no better than my iphone, and well, we know how the iphone pictures look .

I have a friend coming to help tomorrow, I'll have him bring his camera and I can show some of the things I've been talking about.


Forgot to mention above, that conversion is only available with their clutch kit. They said same dimension clutches should be able to work with it as well, but they aren't willing to part it out.

If someone buys that kit and wants to let me borrow the bracket (and source a couple parts) I can try making it work with stock size clutches, but chances are it would cost more than its worth as my machinist isn't cheap.

 

Is the TOB the same as the 03-06 or is it actually part of the slave? I have been looking at parts diagrams b/c I will be putting in the JWT Clutch and Flywheel and wanted to buy the TOB, however I cannot find a TOB on any of the 07 parts diagrams, I only see it on the 03-06 diagrams.

 

It's integral to the slave cylinder. Through Nissan the slave is 86 list, I found it for 69, and z1 has itfor 45ish plus shipping. I to encourage you to change it, bleeding it requires two people though.

Still no pictures :-(, I need to find my camera and just take some of the parts and bolts, etc.

 

Only thing is that I have a good slave that works fine and I don't want to go and put one in that may crap out on me lol. However, I just had my tranny replaced and they probably changed it so IDK what I should do.

 

Mine only got changed on the recall. And I will only once use the Nissan service manual for this argument, but they say to replace it everytime you drop the transmission.

What failed on mine was a small seal. I'll take a crappy picture in a bit, but it was a slow failure, likely from boiling clutch fluid right next to it, causing it to dry out REALLY badly. This made it more brittle, and normal driving killed it. The seal is too small to me, but we don't have another choice.

Anytime my trans comes off I will replace the slave for piece of mind. Mine worked perfect for 12k miles and then completely failed. Sometimes seals just go out.

 

Yea, the only reason I was even considering it was b/c, like you said, the service manual says to replace it every time the trans. is dropped.

 

The service manual also says to remove the strut brace, the cats, and like 5 other things that you don't need to. Its tight with the cats in, but its completely doable.

Biggest things I can recommend.

Buy lots of extensions, the quick release ones that Harbor freight has, with like 4 feet of total extension and a couple universals would make working on anything on the car cake.

Also, I will be buying an electric impact (or air compressor and impact) and torque limiter extensions before attempting this again, to simply make removal and reinstall of bolts easier.

 

I had the car 16" off the ground, but didn't actually get the transmission out from under the car. I just slid it back a couple feet and worked on it under the car.

I have 2 stands (out of 10) that would have held the car high enough to slide it out (at like 24").

If I had a lift it would have been so much easier.

I was talking to my tech about it today, and he was saying that 4' of locking extensions, a U-joint, torque sticks and an impact make it pretty easy.

Still can't find my camera

 

Peak, have you removed the inline damper?

 

I haven't, although that reminds me I should.

 

I have been searching for days for the thread with the diy on it just to see what he used for lines, connections, etc. and I just can't find it. Have you stumbled upon it? lol