My cars release bearing has gone the way of the buffalo, slowly dieing out till any movement away from the floor grabs instantly, i've been pricing parts for this buildup as it were and so far i've found alot of over priced parts, gm qouted me 172 for the release bearing and 320 for a flywheel claiming that my stocker cant be resurfaced, if i need a new flywheel i figure i'll just upgrade to spec stage 1 or 2 clutch since i've read that spec includes the release bearing and a spec flywheel take care of all of it at once. if anyone has any advice on parts or places to get them from i was also thinking about centerforce but not sure, listening to all tips on that area.
Now i'm planning to do this on my own in my garage, i've got a pretty full set of tools and air tools, the questions i have about this are do i have to fully drop the tranny or can i loosen it up enough to get room to pull the clutch and release bearing ? if i do have to drop the tranny do i have to pull the drive shafts as well or again can i get enough slack to get the release bearing out? thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer if this thread works out lets make a sticky about the proper way to replace release bearings/clutches it would save alot of these questions as i searched and couldnt find a good response to my questions
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J~
I would just pull it all the way out drive axles and all. It maybe possible to cheat the clutch out put i thing you would send more time trying to leave it part way in. It would be less of a headache and busted knuckles just to completey drop the trans and it would probaly take less time i the long run.
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Ok so anyone got some advise about parts? or does anybody have some good tips to get the tranny out?
J~
DO NOT LEAVE THE DRIVE AXLES IN!!!
I just changed my clutch doing this, thanks to advice seen on this site and screwed up the CV joints on both sides. The CV's are very sensitive to bending and will vibrate like hell when your done. My CV caught the engine as I put the trans back in. Just drain the syncromesh, put a nice bar between the inboard CV and the trans and give the bar a little tap, the CV's pop right out. This 5 minute process won't just save you the pain of having to rebuild you CV's, but will also make dropping the trans much quicker. You'll see you'll need all the room you can get!
You'll have to fully drop the trany, there isn't enough room to slide the release bearing on and you have to machine your flywheel anyway.
I did this on my garage floor with no lift, and no previous front wheel drive experience. I followed the damn Haynes manual as best I could. I built a engine brace out of 4x4 timber and used turnbuckles to raise and lower the engine, which was really helpful to slide the spline in. One arm on the brace took the engine the other the trans.
Some day I should re-write that damn Haynes manual without the goto chapter so-and-so crap and eliminate all the extra steps - that would be worth a sticky!
Well yeah you take out the axles before you drop the tranny. Who told you otherwise?
If you read the Haynes manual it would tell you that. Well regardless, good job and see now...doesn't it feel good to do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you? Of course what doesn't feel good is the sore arms and back from moving the tranny around.
-da chinchilla
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There is no way to cheat it. The tranny must be dropped. And you have to take the axles out. It is a pain in the ass. And be ready to put in a full day on this. Now I have a suggestion. When putting the tranny back on try to use some sort of alignment bolts or rods you can use to slide the tranny on with. It makes the job a bajillion times easier. I wished I had done that from the beginning.
On parts I went with a SPEC stage 1 and so far it has done really well. I got mine from carcustoms.net It was 350 with free shipping.
Also the only way I see how your flywheel couldnt be resurfaced is if its warped. Other than that you should be able to.
Also the size of the axle nuts that need to be taken off is 60 mm. I had to drop everything to run and pick one up for $20 cause I didnt know. And now you do. Good luck.
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Madjack wrote:Like I said before, building an engine like ours (2.2 or 2200) is a painstaking chore , since there is so few custom made parts. It's frustrating to me too, but that's what I like about doing this engine, it's the challenge.
