need help replacing mazda clutch

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:19 am

BriceJohnson wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

I don't think I want to ever do another one of these....painful.

Couldn't agree with you more, although reading this thread does make me feel better about taking a month (working off and on) to get mine done.

I guess I'm ~8-10 hours into this right now which I assume isn't too bad considering this also included removing the control arms. I guess I lost an hour or so trying to figure out where the hidden bolt was so I could get the tranny out. I figure another 4-5 hours it will be back together. I'll need to get another alignment once this is all said and done. Good learning experience, one that has taught me to let someone else do this stuff and just pay the money :mrgreen:

Jordan Normark · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:53 am

After all this, do you think it would have been easier to remove the engine/transaxle as an assembly from the car to replace the clutch? The reason I ask is because we have a Protégé 5, so similar set up and it has 171,000 on it.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:12 am

Jordan Normark wrote:

After all this, do you think it would have been easier to remove the engine/transaxle as an assembly from the car to replace the clutch? The reason I ask is because we have a Protégé 5, so similar set up and it has 171,000 on it.

no, at least not in my eyes. To lift everything you'll need to removed the exhaust manifold, fuel lines, remove all the water hoses and a crap load of electrical connections. That's a ton of extra work. I think just removing the tranny is the best route.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 9:53 am

Glad to hear you've licked it Rodney. Now I know who to call when it's time for a clutch in my boss' Fusion.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:24 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

Glad to hear you've licked it Rodney. Now I know who to call when it's time for a clutch in my boss' Fusion.

Yeah, call Brice. I'm turning in my mazda 3 clutch repair license....

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:41 am

so here's some current pics....

my homemade engine support bar. Already saved my bacon. When I was torquing the flywheel bolts, my hand slipped and I knocked the bottle jack out of the way. Talk about shear panic as the engine swayed above my head.

New clutch installed. The old clutch was right at the rivets. Amazing how little material is on a clutch thickness-wise.

New release bearing and axle seals installed. Waiting on new clutch pivot arm as this one has some wear damage.

Hope to have this buttoned up by Friday evening....

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:29 pm

Did you Loc-tite the flywheel and pressure plate bolts?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:30 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

Did you Loc-tite the flywheel and pressure plate bolts?

you know I did :mrgreen:

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:41 pm

The tranny is back in!!! woohoo!!!! Now just to torque the bolts down and install the slave cylinder to test it before I button everything else back up. Brice, your idea of the putting the headless bolts in guides was the bomb. I'd never got it lined up w/ out that help. Owe you a beer for that one.

Now the rest of this is easy....

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:07 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Now the rest of this is easy....

Don't say that!

After I got the tranny back on Ram's Miata, I said the same thing and I f-ing wanted to kick baby seals trying to get those stupid clips that hold the hydraulic line for the clutch back on where the starter mates to the block/tranny.....hours for something so stupid and trivial

.

George Bright · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:29 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Don't say that!

After I got the tranny back on Ram's Miata, I said the same thing and I f-ing wanted to kick baby seals trying to get those stupid clips that hold the hydraulic line for the clutch back on where the starter mates to the block/tranny.....hours for something so stupid and trivial

.

I remember working on the old 510. I think I had put a clutch in it. Every time I put a tool down it seemed to disappear. I was looking for a wrench for several minutes and finally looked in my left hand to see it. I put it down and went to eat lunch.

It sometimes took a long time to get the tranny to slide into place because I was on my back under the car and doing it by feel without a tranny jack.

Jordan Normark · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:58 pm

Hot dog buns and headless bolts. It's fun learning new tricks

Charlie Guthrie · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 8:14 pm **Posts:** 832

Dang, I hate that I came late to the party; but congratulations on getting this far with your sanity intact.
That bread trick is unnecessarily difficult. I learned from some Outlaw mechanics that lived next door to me in CA that the trick is just to pack the pilot bearing with axle grease and use a close fitting metal rod as a hydraulic ram to drive it out. They were building clutches so often that they just kept a used transmission input shaft to use as the "drift punch" to drive the bushing out. After watching the YouTube video, I can tell you that the grease packing method is much faster and the clean up is.....unnecessary.
If you don't have the proper sized shaft, I have used tape wrapped around a socket extension, an undersized drift punch with tape, and a wooden dowel rod that I ground down to size on the bench grinder. (I've done a few)
Luckily, I didn't come in earlier or I might have mentioned the extreme difficulty in getting Subaru engines and transmissions separated. When we were replacing Pete's clutch I really cursed the engine that wouldn't come off until I read on the Internet (on multiple posts) that the solution was to drive a chisel between the two parts and then file off the resulting burrs. Subaru uses some hollow dowel pins around a couple of bolts that have the habit of corroding into place. Advice was to apply anti-sieze before reinstallation....OH Yeah!, did that.
Charlie G

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:02 am

Jordan Normark wrote:

Hot dog buns and headless bolts. It's fun learning new tricks

The headless bolts worked great as a guide to lining up the tranny. I did take this a step further. After cutting off the heads I slotted the end of the bolt stud w/ my Dremel and the cutoff wheel. If these got in a bind, I could back them out w/ a flat blade screw driver.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:11 am

JamesShort wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

Now the rest of this is easy....

Don't say that!

After I got the tranny back on Ram's Miata, I said the same thing and I f-ing wanted to kick baby seals trying to get those stupid clips that hold the hydraulic line for the clutch back on where the starter mates to the block/tranny.....hours for something so stupid and trivial

.

Yeah, I hope I didn't speak too soon. After some finagling/wrestling of the trans and rotating the flywheel I got the transmission to slide right up the guide pins on the block, but then it hung. Had to start in some of the bolts to get it. What I'm hoping I didn't do is push the pilot bearing in. Once I get the top side buttoned up, I want to start the car and run thru the gears w/ out the axles in place. Need to find out if that's ok to do.... If I have to take it apart, at least I don't have the suspension to deal w/ again.

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