Been a bit since the last time I did a clutch IN a car. I seem to recall hearing of doing one w/out taking the trans out. I'd rather not have to do that, as removing the exhaust, turbo bits, and trans adds a lot more work. Ant thoughts or hints/tips? Its just me in the garage today, so hopefully I can get this done for the weekend.

nope, it needs to come out.

rich

You could leave the trany in but it would be the first time it will have ever been done.

Wow, it would be the first time I have heard of it and I dont think it can be done.

Actually, ya you can leave the tranny in, but you will have to remove the engine to get to it

I suppose if you have some training in magic it might be done.

The issue is behind the tranny...you will hit the underbody before you pull it back far enough to remove the input shaft from the pressure plate...

If you have enough room behind it, you may be able to pull it all the way back, but you need to get that shaft all the way out of the pressure plate before you can remove the pressure plate....

So, while it might be done...with magic, it is faster to remove the tranny without magic and go from there.

If you still have the underbody heat shield in place over the muffler, that is where you will hit.
If that has been removed at some point, you might be able to do it.

rich

Every clutch job that I've done in a 914 I had to remove the trans. Just support the engine w a jack n stands. Once I got the engine low enough I put 1 jack stand under each side of the engine then put a 2x6 across the headers to support the back of the engine. I've removed several trans in my 914 by myself in my younger years. Yes, two people make the job alot easier for sure.

It CAN be done without removing the tranny from the car. I've seen it done by pulling it back and letting it hang by the axles, laying on the HEs. The guy doing it believed it was faster, but I'm not so sure. Still, under an hour IS pretty good time.

The Cap'n

Wouldn't it be faster to drop the entire drivetrain and change the clutch once dropped?

Please don't let anything rest on the heat exchangers. That's a good way to pull an exhaust stud.

Just take the trans out, it's not that difficult. Plus you can get a look at the throwout bearing while your in there. Pelican has a great step by step with pics.

although it's been awhile for me too, i agree with several posts above. that tranny has to come out. i was able to allow the engine to tilt slightly down in the back to get enough clearance to separate the tranny.

I've had an engine and trans out more times than I care to recall, between my car and the other "friends" I have that "invite" me over to play cars at their place.

I was hoping this would be a quick deal, but, yea, whatever. Between the kerry hunter header and turbo system, I "think" I can get the trans out w/out needing to dismantle the header and turbo bits.

Dr. Evil- check your PM's.

Dave, reply sent. Lets do this!

Just gave in and pulled the trans after taking some of the turbo stuff off. Exhaust stayed on, but just didn't the weight of the trans on the kerry hunter system thats in there. On a stock exhaust you'd have support at both sides from both HE's, but, well, it just looked a little scary. But not as scary as the pressure plate.

What?!?!?!?!

Called the mfg, PP has been sent back to them. Can't have 1500 miles on this. Can't imagine I didn't see this when it was installed. Can't imagine what broke to cause this condition. Soooo slipping clutch due to whacked PP, not contaminated or grenaded clutch disc.

Results and costs following the teardown of the PP will determine the scope of the "while I'm in there" part of the project. Being still sub-optimally employed, (no job) what little $$$ I have hidden away had to go a bit farther than when the black ops fund was receiving bi-weekly assistance...

Anyone with thoughts on this?

And- the clutch disc I pulled out was a factory 6 spring. I had another factory 6 spring NIB that I pulled out to compare to the one that was in service. They were pretty identical, except that the center, splined section was maybe 1/4" longer on the NIB clutch disc. Both are Sachs. Any problem using either disc in the car?

THat is VERY unusual.

Perhaps one side of the diaphragm has cracked/broken causing the uneven pressure across the wear surface.

I've never seen one like that, but it has to fail somehow.

As for the 1/4" deeper hub on the disk. Not sure it should matter but I don't know which is original length, the current (and the other is 1/4" shorter) or the other way around.

Get a measurement and we could tell you which is stock length.

Eitherway, mostly likely you'd be fine as there is a fair amount of room in there. You just wouldn't want the splines ending and the disk being pushed backward by the input shaft toward the pressure plate.

Interesting failure, thanks for sharing.

Any of those disks should be fine. The 4 spring disks are even thicker in the center. Strange failure, for sure.

How is your flywheel?
Looks like the throwout bearing was pressing off center but I can't know who caused what first. Was the bearing properly installed?
Anyway, I would double check the bearing as they are not build to sustain lateral forces and it may have some heay wear now.

Hows THIS for customer service...


On Jun 4, 2012, at 9:37 AM, brett baltau wrote:

The clutch had a broken diaphragm. Not sure of the cause of it braking. It has been fixed and sent back out to you already at no charge.
Brett

Kennedy Engineered Products
38822 17th st. east
Palmdale, Ca. 93550
brett@kennedyeng.com
Phone 661-272-1147
Fax 661-272-1575


They have earned a customer for life with me...

i would be interested in seeing photos of the turbo bits on your car, what you got????

What is this heat shield you speak of? What does it look like?

Check out the links in my sig.