I am going to be changing my clutch on my 72 1.7 soon. I have read up on it and it looks to be straight forward. I was wondering if it would be worth it to just drop the whole engine? any tips from past experience would be appreciated also!

If you're agile enough to drop the engine, then you can do the clutch without taking the engine out. Takes an hour or two under the car...best to have a helper. If you're by yourself, easier if you drop the engine.....make sense?

Unless you have other reasons like freshening up the tin or pushrod tubes or other engine work, I'd leave the engine in. I changed the clutch on my 914 leaving the engine in. This way I didn't have to disconnect any fuel/electric lines.

Excellent time to refresh your transmission mounts since you'll be touching them anyway.

(holy cow - did I just potentially pass on useful, albeit obvious, advice?)

no way, when younger I used to change a 914 clutch in 45 minutes. Do NOT remove the engine!!!!!

I too remember the days when I could bench press a 901 into position under the car because I only had one jack.

I'm at this point too, actually changing to what should be a better shifting transmission and figure I might as well do the clutch while I'm at it.

How high does the car need to go?

Better to leave the front tires on the ground or up on 4 jack stands?

For just the trans, I typically just jack up the rear and leave the front wheels on ground.

You just need to get it high enough to pull the trans out from under it. Going higher just means you have to have a taller jack to lower the trans.

I like to loosen the bolts on the cross bar to lower the front of the engine a bit. Then remove the bolts on the trans and lower so that it clears the trans bolts. then support the engine at that angel. Makes removal and installing a bit easier.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

While you are at it, replace the nylon pivot bushing for the clutch release fork.

Totally agree, if that's all you need to do.