NA clutch install (heaps of pix)

[Fatty]

awesome job with the write up there freddy, cheers. you really captured the day well. there are some classic photos in that lot yeah.

it was a long day wasn't it.... after we got the clutch in we drove back to freddy's house to have bbq dinner and then bleed the clutch properly. this all went well, until wun decided to spill about 2 litres of brake fluid all over the engine bay . (well maybe i'm exagerating a bit there )

so anyway we get the hose out to get rid of the fluid and try to save my precious paint ( i wouldn't want any paint damage now would i ? ) .

everything seems fine so at about midnight we all say our goodbyes and jump in our cars to head home. i get about 100m down the road, go to change into second gear and the car just dies on me. hmmmm.

we all stop to check it out. can't see much in the dark so again we call on freddys help, he comes down in his 4x4 and tows the car back.

the culprit was found to be the fuel injector fuse. we replace it with the radiator fan fuse, start the car up and it runs fine. phew, off i head home again. 100m down the road, go to change into second gear and the car goes dead

again, tow car back to freddy's house. by now it's 1am and me and ben are driving around hoppers crossing visiting all the servos to find the correct fuse. (it was one of those odd square plastic ones). of course noone has these instock, so we give up for the night and i had to drive home in freddy's 4x4.

the next morning i visit supercheap and buy 5 of these bloody fuses (at $5 each) , head over to freddys and we start the car. it was a hot day so the water seems to have all evaporated, and she has run like a dream ever since.

the new clutch is not too hard to drive on the road. it does bunnyhop a bit if you're not careful, but you learn how to handle it after a little while. the pedal effort is fine, it's harder than stock but not difficult to use at all. i need to fiddle with the take up point, it's rather low at the moment , raising it up might make it a bit more streetable i think.

last but not least, a massive thankyou to all the boys for helping me with this one.

[Fatty]

James, Bruce and Wun fitting the new components

hmmm, that is fattima tightenning the flywheel bolts. the quote below is taken from another thread

I used an alloy flywheel on an engine and the bolts bottomed out but felt like they had torqued up. Funny noise on the engine dyno and flywheel lets go on the run down, damaged the block as it came off and left a nice graze in the dyno room wall
.

SHOULD I BE WORRIED ?

[fattima]

Nah you'll be OK, if you here a funny noise from the clutch just make sure to move your feet

[wun911]

yeah sorry about the fuse and that fatty, was a good day tho.

[bensale]

Thanks for the write up guys! I'll have to do mine in about a year, hopefully I can find the tread when need be

[Mr Morlock]

I had a clutch replaced recently- weighed up doing it myself and correctly concluded this is just a misery job without a hoist and gearbox jack. The pros do nothing else day in day out so they are faster and often very competitive. Still you have to try things sometimes and u do not always have the folding stuff. Enjoyed the pics.

[Matty]

I had a clutch replaced recently- weighed up doing it myself and correctly concluded this is just a misery job without a hoist and gearbox jack. The pros do nothing else day in day out so they are faster and often very competitive. Still you have to try things sometimes and u do not always have the folding stuff. Enjoyed the pics.

Too right. Having hung around while my mechanic did my clutch (on a hoist, with a gearbox stand) there's no way I'd do it at home.

[Uncle Arthur]

I've done a couple now - I'll probably just pay the money next time.....

[CapitalF]

If you think that gearbox got heavy you should try lifting the 6 speed in

Hah. At least you can lift all of these.

Try swapping a Nissan Patrol clutch and manhandling the gearbox/transfer case in one of those babies without hoist or pit.. and only one mate.

Peter

[jules]

I was waiting to see what happened to the dude who decided to wear white?

Jules

[meanmx]

I was waiting to see what happened to the dude who decided to wear white?

Jules

Not sure if that's me or Wun but you can be assured that all clothes were worn in preperation of some dirty work (Wun had his pants pre-ripped in preparation for time in the pit with Freddy ). I'm reading this and pmsl at the photos. Didn't seem that funny at the time when we thought we would have to take the gearbox out again. I now have 2 people that owe me for a future clutch change at an as yet undesignated time . Nah, it is always good fun getting your hands dirty working on cars with a great bunch of guys.......until I do it next time

Ben

[Wuey]

Nice writeup Freddy. For those who haven't done a DIY clutch job, come on fellas, it's a rite of passage to MX-5 ownership! I did it single handed on jack stands and without power tools, but yeah, it was quite a workout. The one I did to an oldish RWD Corolla was like a walk in the park though.

Oh, have I told you guys Haynes has used 10 of my photos for their book on \"Do it up Mazda MX-5 - A Practical Guide to Renovation On a Budget\" after they saw my writeup in the big forum.