mx5cartalk.com

So Fatty rings me up before Natmeet and asks if I feel like putting a new clutch in his car.
Oh sure, why not. Rock around dude.

It seems my trademark goldfish memory is at it again
I distinctly remember (now ) making an oath after the last clutch change, to NEVER do it again!

Oh well, it helped pass a lazy Saturday morning.
And afternoon.
And evening.
And bedtime.
And lunchtime the next day....

To be truthful, I jumped (well maybe not jumped, maybe involuntarily twitched) when Fatty asked for a hand.
I really wanted to see if we could get our clutch install times down.
Last time, on my car, it took about 11 or so hours. Most of that was because I was ill-prepared.
This time would be different.
I learnt some lessons on prep from that last job: clicky here for the rundown on the last install
1. rubber gloves? check
2. loctite, gearbox oil, high tempo grease? check
3. Globes for lead light? Ooops. off to supercrap to buy a fluro one. ok. check.
4. Make sure that we (I) remove the bucket of old gearbox oil from the pit so that
I don't keep dropping fasteners and expensive impact guns in it? check.
5. Heaps of manpower? Check.

So, early that Sat morning, Fatty, Fattima, Wun and I rocked on up to my parents place to use Dad's garage and pit.
Meanmx rocked up slightly later when serious manpower was called for.
And a few of my motley mates came around to lend a hand, or laugh, or both
(Ryan did a green comment )

And this is what we were going to put in:


damn sexy eh?
I think its a Extreme Ninja Star Warrior Clutch kit

Wun liked it a lot (only because it was light)


Important prep note.
As we were unsure of the status of fatty's original flywheel and if it needed to be machined, another flywheel was
sourced and machined so that the install could go ahead without any delays.
Thankyou to ME (chan) who provided a flywheel on short notice and at a very reasonable price.
Cheers dude

all components and sexy machined flywheel

So, we put the car over the pit and proceeded to remove the under body braces and thus the entire exhaust system
from the Turbo flange back. This where we struck our first hassle.
Try as we might, there was one nut on the flange that would not come off

This single event was responsible for at least 1.5 hours of lost time.
Here is Bruce (Fattima) trying to remove more skin off his knuckles for the f%$king nut


and this would be me grinning like a fool as we undo the braces and exhaust from underneath...IN THE PIT

Once the exhaust was off, the gearbox oil drained, the tail-shaft removed, the wiring to the gearbox disconnected,
the front PPF bolts removed and the shifter assembly taken out, it was then time to attack the gearbox mounting bolts
Oh joy.
To those that do this by hand, kudos to you.
As for me... I like a kickass electric impact gun and a large selection of bars.
And you need some loooong bars and some funky elbow/flexi connectors to get to all the bolts/nuts.
And that bar is nearly 1.5 meters long!!


Ben (meanmx) and I worked from underneath in the pit, whilst James (fatty), Bruce, and Wun worked from up top. Teamwork-it works wonders.


After no time at all, the gearbox was off (actually it was a PITA as the PPF was a headache, and the gearbox does get heavy after a while)

All that was required now was to pull the old flywheel/clutch combo off and install the new one. Easy
This time it's not me in the pit


James, Bruce and Wun fitting the new components


Then it became time for Ben and I to refit the gearbox. What an easy job! See how happy I am? NOT!!

Finally everything gets bolted back up again and reconnected/refilled/etc.
I get Fatty to try the clutch pedal....no pedal...oh sh*t.
We scratch our heads and look to the sky for inspiration


*2 hours later* still NFI


actually it turned out that the clutch hydraulics had air in it. Not sure how. But after a quick bleed
it was all good. And wasn't Fatty a happy chappy??


I'll leave it to the other guys to explain what went wrong after this

FFG
Did you mug a council worker for his uniform?

Good work though. Can i borrow your parents place to do my clutch next time I'm in Melbourne?

I'll bring a Telstra uniform so we could both look like foremen

Don't worry about my nuts being tight, they're loose most of the time

Sucks I had to work, would have been fun to watch Freddy and Wun in the pit...


I love this picture!!!

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

6-speed heavy eh?

...I wonder how hard it would be to fit an SE clutch....





Nice work chaps!

6-speed heavy eh?

...I wonder how hard it would be to fit an SE clutch....





Nice work chaps!

6-speed heavy eh?

...I wonder how hard it would be to fit an SE clutch....





Nice work chaps!

6-speed heavy eh?

...I wonder how hard it would be to fit an SE clutch....





Nice work chaps!

holy quad post. Nice work blokes. Love the pic of fatty, he looks so happy.

So how does she drive now Fatty??

green_comet wrote:Sucks I had to work, would have been fun to watch Freddy and Wun in the pit...


I love this picture!!!

This shot reminds me of a Monty Phyton scene about the blessing of the Holy Handgenade!
Nice work chaps and a great write up FFG!