Start with a few pics that I have on me.
3.7kg Chromoly Flywheel and Excedy Heavy Duty clutch all ready to be put in! Do it yourself they said, it would be easy they said!
Work commenced nice and early around the 0900 mark.
This was taken around the time that it was said the car was only on two jackstands
As you can see behind us, the roll-bar fit was coming along nicely...So the work was slowly getting there, a lot of hands on deck helping out with little bits here and there (I thank you all that helped!!!!). As sun started to fall out of the sky we all started to get a bit nervous, but no! I was determined to get this done. People started packing up and heading off for the day and a few of us stuck to it. The sun finally set and the torches came out, still determined to get it done. Everything was back in (as far as we were concerned) so the bleeding began. The first tap of the clutch pedal though....and nothing! The 12 hour mark hit at 2100hrs so we slowly started to wind down. At the end of the night (around 2200hrs) we discovered that the slave cylinder was shot, we believe that the little spring inside the casing was lost during the uninstall. I sucked up the fact that I wasn't driving home and organized with Magpie to be back in the morning with a new slave cylinder. Callum and myself ended up getting a lift back to Brisbane with Steampunk (Thanks again mate, your little beast was a lot of fun
)The morning came around, I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed, determined to get the job done quickly. Picked up a new slave-cylinder from Repco on the way and got to Magpie's around 10am. We jumped in, got the new slave installed and went from there. Again, still no pressure building up in the clutch. We made a few phone calls, asked a few questions and fiddled with a few things. The diagnosis was we couldn't get fluid running through the clutch lines. After a quick look, it seemed that the clutch master had either failed or was so dirty and clogged up it was just rooted.
The final result of Monday's work.
Thank's to the help of Magpie, we managed to get the five on to his trailer for the trip up the coast to Aspley to drop it into MX5Plus. It was about time we let the professionals get their hands dirty on this one!
Got a call Tuesday afternoon from the boys telling me the car was drive-able again, but nowhere near perfect. They disassembled the master cylinder and gave it all a good clean and flush....and found a ton of gunk and stuff. I gave them the go-ahead to throw a new one in, however it wouldn't be ready to the next day.
Wednesday afternoon (I think they tried to call me earlier, but I must have been asleep
) my Mum called them up to see if it was ready. She woke me up with a smile, "She's ready whenever you are!" So I quickly donned my clothing and jumped into her car and she drove me up to the garage. Tackled the peak-hour traffic and got there around 1600hrs, did all the necessities and got my keys back and jumped in. (After sticking my P-Plate back onto my lovely paintwork....grumble)
I turned her over, first thing I noticed? Rev's came easier and a lot more freely. With a large smile on my face, I revved her for a bit and waited for her to warm up.
Pressed in the clutch, and wow - what a difference! The HD clutch is a tad heavier than OEM, but not unbearable - however it will take some getting used to.
I selected R, so I could get out of the car park...gave it a bit of gas...started to let go of the clutch and THUMP. Stalled. Tried again, got out of the carpark and THUMP. Stalled.
Made my way out of the industrial estate with my fair share of kangaroo-hopping and near-stalls. (Stalled again just before pulling out onto the road)
I couldn't really open her up on the way home due to all the traffic. (I can tell you now, driving with a lightweight flywheel in stop-start traffic isn't fun!
)Started work at midnight tonight, so managed to have a bit of a (legal) play on the way to work. It will be a week or so until I can start being more fluid with my gear changes, but the upgrade has been worth all the trouble so far!!!
There is a couple of new noises, which is to be expected. I will try and get videos of the ones that concern me. I have a loud grinding/rattling noise at around 3k - 5k rpm. It doesn't concern me, but it would be nice if it kindly flocked off.
After all the trouble it took to get it working, I can honestly say it was worth it all. I got to know a lot of you better, made some new friends and learnt how everything works together in my car a little bit more! I'm happy to offer a hand if anyone wants to do a clutch change....but I don't recommend doing it on the ground!! This is one thing I think I'll leave to the pro's from now on
BRING ON ROUND 3!!!!
