Saturday morning I packed the boot and headed down the road to borrow a hoist for the day.
I pulled the box rather than lifting it out with the engine. I took the opportunity to give the box a good degrease and pulled the PPF and gave it a scrub too.
There was no disputing the clutch had had its day. The pilot bearing had fallen out of the flywheel and flogged out the bore. The clutch plate... well just have a look at the photos.
The poor old boy has been dríven a lot harder in the past than I have ever had the guts to do.
The lack of a flex joint in the exhaust had put a bit of strain on some already very patched headers. While I slogged on with the degreasing and fitting the new clutch up, My mate hooked in patched the cracks and tidied up some welds.
The new clutch went in with a new rear main. My hopes of fixing the oil leak were dashed though. I thought it was the rear main but with the box and headers out of the way I found the rear main bone dry and the oil appears to be coming from the head gasket.
A small weep on the passenger side of the head that then runs along the head and down the back of the block. The good news is that the oil does not transfer in a way that soaks the clutch so the new unit is safe until I get around to doing the head.
So It all went back in. Fresh oil in the box. New exhaust manifold gasket. All got tightened to spec. Started First go and rolled off the hoist under its own power with a good pedal pickup point.
I took him for about a 30min drive round the suburbs then tucked him away in the garage and got drunk, job done!
The next morning I headed out nice and early, checked for leaks found none so headed for Bellthorpe and a bit of a proving run. Everything worked as expected, pickup point may be adjusted a tad higher but I am over the moon with the new clutch. I headed out through the National park back onto the highway and out to the BP for coffee with Zero and Maniac Lachie.
All in all I would call it a success!
