so after almost a full year i have a real update.
I GOT MY NEW CLUTCH IN!!!
So i went to Tavis's place to get help for my clutch since i've never done one and was pretty nervous about doing it in the first place but tavis knew exactly what he was doing and ended up doing 99% of the work while i stood there not having a clue what i should do.... i really couldn't have done all this especially in the time that we did it in.
So a huge thanks to Tavis!
So along with my clutch, i was told in the past by an alignment shop in the past that i needed a new tie-rod, ball joint, and wheel bearing so i figured instead of just changing one of each of those pieces on whichever side, i would just replace them on both sides so i know the overall condition of my car. The alignment shop actually told me i needed an inner tie rod as well because it was, "dangerously loose" but both me and tavis agreed that the ones on my car were completely fine as either no absolutely no play in them. I really f---ing hate shop and is really glad tavis had a press so i didn't need to go to a shop to put in my wheel bearings, probably for some ridiculous price.
anyways, on with some pictures!
So not too long after we started we were having pretty big issues with an axle nut, but this was actually all my fault because i tightened it on with a massive 3-4" 3/4 drive ratchet i borrowed from my friend to do this job about a year ago, long and short of it we broke my 1/2" drive breaker bar so just pulled off the whole knuckle so we could just keep working towards the ultimate goal of doing the clutch and we later went and bought a 3/4" drive breaker bar and we got it off.
Sub-frame out!
Engine supported and ready for tranny drop!
Tranny out! found out my rear main seal was leaking which was a big part of my issue with the slipping clutch, but the clutch was pretty bad so i'm still glad i changed it out. (picture of clutch further down)
old throw out bearing & oil from the leaking seal
old ACT pressure plate with oil all over it
leaky rear main seal (can't really see anything in this pic)
BE GONE OLD SEAL. we also wiped off a lot of the old oil and that's the little bit of new silicone you see on the sides
THOU SHALL NOT LEAK
While we were out and waiting for the flywheel to get refinished i got a new LH side axle since the old one was a little rough
ohhhhhh, refinished flywheel =)
Old disk on the left, new spec one on the right. You can see how close it was getting to the rivets
New flywheel in and being bolted in
So! i bought the SPEC stage 1 clutch off a very good member here but the pressure plate ended up being the wrong one! it's so very strange because the bearings and clutch disk are for sure the proper one's but no matter what angle we tried, we couldn't get the SPEC pressure plate on. (not the member's fault at all, i'm pretty sure the wrong pressure plate was packaged in the box)
So here we were with the engine bay ripped apart and the tranny dropped out and with the wrong clutch, BUT TAVIS SAVES THE DAY!!! he knows of a place who has an ACT clutch IN STOCK! so he gives them a call and we quickly drive out to go pick it up, luckily i have a bit of money saved up so i was able to afford it but now i'll have to get this spec clutch thing figured out and hopefully i can sell it and get money for that. (it was rush hour so it took us about 1-1.5 hours just to get there and back -_-)
i'm going to have to send SPEC an email to see if i can get the proper pressure plate off them.
old ACT PP beside the the wrong SPEC PP
new ACT clutch in!
So i didn't take pictures for a while here because well.....i forgot lol
but basically we popped in the new axle seals and then the tranny and i started filling it without the axles in so i spilled a lot of the new tranny fluid but luckily tavis kept the drain pan under and i had extra tranny fluid lol.
i now understand what dark_rider ment when he was saying it was a b---- to get out his old snap ring, it was basically rusted in. (well, Tavis does since he did most of the work XD)
Part of the inside of the wheel bearing that stuck to the hub, that was also a b---- to get off
didn't take pictures of the new bearing being pressed in but here we (tavis) are tapping in the hub so we can press that in too!
Axle pressed in!
So yeah, my phone died after taking the last picture cause i forgot to charge it the night before so between this point and the next picture is basically us getting stuck axle nut off, getting both ball joints and tie rods in, new slave cylinder and finishing up any else we needed to finish.
here the car is started up beside tavis's!
So after about 15-16 hours of all driving around to pick up stuff that i forgot to and all the mishaps of all the seized bolts and rusted snap rings and stuck wheel bearings we were finally done, i drove it home and man it feels GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The steering is super nice tight with no slack at all, my old ones were pretty bad so it was a little sluggish but now they're fantastic.
I'm not gonna lie though i did do a hard pull with no shifts on the highway and it's f---ing great to be able to hit full boost without the f---ing clutch slipping, i really can't wait till i fully break in the clutch than i can drive the mx-3 the way i've wanted to for a LONG time.
one last thing, THANK YOU TAVIS!!!!!!!!!! YOUR THE MAN!!!!!!!!!
*edit* Tavis took this pic and i had to add it to my worklog too =)
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