Offroad-Express

Hey all,

I'm replacing the clutch on my 80 series tomorrow with an Exedy one. I've got a day to do it as I will need my truck running to get home from a mates workshop in vegas after its done. Had a bit of a nosey under there today and the bolts on the top of the of the bellhousing as well as one near the top on the drivers side look like they're going to be fun to get to. I've heard others have used a number of extensions to get to these? Any tips/steps that anyone has picked up?

I'm going to replace the rear main seal and spiggot while I'm there.

Cheers

Dan

when i did mine i dropped the transfer much easier to man handle. Use a heap of extensions and a wobly end for the top bolts . its a two man job for them. Bloody heavy everything so have fun .I did mine on the garage floor with a trolly jack .

Danjr wrote: Had a bit of a nosey under there today and the bolts on the top of the of the bellhousing as well as one near the top on the drivers side look like they're going to be fun to get to.

yeah those ones are fun alright

Well I had a crack at it yesterday with a bit of help from Jungle. I lowered the rear of the gearbox and transfer case down and was able to use a heap of extensions (about a meter) and a flexi to get the top bell housing bolts undone. A 1/4 inch socket set was small enough to undo the one three quarters of the way up the drivers side. I undid the gearbox wiring harness at the two main plugs on top of the starter motor to allow it to be removed as one piece. We ended up removing the transfer case to drop it to get a better balance on the hoist. One thing we found was the exhaust (mine is 3 inch) didn't leave enough room for the engine to flex forward and the gearbox to clear so removing this is a good idea. There was a few hot spots on the flywheel so that got a skim. Jungle replaced the rear main seal in place and I swapped out pilot/spiggot bearing by shoving wet tissue inside of it and driving a solid bar slightly smaller than the bearings internal diameter to pack the tissue and pop the bearing out. All was going well until I went to fit the new clutch and it turned out they'd given me one for a 1HZ. Damn!

So now my truck is on the hoist waiting for the right clutch to turn up. I thought it seemed like too good a price. Hopefully I can get another one asap. A real pain when it's my only form of transport and the workshop is over an hour away! Thanks to Jungle for lending me one of his Cruisers to get me home.

Cheers

Dan

rayndeb wrote:when i did mine i dropped the transfer much easier to man handle. Use a heap of extensions and a wobly end for the top bolts . its a two man job for them. Bloody heavy everything so have fun .I did mine on the garage floor with a trolly jack .

Yeah thats the route I followed. I don't know how you managed to get it done without a hoist! A gearbox lifter is handy too. It took a bit to get my gearbox to clear the spline since it's so tight around the bell housing and I wouldn't have enjoyed doing this on the garage floor. Nicely done.

Its amazing what you can do when thats all you got.I sent my fly wheel in to be skimmed and they ended taking 3 mm off it .When i bolted it up the bolts were too long and bottomed on ring gear so i put my clutch in twice . it must be a 80 series thing to give assholes when replacing it .

Are you going to tell them about the left over bolt Dan?
Cheers
Jungle

Well the clutch went in last night without any problem (touch wood). I picked up the correct one from TWL and it cost me close to twice the price of the original wrong clutch! 1-HDT clutches aren't cheap but it's a fair bit beefier than the other one I returned. I used a clutch alignment tool which made sure everything was lined up and the gearbox went on easily. With the transfer case off it was quite a bit easier to do up the top bolts on the bell housing and since there isn't a gasket between the transfer case and gearbox housing it was a piece of cake to bolt back on.

The only real issue was a skinny long bolt left over which had us guessing (without luck). But all seems fine and the new clutch is a big improvement with the shudder and rattle noise gone, and the surprise of the 'notchiness' of the gearbox being removed. I used to double the clutch when shifting from second to third and now I don't have to. Sweet.

Cheers

Dan

Jungle wrote:Are you going to tell them about the left over bolt Dan?
Cheers
Jungle

It's called 'lightening it for racing'!