changing a silvertop clutch

[shihad]

I own a 88 trueno with a silvertop in it clutch is slipping hard so have 2 change it.Brought a clutch 4 220 from repco i personally dont no shit bout cars so am getting an apprentice mechanic 2 do it for me.He wants a manuel for my car before he does it.I was wondering if any1 could point out a website or sumthing 2get the info he looking for.Any help would b great.

[Alex B]

No offence to your friend, but a manul to do a clutch? They arnt exactly hard cars to work on... I dont think there are any online just the haynes ones you buy, check at your local library.

[RS13]

He needs a manual? And you're trusting him with your car?

I've done more clutches than I can remember, I certainly didn't need a manual!

Basically, it goes like this. (assuming you'd be like me, and use your parents garage!)

Jack car up.
On the gearbox side, remove wheel and shock.
Make sure the car is on axle stands, ie. well supported.
Remove starter motor, any attached hoses, and gearshift linkages.
Remove clutch cable/slave cylinder from side of gearbox.
Stick the cars' scissor jack under the gearbox.
Loosen engine/gearbox bolts. (I believe in Toyotas, there may be a crossmember under the engine/box that you have to remove; now is the time to do it, but make sure the scissor jack is solidly supporting the engine/box first!)
Remove any gearbox mounts (Its' a bitch in Hondas, to get the rear engine mount off, as you only have about 2 inches to fit the ratchet in!)

So now, the engine should be supported by the jack, and the engine mount on the other side of the engine bay. Now, undo the drain plug and empty the gearbox oil out; trust me, an oily, stinky puddle on the garage floor does NOT make for happy parents!

Now here's the tricky part, removing the driveshaft. One end should be clicked in the gearbox, the other should be bolted up to the hub. What I tend to do, is get the hub on as much angle as possible, so that I have lots of room to pull the CV out of the box. On some cars, you can just unbolt the CV from the driveshaft (so that the CV stays in the box), but in most you have to pull the whole CV out; its pretty well stuck in, so you might have to stick a flathead screwdriver in between box and CV to get it out of the circlip. Once it "clicks" out, just pull it out of the box.. it takes a fair bit of maneoveuring, but you should be able to tilt the hub enough to get the CV out of the box, and up out of the way. Tie it to the strut tower or something.

Now, there are several ways to do this; the best is with a car hoist, but we don't have one now, do we! Get another scissor jack (borrow it from your mates' car!) and stick this under the motor.. so basically, you have 2 jacks, one under the motor, and one under the box. Jack the motor up, and remove the one that was under the box. Your motor should be jacked up, and sitting on the mount on the other side.

Remove the engine/gearbox bolts. Note where they go (get a digicam or something) as most are different sizes, and a right bastard to find where they went!

Now, look around the gearbox, and make sure there is NOTHING attaching it to the motor; and make sure the flywheel plate is unbolted too, as it is stuck behind the flywheel. (the thin plate between the box and motor, for keeping crap out of the clutch assembly)

All good? Give it a wiggle. Hopefully, it should start to come apart off the motor, you may have to get the screwdriver out again to help it off the input shaft, dummy driveshaft.

Now, (this is what I like to do) get a few rags, and heap them in a pile under the box, like really stuff them in there. Now, if you sit with your legs either side of the box, and well clear of getting squashed, grab the box and pull it, or get a mate to hold it from the top. You might have to pry it, but if it REALLY doesn't wanna let go, check around it to make sure you haven't left anything attached. Otherwise, pry the shit out of it.

Hopefully, it should let go, and land in the pile of rags; well done that man! You should have the flywheel/clutch assembly in front of you.

Go have a DB.

Remove the 6 or 8 bolts from the clutch assembly, it should just fall off.

If its' pretty rooted, with purple/blue/orange heat spots on the flywheel, you'll need to remove the flywheel (6 bolts, normally 17/19mm, you may have to tap the ratchet with a hammer to get them undone), spend $30 at an engineers and get it machined flat again.

Now for the fun part; reinstallation!

Here's where a manual is useful; torque settings. Either roll down to the library to borrow a manual, or hunt around the internet, failing that, ring Toyota and hassle them for flywheel bolt torque measurements. Once you've done these up freakn tight with the torque wrench, bolt the new clutch assembly up with an alignment tool. (and don't forget to replace the thrust bearing!)

Hardest part is getting the box back onto the motor; you may have to get a clutch alignment tool (I just use a socket extension) to get the clutch plate centred. With that in the middle, you'll need to jiggle the box a bit to get it back on to the motor, it takes a while, and IMO is the hardest part of a clutch job.

Once you've wrestled it on, do the engine/box bolts back up, then do the opposite of taking it apart.

Once its' all bolted back together, just run through everything;

mounts done up?
Shift linkages reattached?
slave cylinder/cable reattached? (if you're doing a cable clutch, obviously you'll need to play around with the tension to get the right feel to the clutch pedal)

Gearbox oil? (I always forgot the first few times, lol)

With the shock reinstalled, and the wheel attached, let the car down.

If you've got a hydraulic clutch, bleed it. Get a mate to sit in the car, while you hold a 10mm ring spanner around the nipple. Ask him to "pump and hold", get him to call it out; when he says "holding", on the end of his last pump, you need to loosen the nipple, and let a small amount of fluid bleed out, you need to retighten it before the fluid stops (so as not to get air in the lines.. basically this whole exercise is to get rid of any air). Do this a few times. Make sure you've tightened that back up, and topped up the clutch fluid.

Fire her up! Let it run for a second, check for no bad noises, vibrations, etc. If its' all sweet, leave the handbrake up, make sure there's nothing in front of you, put it in 1st and slip it gently until you feel it start to bite (so as to get used to where its' grabbing). Let the handbrake off.. and go for a drive!

Remember, clutches need to be bedded in; too much heat too fast, and the friction surface will disintegrate. Just go for a half hour drive, with lots of gentle launches.

Whos' ya daddy!

[Alex B]

Torque settings for flywheel? Haha i just do em up as tight as i can. Shows how rangi i am...And alignment too? Fingures do fine if ya dont have one handy.

[RS13]

Well, thats if you don't want to be picking pieces of flywheel out of your legs! (or your passengers)

And, things are a heck of a lot easier when they're all lined up.

[Alex B]

well my old mans been in the game for about 30 years now and im yet to hear of a flywheel exploding from when he or i have done one.

[sergei]

Dont forget to torque the pressure plate bolts as well (sometheing arround 19-23Nm) ... they can break off or if they are too loose fly off and make hole (s) in bellhousing firewall, bonnet etc.

[RS13]

Well then, it sounds like your old man is just doing his own thing, I'd rather do what the people who made the car recommend to do.. does that not make more sense than just doing something up "as tight as I can"?. I sure as $&#$% wouldn't want him or you working on my car! Its' bullshit cowboy mechanics like that who we're told to stay away from!

[Alex B]

Why dont ya watch ya mouth sunshine, you dont know me or my father from a bar of soap. I assure you my father is a trusted mechanic, you would have to be working for and reparing st johns ambulances would you not?

[RedMist]

RS13 good post. However if he's forced to get the flywheel machined he should mark it first so that he cant put the flywheel on at a different angle. Its weighted for a specific rotation, so just mark the flywheel and the crank with either a bit of spray paint (I had a stud to mark) or do something to ensure when you put the flywheel back on its at the same angle as when it came off.

[Punter]

Would this apply if you were fitting a different fly wheel ie. the used blacktop flywheel in my garage to my silvertop?

[spencer]

Now here's the tricky part, removing the driveshaft. One end should be clicked in the gearbox, the other should be bolted up to the hub. What I tend to do, is get the hub on as much angle as possible, so that I have lots of room to pull the CV out of the box. On some cars, you can just unbolt the CV from the driveshaft (so that the CV stays in the box), but in most you have to pull the whole CV out; its pretty well stuck in, so you might have to stick a flathead screwdriver in between box and CV to get it out of the circlip. Once it "clicks" out, just pull it out of the box.. it takes a fair bit of maneoveuring, but you should be able to tilt the hub enough to get the CV out of the box, and up out of the way. Tie it to the strut tower or something.

If its' pretty rooted, with purple/blue/orange heat spots on the flywheel, you'll need to remove the flywheel (6 bolts, normally 17/19mm, you may have to tap the ratchet with a hammer to get them undone), spend $30 at an engineers and get it machined flat again.

Hardest part is getting the box back onto the motor; you may have to get a clutch alignment tool (I just use a socket extension) to get the clutch plate centred. With that in the middle, you'll need to jiggle the box a bit to get it back on to the motor, it takes a while, and IMO is the hardest part of a clutch job.


If you've got a hydraulic clutch, bleed it. Get a mate to sit in the car, while you hold a 10mm ring spanner around the nipple. Ask him to "pump and hold", get him to call it out; when he says "holding", on the end of his last pump, you need to loosen the nipple, and let a small amount of fluid bleed out, you need to retighten it before the fluid stops (so as not to get air in the lines.. basically this whole exercise is to get rid of any air). Do this a few times. Make sure you've tightened that back up, and topped up the clutch fluid.

I dont know about your driveshaft explination on a toyota one of the first things I do is undo the 30mm nuts that hold the driveshaft to the hub while the car is on the ground(sometimes real mongrels). Then undo cv boot clips on the inner cv, Then undo two bolts that connect strut and hub/brakes tilt the hub forward and pull out the splined section of the driveshaft. Then just yank out the driveshaft and your done no circlips come into play unless you changing the joint itself Id do this before undoing mounts and shit.

Also should probly replace the flywheel bolts while your there theres 8 of them revhead has a good price. And theres realy no need to bleed the clutch just undo the slave and sit it up out of the way with abit of string. But i guess it cant hurt to bleed it

[RS13]

Hmm, I did that once or twice, (took the whole shaft out, and pulled the inner CV apart to get it off) but found that I didn't need to, I could just take the shock off, tilt the hub, and been able to pull the CV out of the gearbox, and lift it up out of the way. Saves time messing around with the CV boots, when you can keep the unit together.

Man, everyone has their own take on how to do things to cars, thats' just my version. I have to admit though, its' been a while since I did a FWD Toyota, but generally the fundamentals are the same no matter what the car.

[RAZA]

Now, undo the drain plug and empty the gearbox oil out; trust me, an oily, stinky puddle on the garage floor does NOT make for happy parents!

been there, done that.

BTW if you do have any spillages of this nature, do not do as i did and get the waterblaster out and try to waterblast it off the floor - it just ends up on the walls instead...

[spencer]

Yea I agree everyone has there own way of doing stuff. I just find with leaving the cvs hanging around I get grease everywhere (mainly on me). And also I like to have a look at the colour of the grease and replace it while im there

[RedMist]

Would this apply if you were fitting a different fly wheel ie. the used blacktop flywheel in my garage to my silvertop?

No, as the flywheel balancing is done to the other rotating masses in the silvertop engine. I would get the flywheel zero balanced, this ensures that the offset weight of the flywheel doesnt damage the rest of your rotating mass.
Optimally you want each rod piston assembly to weigh the same. And the crank, flywheel, coverplate to be balanced as a unit.