st205 clutch

[ihavelift]

Ok so this has been something that i've had to move straight up the priorities list

The clutch release bearing has been noisy for a little while, but as far as I've been told this isn't really detrimental. While driving to uni this morning i gave it a bit of gas pulling out of a side road. Changed gear and all of a sudden a high pitched squealing started, like something was rubbing. The clutch stuck when fully depressed (had to pull it back up) and couldn't change gear. Pulled over, bit of smoke coming out of the gearbox that smelled like burned clutch. Thankfully all only 1km from my house

Called the AA, he came and had a look, said the hydraulic side of it was fine (I though it was the slave/master cylinder), but what probably happened was the fingers on the pressure plate bent. Needless to say I was towed home. A mate who happened to give me a call after it happened says he thinks it could be the bearing completely shat itself. anybody here have any opinions?

This isn't too much of a biggie, going away for 2 weeks in a couple days and was going to do clutch when I got back, was just going to replace with standard TGP clutch, release bearing and sprigget (sp?) bearing. thoughts on this? or is h/d the way to go? car pushing out around 190kw atw, so I'm thinking OEM should be fine...

What this thread is really about I guess is to all the people that have changed a clutch on an st205, I know it's a real bitch, but how long would you expect it to take in a home garage with engine hoist, jacks etc etc, i.e. - mission to take engine out or not really too bad?

As I've said in a previous post on the same topic I would rather do this myself with somebody who know's what they're doing instead of pay for a mechanic to do it because 1) i would like to gain the experience of working on my car and 2) the cost; (have a mate who wants to help also as he is doing a mechanics course at unitec). I will pay someone to help of course, and have an empty 2 car garage at home with work bench and plenty of space.

Will need to sort out the use of a large jack and engine crane though.

So yeah, comments welcome, if anybody wants to earn some good $ helping me out with this that would be really good too. I think I know what I need to do to get this done, just want to know if I'm on the right track and who can help me.

Apologies for the massive essay

[sergei]

Not too difficult if you have a lot of head room, decent engine crane, high enough axle stands. A lot easier if you have car hoist (work shop). Find a mate with workshop and use that. will make it 10x easier.

In short car goes up, engine goes down.
Depending on what crane you have you will need to drop the engine down while the car is jacked up high enough for engine to go under/forward it.
Otherwise engine is unbolted and supported while you lift the car up.

Anyway whole shebang comes out (down) with crossmember and subframe, you might separate shocks from hubs, or decide drop the whole thing (some times it is difficult to separate top ball joint). Allow 2-3 hours for first time just to unbolt everything, make sure it is supported when you unbolt it. Don't forget about fuel lines and loom. easiest way to disconnect loom from inside (and pull it through firewall) and from fuse box.

Once it is out it is straight forward except splitting up gearbox, it does not come out exactly straight due to transfer box. You will need to split it for ~ 20mm and then slightly turn the gearbox.

Assembly is reversal.
Make sure you do rear main seal and gearbox seals. There is no spigot bearing.

[Malcolm]

there is no spigot bearing in a 3SGTE. I've heard good things about TGP clutches for the 3SGTE, so unless you intend to go drag racing it should be fine.

Yes, it's going to be a mission. Once you've done it a couple of times and found all the seized/$&#$% bolts, worked out exactly what you need to do etc it gets a lot quicker. I'd budget 3-4 full days for a couple of reasonably inexperienced people to get the engine out and the engine/box separated, replace and align the clutch, then reassemble everything. It could easily blow out to more, especially if you find other things that need replacing along the way. I would imagine an experienced mechanic would take about 1.5 days to do it.

edit - sergei beat me to it.

[sergei]

Yeah, if it is your first time, you will be lucky if you do it in 2-3 days. There is a lot of mucking around with seized bolts "how to get to things".

While you there you could do cambelt and other service relating things that are normally pain.

[ihavelift]

Sergei has anybody ever told you how much of a goldmine of information you are?

OK, don't know anybody who has a workshop I could use, but I guess if some friendly person on here wants to lend me an engine crane and higher axle stands/jack that would be sweet.

Also, it's only me and a mate (who knows shit about cars, just not about THIS car) who are doing it, as I said, anybody who is in auck and can spare a few days to help out can earn some coin if they are prepared to help out.

Wow so many things happening at the moment - crazy how everything just seems to always culminate at one point in time huh.

[Anth_555]

if i find the time ill type up a step by step thing for you to use , as best i can remember ive done it a few times but mine isnt standard. i would recomend an excedy hd clutch to be on the safe side cos this is something you dont want to do a second time. in saying that a standar clutch is perfectly if your not going to make to much more power. biggest tip i can give is do it once do it right and take your time to get it right.

[sergei]

if i find the time ill type up a step by step thing for you to use , as best i can remember ive done it a few times but mine isnt standard. i would recomend an excedy hd clutch to be on the safe side cos this is something you dont want to do a second time. in saying that a standar clutch is perfectly if your not going to make to much more power. biggest tip i can give is do it once do it right and take your time to get it right.

You don't want hard clutch on 4wd platform anyway. It causes unnecessary stress on drive train. On stock or near stock (unless you are making twice power) you should stick to stock, it will be highest quality and perfectly matched to the car. Don't get sucked into "more clamping force" or worse - puk clutches. Look at this way: would you rather replace clutch once in 150-200k or gearbox even once? Hell even clutch once 50k sounds a lot better than gearbox replacement, especially when it will just "keep happening".

[ihavelift]

Yeah i'm pretty keen to go TGP OEM on this, anth i'd really appreciate that, thank you.

and yeah, bit bummed that it's happened, but kind of excited about working on it myself (hopefully) too!

[Anth_555]

You don't want hard clutch on 4wd platform anyway. It causes unnecessary stress on drive train. On stock or near stock (unless you are making twice power) you should stick to stock, it will be highest quality and perfectly matched to the car. Don't get sucked into "more clamping force" or worse - puk clutches. Look at this way: would you rather replace clutch once in 150-200k or gearbox even once? Hell even clutch once 50k sounds a lot better than gearbox replacement, especially when it will just "keep happening".

the excedy ones are really good . the one i had wasnt a puk. the presser plate was i bit heavyer then stock. found it to be a very good clutch to drive with .

[ihavelift]

the one that just gave up on me was an exedy h/d

after no more than 40k of driving (not overly hard) i really wouldn't expect it to have shat itself like that