Advice Flywheel R & R

[byunique]

I just picked up a lightweight flywheel and want to swap out my lightened flywheel while motor/tranny is still on the car. I wanted to get some advice before I do this, and don't want to go through the aggravation of screwing it up or having to re-do it for whatever reason. I plan to do this in my garage, with the floor jack and jack stands, and have use of a impact wrench as well for the any heavy duty torquing if needed.

The centerforce dual friction clutch has been in there about 8 years, and is working well. The clutch tends to be a bit grabby so I know the flywheel probably needs to be surfaced. I am generally nice to my clutch and don't just drop it at 5000rpms everytime I am out. Yeah, I have gotten some good use out of it, and it doesn't slip at all.

I just wanted to get some advice on how best to do this and what I should look for when I take it all apart. I want to do this job once and do it right. I am considering buying new throwout bearing, clutch collar, clutch disc if anything appears worn. The Flywheel I am getting is a sub 11 lb all streel Trust flywheel from Japan.

Thanks for the advice!

[Bambikiller240]

I just picked up a lightweight flywheel and want to swap out my lightened flywheel while motor/tranny is still on the car.

It is not possible to remove and replace a flywheel with the engine AND tranny is still on the car. Transmission and clutch MUST come out.

.....have use of a impact wrench as well for the any heavy duty torquing if needed.

Impact gun for torquing? OMG! 100% not necessary or recommended. Use a Torque wrench for torquing!

I am considering buying new throwout bearing, clutch collar, clutch disc if anything appears worn. The Flywheel I am getting is a sub 11 lb all streel Trust flywheel from Japan.

If the clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing has been in there for 8 years, I'd look it over real good and if it's even the least bit questionable, I'd replace it all while the trans is out of the car. I'd also put in a new pilot bushing (in the end of the crakshaft). Why you ask? Because I don't want to have to drop the trans again if I can avoid it.

Look for grooves in the clutch disc, the surface of the friction material getting worn down to the rivets on the disc, burnished spots, rough spots, etc.

Good luck (and leave the impact gun alone!)

[sblake01]

..................

Impact gun for torquing? OMG! 100% not necessary or recommended. Use a Torque wrench for torquing!..........

Good luck (and leave the impact gun alone!)

If you have a good one, it does come in handy for removing the flywheel bolts.

[byunique]

Yeah, I did mean that I was going to remove the tranny to get to everything. I just wanted to make the distinction everything is in the car. Yeah, impact wrench would be for untorquing only..

[byunique]

So, just wanted to share my lessons learned from doing this:

1) Impact Wrench: didn't take unloosen the flywheel bolts. Ended up taking a piece of pipe, drilling two holes in it and attaching it to the flywheel face... (using the holes from the clutch itself). The flywheel stayed in place by virtue of the pipe stopping on underside of the car body. Brillant idea as shared from members here on another post.

2) When removing the pilot bearing in the end of the crankshaft, I used a chisel, and nicked the inside of the crankshaft a bit. When pressing in the new pilot bearing, it was a bit tough to get in. The end of the bushing mushroomed a bit, ended up using a rotary to clean up the I.D of the bearing, since the clutch alignment tool wouldn't go it...yikes.

3) bought alll new parts, related to this job: clutch, throwout bearing, clutch collar, clutch master/slave, roller bearing. After pulling the clutch, found out that two of the pucks on the dual friction clutch was gone...yikes. Good thing I ordered a new dual friction clutch, since the old one was in there for 8 years, but was working good as far as I THOUGHT!!!.

2nd gear used to grind when shifting into it. Found out the clutch slave was thrashed. and most likely wasn't depressing the clutch all the way when shifting. It works like butter now...!

4) Everything was pretty straightforward on a flywheel swap other than this... Just be prepared to replace as many parts as possible. You don't want to have to do this twice. It's a one man job to drop the tranny, but certainly two to re-install it. Attaching the tranny to the engine is the hard part, just takes a bit of elbow grease and everything is in a akward position being underneath the car.

5) Installed a braided clutch line from MSA. The threads are longer than stock ones, so it looks a bit funny installing it. But just install it and don't worry..the nature of the threads keep leaks from happening.

6) Also, you should jack the car up pretty high in order to make clearance for removing the tranny. I don't have measurements, but the bell housing was larger than I remembered.

[xray]

Brandon: Thanks for the DIY checklist! I am getting geared up to replace my clutch & Co. in the next few months, so any advice is welcomed for sure! I just swapped a clutch on a friend's Miata and the top bellhousing bolts were a nightmare! Did you have trouble accessing yours? They appear to be fairly direct, but did you use extensions, unviersal joints, etc/ to get better access?

When you had the "incident" with the pilot bearing, did it make a nice snug fit after you finished? You don't think that could possibly relate to the startup noise do you? I listened to your .wav file and while a little startling, it didn't sound like something was loose or poorly positioned....

One last thing--I am interested in your engine setup-- Have you had it dyno'ed? How do you like the Mikunis--reliability, tuning, advantages over SUs, other brand of 3-carb setup? Did you alter the block at all? How does your 4.44 rear end feel?

Thanks for your help!

Steve

[byunique]

Well, the best thing about the 240 is access, and this is no exception. All of the bellhousing bolts are quite easy to get to , and don't need any universal adapters or things like that.

As far as the pilot bearing is concened, I would use every method possible w/o using a chisel to get it out. It's just too hit or miss, and you can easily nick the crankshaft this way. I did end up boring out the ID of the bearing, but it was very snug ,and didn't leave a bunch of slop in there.

As far as my car setup. I will private message you directly, since I don't want to deter the original intent of this thread.