78 280z trans/clutch/flywheel advice, car sitting 12 years!

[tleverett]

Hi guys, I have watched tons of videos and read the FSM and anything I could find on removing tranny, swapping clutch and maintenance I need to do while in there. I'm gonna put out everything I can think of and PLEASE let me know if I am missing anything.

1: put car on stands, high enough the transmission can be pulled out from. and disconnect battery

2:  Pull out shifter linkage with pin on side

3:Remove Exhaust

4: Drain Tranny fluid

5: Remove Driveshaft(mark how driveshaft is attached, remove 4 blts to diff, then slide out of tranny)

6: remove starter

7: Remove reverse switch, slave cylinder, and I believe speedo cable?

8: jack up to hold flat, unbolt from mount and housing, and pull out tranny

9: Go to tranny pull out clutch fork and throwout bearing. clean shaft and housing with brake cleaner. Switchout new bearing onto collar. Grease clutch fork, pivot bolt, inside of throwout bearing collar, and input shaft. Put on bearing and collar and clean excess amount off spindle.

10. Put in clutch alignment tool and unbolt pressure plate. pull off clutch and plate. Unbolt flywheel using bolt in flywheel, transmission housing and wrench. 

11. Clean whole area and then use dental pic to pull crank rear main seal. Oil up new seal and hammer back in making sure not to damage (taking time). Remove pilot bearing from crank with pullers and use rubber or plastic mallet to hammer new in.

12. Attach new flywheel using medium strength thread lock, and tighten in star pattern. Use brake cleaner to clean surface of new flywheel.

13. Put on clutch (big spring side facing away from motor) and attach with clutch tool. Grab pressure plate, clean surface with brake cleaner and attach over clutch. Tighten on star pattern.Turn clutch tool to match trans input shaft as best as possible.

14. Get 2" longer trans mounting bolts, cut the head and make slit in top. attach 2 to trans as guide pins. put tranny back in. Pump new oil in side fill plug. Attach tranny mount. slave, starter, reverse switch, speedo cable.

15 Put in drive shaft following earlier markings

16. REMOVE POS REAR BUMPER MOUNTS WHILE EXHAUST IS OFF (i'm not salty, you're salty)

17. Put exhaust back on.

18. Reattach shifter 

I have a new clutch kit (exedy) thats coming with clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing. I'm getting a new pilot bearing, rear main seal, flywheel. I've already replaced the slave cylinder and master cylinder. 

Is there ANYTHING else I need to do while I'm in there or should also replace?

 

 

 

[siteunseen]

You will have some interior work, the console and shifter. Read about replacing OE nylon bushings with bronze door hinge bushings from the assortment pack at a parts stores Help section.

Also you can hang the transmission from the shifter hole while you pull the driveshaft.

Edited December 6, 2019 by siteunseen

[tleverett]

@siteunseen no worries about the interior work, the seats carpet and console are already out. I've just gotta pull the rubber boots.

I haven't heard about that one. So it's an upgrade over the OEM nylon stuff? any specific kit you know of or just "bronze door hinge bushings" should be enough to find it? 

Oh ya I forgot about that.

Edited December 6, 2019 by tleverett

[Zed Head]

1 hour ago, tleverett said:

throwout bearing. clean shaft and housing with brake cleaner. Switchout new bearing onto collar. 

I have a new clutch kit (exedy) thats coming with clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing. 

Make sure that the collar/sleeve matches the pressure plate.  It is the most common mistake that causes problems.  Search "92 mm" on the site.  The bearings are the same, the sleeves are not.

[tleverett]

@Zed Head Got it, I'll look at it when I pull the tranny out, compare everything to make sure it matches.

[Mark Maras]

4 hours ago, siteunseen said:

You will have some interior work, the console and shifter. Read about replacing OE nylon bushings with bronze door hinge bushings from the assortment pack at a parts stores Help section.

 

 @tleverettReviewing my notes, the bushing kit is Dorman #38397. I seem to remember they were for a Mopar of some sort. They're reported to be used for door hinge bushings and shifter bushings in S30s.

[Zed Head]

The plastic ones are still available, apparently.  They seem to work fine.  I always thought that the brass mod was for when you couldn't find the original plastic part.  Not sure what the benefit is.  I think it can be buzzy also if you get a loose one.

I get the urge to fabricate parts but a pros and cons comparison might be worthwhile.

http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/power-train/transmission-control/5-speed/31

Edited December 7, 2019 by Zed Head

[Captain Obvious]

Couple questions and suggestions.

It's been many moons since I've pulled the tranny out while leaving the block in the car... Once the tranny cross member has been removed, isn't it necessary to support the rear of the engine to keep it from rocking on the two side engine moutns? Block of wood on a jack under the oil pan or something? Or is a support under the front pulley? I don't remember which direction the engine wants to tip.

Other things? You don't need an alignment tool to remove the clutch plate. It'll drop a little bit once you remove the pressure plate, but no big deal. No need to mess with the alignment tool there though. You got two hands.

And when putting the new clutch plate into place, I'm not sure the clutch alignment tool fits through the spring fingers of the pressure plate. The reason that 's important is that I think you might have to put the pressure plate on first. Loosely into place before you reach in and lift up the clutch disk to slip the tool into place. But again, been many moons.

This step "Turn clutch tool to match trans input shaft as best as possible." I think is an exercise in futility and optimism. I don't think you can align the splines rotationally by eye before trying to fit the tranny into place. And even if you can, wouldn't it be a lot easier to turn the transmission input shaft to match? Haha!

Lastly, You used the word "hammer" a bunch of times. I would prefer the word "tap". It's semantics, but if other people are thinking of using this procedure, I think it conveys a better mental image. 

[Mark Maras]

 The engine support goes under the pan. The clutch alignment tool will fit through the pressure plate fingers. I've always turned the output shaft to align the splines with the clutch disc. Back in the seventies, before clutch alignment tools, (One had to use an input shaft) I successfully installed two clutches by sticking my head up in the tunnel and aligned the clutch disc by sight. I eyeballed the clutch disc splines to the center of the pressure plate fingers. It worked so well the first time, I did it again later.

[Zed Head]

The car's scissor jack under a block of wood on the back of the pan allows you to adjust the angle of the engine, letting it hang a bit to give you more room for the transmission installation.  It wants to drop in the back.  I've seen pieces of 4x4 between the valve cover and the firewall also but that's pretty rough.  Don't use a hydraulic jack, they leak down.

If you attach the crossmember to the back of the transmission before installing it makes a good handle to keep the transmission from rotating.

[EuroDat]

I ended up draining the radiator, removed the top hose from the radiator and the top section of the fan shroud. With the car's scissor jack under the engine, I could lower the rear of the engine and that gave me more room to get the bellhousing under the firewall.

[Captain Obvious]

2 hours ago, Mark Maras said:

I successfully installed two clutches by sticking my head up in the tunnel and aligned the clutch disc by sight. I eyeballed the clutch disc splines to the center of the pressure plate fingers.

Haha!! I've always done the same thing. For years, aligned clutch disks by calibrated eye and fingers without an alignment tool. Lost track of how many. Then once I actually had an alignment tool for whatever I was working on at the time and felt like I was cheating.

And your note about turning the output shaft was exactly what I was getting at about the futility of trying to align the rotation of the input shaft to hit the splines perfectly. I've always used the "put it in gear and rock the output shaft around" method. The worst you can be off is half a spline width. I've had trannys go straight in without a fight, and I've had them where I had to wrestle them for a frustrating amount of time before getting things to mesh.