How To: F-Body Clutch
#1
11-06-2009, 09:09 AM
How To: F-Body Clutch
First – I’m writing this as a reference. I don’t own, never will, or support anyone owning an Fbody 
. I’ve worked on them, and for the reason that almost EVERYTHING is under the dash, I usually charge a premium. Also, please note, I’m not a licensed mechanic, I take side jobs from friends and everything I’m citing is from memory. If there is a (?) next to it, I’m uncertain. That being said, I’m writing this as there really wasn’t a good walkthrough online and being a car enthusiast figured I’d give something to the community. This walkthrough is going to assume you have some basic car knowledge.
Clutch Replacement on a 2000 3.8L V6
Level of Difficulty Easy[]-----[o]---[]
I’ve done plenty of clutches before, this one is pretty normal.
Total time - 6.5 hours sans machine time.
Tools Necessary
Sockets 7-18mm, 7/16”, 12”+ (I think I used a 18”) - ½ inch drive extension, 3” and 6” - 3/8” drive extension, ½” Flex coupling
Nitryl Gloves (For more than just your hands)
Jack
4x Jack stands
Engine lift
Pry Bar
Torque wrench
Flat Screw driver
To start –
Before you even jack the car up, it would be easier to take out the shifter assembly. This is done by removing the center console. First, unscrew the shift ****. (Lefty-Loosey - righty tighty, remember?). Then take off the shifter boot. There is a bunch of clips that actually hold this in. If you need, use a small flat head to push in the tabs on the side. After you life this off, (memory going vague) you’ll notice two 7mm bolts in the front of the glove box. Take these off. Once this is done, the front portion of the console should come up. (It has tabs around it that also hold it in). Note* - Make sure to unclip the cigarette lighter from the back) After this, there are 5-10mm bolts (two in front on either side, one in center under the previous console piece, and two in the back of the glove box. After all of these are out, making sure the e-brake is all the way up, lift straight up on the console from the rear. After it clears the e-brake, move it out of your way. Also note the AUX power port. (At this point, collect loose change that’s fallen through $$). Next, you need to get the shifter grommet off. Its 10-7mm self tapping screws around the perimeter of the boot. After this is off, you have 4-10mm bolts holding the shifter assembly on. Take these off, and the shifter assembly should easily come out.
After this, Jack up the car and get jack-stands on all corners. If you don’t know how to jack up a car and support it properly, put the interior back together and pay someone else to do this job for you. Ability to do this could mean your life. After you do all this, crawl under. You’ll be presented with 2 cross members. The rear has 4-13mm(?) bolts that you take out, the front has 4-15mm bolts and a 15mm nut that goes into the rear trans mount. After these are out, you need to take off the anti-wrap bar mount. This is done via a 15mm(?) bolt on the top. There is also a 15mm nut, and bolt and nut combo that hold this on. Once all these are off, they just pull/slide out. The passenger side mount is a little bit of a pain because of the exhaust tab. Also make sure you disconnected the rear O2 sensor. FYI - There is actually a hole to extension in the 15mm socket on the back rear bolt.
With all of this done, disconnect all the wires to the trans (should be two connectors on the driver side –Reverse sensor and CAG(?) respectively). Also, disconnect the hydraulic line to the slave cylinder. This is done by using a flat screw driver to push down (or in – towards the passenger side) on the white piece of plastic. Push it down as far as you can and pull on the stainless steel side, should pop right out. At this point, I removed the rear of the drive shaft. This is done by 4-7/16” bolts around the U-Joint. If you left the parking break on, you’re probably going to have to take it off to get to all the bolts. Use a pry bar and gently pry, causing the U-joint to pop out. DO NOT PULL ON THE DRIVE SHAFT. Put it down and make sure the front of the shaft doesn’t come out of the tail of the transmission. If you do, you’ll have the Exxon Valdez all over your drive way.
After this, going back up front, there should be 4-15mm bolts on either side of the bell-housing. Remove these. If you can, loosen the bolts on the engine too. This will allow you to wiggle the trans on re-assembly. After these are out, there are 6(?)-10mm self tapping screws holding the protective cover on the front of the bell-housing. These come out. At this point, using a spare glove – remove the drive shaft. As soon as you do, fluid will start coming out. Use the glove (zip tie may be necessary) to hold in the fluid. Now comes the fun part. Using the engine lift, attach to the front of the motor. Put a little pressure on it to tilt the rear of the engine down (using the front mounts as a fulcrum). You might be able to get away with using a jack too but the only place I could find to jack on was the oil filter. And as tempting as that may seem, is the improper way of doing it.
Now crawl back under the car. There should be 6-18mm bolts around the bell-housing. The bottom four are pretty easy to get at. The top two are a bit of a pain. You *might* be able to get these off with a 3/8” drive system. I doubt it (it twists too much, absorbing too much of the torque). Using the ½” drive with the flex coupler and a long *** extension, get them off. It takes a LOT of oomph. An impact wrench might be your best option here although I managed to get them by hand (I can be rather heathenistic though) After this is done, the trans *should* slide back. Its probably going to need some wiggling. I simply got under the trans and man-handled it, it weighs about 75 lbs. The reason for jacking the engine up is evident here. If you hadn’t, the trans input shaft would be unable to clear the pressure plate as the top of the bell-housing interferes with the trans tunnel (stupid f-body).
Now that your trans is off, you’ll see the pressure plate. It has 6-15mm Low profile bolts around the perimeter. There should be a tool in your clutch kit to hold the flywheel still, if not you should buy/own one. You might need to pry a little on the pressure plate as the dowel pins are pretty tight fit. After this is done, your pressure plate and clutch are off. Inspect everything, but for good measure, I would always take the flywheel off to have it machined. [sarcasm]If you have no shame and like being under your car, leave it on, especially if its glassed. [/sarcasm]. The owner of this Camaro had been driving her slipping clutch for a while. The pressure plate/flywheel were blued with high spots from molten metal being re-deposited. Its 8-15mm bolts that hold the flywheel on. Take these off. After you get your flywheel, there are three dowel pins installed. I saved a couple bucks by using a nifty tool I made to yank them out (I welded a slide hammer onto a vice grip) Usually machine shops will charge you $2-3 a piece to take these out. If you started at 8am like I did, it should be around 11am. I took the flywheel over to a machine shop and had them resurface it (took 0.011 off) for $50. Best to usually call around before hand and have a machine shop lined up that can do it same day. Mine was done by 2pm. Also, make sure you replace the pilot bearing that’s recessed into the crank. I have another little tool that did this easily. Also, the throw out bearing just pops off and pop the new one onto the spring.
Assembly
Only difficult part here is the clutch side of things. After putting in the new pilot bearing, note that the flywheel bolt circle has an off center bolt. This is done because the flywheel has been balanced for the motor. Make sure you get the right holes lined up and bolt it back up. Also make sure you use the correct torque methods and star pattern (I have them on all data at home, I’ll update this later). Put the clutch disc in making sure the part that says “Flywheel Side” on the disc actually goes towards the flywheel. Mount the pressure plate, putting the bolts on hand tight, then put the centering tool in to get the clutch centered then tighten down the pressure plate using the correct torque numbers and pattern. Next, get under the trans and get it mounted. This is probably the most frustrating part of any clutch job and literally takes a feel. It took me about 4 minutes. Note that this would be absolutely impossible w/o the engine tilted. Everything else is pretty opposite of taking it off. Keep note of the torque numbers for the U-joint clamps. Also, if you replaced your clutch due to it slipping, you’re probably going to need to bleed your hydraulic system as your fluid is probably fried.
Break in
Unless you have a setup that supports 0 break in (I.E. a Textralia), drive very conservative for 500miles, giving time for the clutch to seat.
And there you have it. Done by 6 pm. Drink beer. Shops will charge probably $400-$500 for labor + $300 for a clutch setup. All-Data generally proves to be low on giving time to do things, so they’ll probably nickel and dime you on other things such as taking the pressure plate off, etc. All in all, usually close to a $1k job. I bought the clutch kit from advanced for $215 although Rock Auto has a Sachs kit for $180. + $5 of clutch fluid. So if your opportunity cost is greater than $500, you should probably pay someone else to do it!
Hope this helps someone!
Joe
. I’ve worked on them, and for the reason that almost EVERYTHING is under the dash, I usually charge a premium. Also, please note, I’m not a licensed mechanic, I take side jobs from friends and everything I’m citing is from memory. If there is a (?) next to it, I’m uncertain. That being said, I’m writing this as there really wasn’t a good walkthrough online and being a car enthusiast figured I’d give something to the community. This walkthrough is going to assume you have some basic car knowledge.Clutch Replacement on a 2000 3.8L V6
Level of Difficulty Easy[]-----[o]---[]
I’ve done plenty of clutches before, this one is pretty normal.
Total time - 6.5 hours sans machine time.
Tools Necessary
Sockets 7-18mm, 7/16”, 12”+ (I think I used a 18”) - ½ inch drive extension, 3” and 6” - 3/8” drive extension, ½” Flex coupling
Nitryl Gloves (For more than just your hands)
Jack
4x Jack stands
Engine lift
Pry Bar
Torque wrench
Flat Screw driver
To start –
Before you even jack the car up, it would be easier to take out the shifter assembly. This is done by removing the center console. First, unscrew the shift ****. (Lefty-Loosey - righty tighty, remember?). Then take off the shifter boot. There is a bunch of clips that actually hold this in. If you need, use a small flat head to push in the tabs on the side. After you life this off, (memory going vague) you’ll notice two 7mm bolts in the front of the glove box. Take these off. Once this is done, the front portion of the console should come up. (It has tabs around it that also hold it in). Note* - Make sure to unclip the cigarette lighter from the back) After this, there are 5-10mm bolts (two in front on either side, one in center under the previous console piece, and two in the back of the glove box. After all of these are out, making sure the e-brake is all the way up, lift straight up on the console from the rear. After it clears the e-brake, move it out of your way. Also note the AUX power port. (At this point, collect loose change that’s fallen through $$). Next, you need to get the shifter grommet off. Its 10-7mm self tapping screws around the perimeter of the boot. After this is off, you have 4-10mm bolts holding the shifter assembly on. Take these off, and the shifter assembly should easily come out.
After this, Jack up the car and get jack-stands on all corners. If you don’t know how to jack up a car and support it properly, put the interior back together and pay someone else to do this job for you. Ability to do this could mean your life. After you do all this, crawl under. You’ll be presented with 2 cross members. The rear has 4-13mm(?) bolts that you take out, the front has 4-15mm bolts and a 15mm nut that goes into the rear trans mount. After these are out, you need to take off the anti-wrap bar mount. This is done via a 15mm(?) bolt on the top. There is also a 15mm nut, and bolt and nut combo that hold this on. Once all these are off, they just pull/slide out. The passenger side mount is a little bit of a pain because of the exhaust tab. Also make sure you disconnected the rear O2 sensor. FYI - There is actually a hole to extension in the 15mm socket on the back rear bolt.
With all of this done, disconnect all the wires to the trans (should be two connectors on the driver side –Reverse sensor and CAG(?) respectively). Also, disconnect the hydraulic line to the slave cylinder. This is done by using a flat screw driver to push down (or in – towards the passenger side) on the white piece of plastic. Push it down as far as you can and pull on the stainless steel side, should pop right out. At this point, I removed the rear of the drive shaft. This is done by 4-7/16” bolts around the U-Joint. If you left the parking break on, you’re probably going to have to take it off to get to all the bolts. Use a pry bar and gently pry, causing the U-joint to pop out. DO NOT PULL ON THE DRIVE SHAFT. Put it down and make sure the front of the shaft doesn’t come out of the tail of the transmission. If you do, you’ll have the Exxon Valdez all over your drive way.
After this, going back up front, there should be 4-15mm bolts on either side of the bell-housing. Remove these. If you can, loosen the bolts on the engine too. This will allow you to wiggle the trans on re-assembly. After these are out, there are 6(?)-10mm self tapping screws holding the protective cover on the front of the bell-housing. These come out. At this point, using a spare glove – remove the drive shaft. As soon as you do, fluid will start coming out. Use the glove (zip tie may be necessary) to hold in the fluid. Now comes the fun part. Using the engine lift, attach to the front of the motor. Put a little pressure on it to tilt the rear of the engine down (using the front mounts as a fulcrum). You might be able to get away with using a jack too but the only place I could find to jack on was the oil filter. And as tempting as that may seem, is the improper way of doing it.
Now crawl back under the car. There should be 6-18mm bolts around the bell-housing. The bottom four are pretty easy to get at. The top two are a bit of a pain. You *might* be able to get these off with a 3/8” drive system. I doubt it (it twists too much, absorbing too much of the torque). Using the ½” drive with the flex coupler and a long *** extension, get them off. It takes a LOT of oomph. An impact wrench might be your best option here although I managed to get them by hand (I can be rather heathenistic though) After this is done, the trans *should* slide back. Its probably going to need some wiggling. I simply got under the trans and man-handled it, it weighs about 75 lbs. The reason for jacking the engine up is evident here. If you hadn’t, the trans input shaft would be unable to clear the pressure plate as the top of the bell-housing interferes with the trans tunnel (stupid f-body).
Now that your trans is off, you’ll see the pressure plate. It has 6-15mm Low profile bolts around the perimeter. There should be a tool in your clutch kit to hold the flywheel still, if not you should buy/own one. You might need to pry a little on the pressure plate as the dowel pins are pretty tight fit. After this is done, your pressure plate and clutch are off. Inspect everything, but for good measure, I would always take the flywheel off to have it machined. [sarcasm]If you have no shame and like being under your car, leave it on, especially if its glassed. [/sarcasm]. The owner of this Camaro had been driving her slipping clutch for a while. The pressure plate/flywheel were blued with high spots from molten metal being re-deposited. Its 8-15mm bolts that hold the flywheel on. Take these off. After you get your flywheel, there are three dowel pins installed. I saved a couple bucks by using a nifty tool I made to yank them out (I welded a slide hammer onto a vice grip) Usually machine shops will charge you $2-3 a piece to take these out. If you started at 8am like I did, it should be around 11am. I took the flywheel over to a machine shop and had them resurface it (took 0.011 off) for $50. Best to usually call around before hand and have a machine shop lined up that can do it same day. Mine was done by 2pm. Also, make sure you replace the pilot bearing that’s recessed into the crank. I have another little tool that did this easily. Also, the throw out bearing just pops off and pop the new one onto the spring.
Assembly
Only difficult part here is the clutch side of things. After putting in the new pilot bearing, note that the flywheel bolt circle has an off center bolt. This is done because the flywheel has been balanced for the motor. Make sure you get the right holes lined up and bolt it back up. Also make sure you use the correct torque methods and star pattern (I have them on all data at home, I’ll update this later). Put the clutch disc in making sure the part that says “Flywheel Side” on the disc actually goes towards the flywheel. Mount the pressure plate, putting the bolts on hand tight, then put the centering tool in to get the clutch centered then tighten down the pressure plate using the correct torque numbers and pattern. Next, get under the trans and get it mounted. This is probably the most frustrating part of any clutch job and literally takes a feel. It took me about 4 minutes. Note that this would be absolutely impossible w/o the engine tilted. Everything else is pretty opposite of taking it off. Keep note of the torque numbers for the U-joint clamps. Also, if you replaced your clutch due to it slipping, you’re probably going to need to bleed your hydraulic system as your fluid is probably fried.
Break in
Unless you have a setup that supports 0 break in (I.E. a Textralia), drive very conservative for 500miles, giving time for the clutch to seat.
And there you have it. Done by 6 pm. Drink beer. Shops will charge probably $400-$500 for labor + $300 for a clutch setup. All-Data generally proves to be low on giving time to do things, so they’ll probably nickel and dime you on other things such as taking the pressure plate off, etc. All in all, usually close to a $1k job. I bought the clutch kit from advanced for $215 although Rock Auto has a Sachs kit for $180. + $5 of clutch fluid. So if your opportunity cost is greater than $500, you should probably pay someone else to do it!
Hope this helps someone!
Joe
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