Hi,

I am going to be prepairing to put the new clutch in my car tomorrow and was wondring if you have any tips for trouble free work


I have allready jacked it up and put blocks under front wheels.


Cheers
will

Yeah, I can't remember whether the books say to drop the exhaust or not. Its virtually impossible to get the bellhousing off without dropping the exhaust. If you can't get the downpipe to centrebox join freed off then just drop the whole thing down in one piece.


When you reassemble it, very lightly grease the clutch splines with a light lithium type grease before you put the bell housing back on, this will save it sticking later on down the line and embarrassing grinding when you try to engage reverse.

Oh yeah, one final thing. The Haynes books say the wrong thing to get the propshaft off, you lever/hammer forwards first, then backwards.

Right here are some pics so far...



^^The car jacked up and on blocks.




^^Where exhaust down pipe and prop was. 1



^^ Clutch housing.



^^LOOK HOW GOOD IT IS NO RUST AT ALL ON THE UNDER BODY!!



^^Broken Down pipe thats where noise was coming from.



^^Hole in neck of down pipe.



^^ total brokeness near braket 1



^^Total brokeness 2



^^ Prop, plastic cover and... bucket.



^^ Prop.

I also removed starter moter and stuff i am now doing the rear engine mounts. after this i am stuck the haynes manual is total s### and lies

I have to undo bolts on clutch housing or somthing but i dont see where :S


Cheers
will

germ wrote:the haynes manual is total s### and lies

It's true! It is something you have learnt very early on in 300 ownership, Haynes is the book of lies!

Good work, looks like your getting on ok.

Pete

You've done all the difficult bit, the rest is easy

You need to support the engine, a block of wood under the sump and a jack is fine.

Then you need to remove the engine mounts. These are held in from underneath with three allen screws on the rear engine bearer. They'll be all gunked up with underseal, so you need to get a screwdriver and scrape out all the underseal and then very carefully hammer in an allen key, preferably one of the jobbies that goes on the end of a socket set. Making sure its fully engaged before putting any torque through it to try and undo it, otherwise it'll slip and round off then you'll be drilling them off....not good.

The mounts are released from the top too, one at the front where it bolts onto the clutch housing and one at the back, where it bolts onto the plate....you'll have to look at it and see which ones you can get to the easiest, cos I can't remember

Then all you have to do is undo the clutch housing bolts, remove the little plate on the front of the clutch housing that covers the flywheel and then it'll all come off. It'll be nicely seized, so if it doesn't move, make sure you've undone everything, and then keep gently wiggling, using a pair of screwdrivers either side to lever it off if necessary.

The Rear Engine Mounts Have Bolts Not Allen Key Thingys

I undid the bolts,but its wierd that you and the haynes manual say theres allen key holes now i am worried

They're in the base of the bracket that the mount bolts onto. There's three of them and they're accessible from the bottom of the rear engine bearer/axle.

Thanks i was undoing some engine mounts but not the right 1's i see the ones you mean and i losend them today but it rained sooo much that i gave up.


And i got my new down pipe from feu vert the only place in the whole of france that can order them in. by got i mean orderd. it cost 50 euros which i though was ok that includes delivery as i am not having it fitted by them. they also wanted proof of my age how old to i need to be to buy a down pipe ??? and i payed in cash any way you have to be old enough to understand what it is for some reason so i was fine (JUST A WARNING FOR ANY YOUNG PEOPLE THAT TRY TO BUY DOWNPIPES IN FRANCE)

ANY WAY I THINK THAT WAS A LOAD OF CRAP THEY JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I WASENT GOING TO TO ANYTHING ILLEGEL WITH IT .

clutch should be here tomorrow and should with a little luck be dry.

Then i can get this on the road for a test run

Cheers
will
Slowly becoming happy

[quote="germ"] ANY WAY I THINK THAT WAS A LOAD OF CRAP THEY JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I WASENT GOING TO TO ANYTHING ILLEGEL WITH IT .

Cheers
will

I shudder to think what illegal purposes the French could use an exhaust downpipe for !!!!!!

Who knows the french are capable of all sorts of wierd things

Are you ready for me to now tell you that that is the hard way!!

I don't normaly ever look at the haynes - but I well belive that a lot of details are wrong.

WHY WHY WHY???



Whys every thing hard for me?

so far its been easy but the next bit might be hard :S

My prefered method is to remove the engine and box complete. I can go the clutch in half a day that way

Yeah but you have all the equiment and lots of experience i dont have a garage here in france all are stuff is in england and my dad wont help me coz he dosent wont to get dirty as he is retired he dosent enjoy doing this stuff any more so he reads the haynes and i do all the stuff.


now i just need to get the clutch housing off and the clutch out but its hard to get at the nuts .


but what counts is that i am learning and next time hopefully i should have a garage.

Don't worry - Dai's just winding you up for eyeing up his bird