Hopefully this will not take TOOOO long, but I am estimating a two-day job. Because the tranny will be a bish to get out and back in - speaking of, is it hard to get it out and back in? As long as you put stuff back together, it should work right, shouldn't it? The motor mounts will be a headache and the header will be a headache. I also need a new flexpipe. That should do it. Just about $400 worth of stuff in my car.....I HOPE it will improve my 1/4 mile time. Will it? And what is the exedy pressure plate like? stronger than stock?
Excedy OE parts are comparable to stock. However, Excedy also makes other superior aftermarket clutch discs, flywheels, pressure plates, etc. Which Excedy clutch & pressure plate did you order?
I don't think it will be that big of a deal. I just finished pulling my whole motor and swapping it out and it only took me 3 1/2 days. The header will be a peice of cake, just unbolt and bolt on. The mounts will be a little tricky, the front one is easy but the rear one will require some work/foul language. I would seriously suggest taking off the TB if not the whole plenum, it will make accessing the rear mount much easier.
As for pulling the tranny I can't help too much with that. Mine came out with the engine attached from the top. My suggestion is to follow the Helm's religiously and you should be golden. Installing the clutch itself will be simple after that, just make sure you torque the bolt properly!!!!! You don't need to be decapitating your passenger.
the header should be a piece of cake and the motor mounts don't seem like too much fun to do.
the tranny will take you a while if its your first time doing it. to take it out, there's a bunch of stuff that needs to be removed and getting it in is a pain in the ass because its so damn heavy and gravity is working against you. We spent about 4 hours wedging, rotating, and angling it and couldn't get it on. I called my mechanic and he got it mounted in half an hour.
Ok, i jsut did my clutch the other day. here's what i have to say about that. make sure you get every bolt before trying to drop the tranny with the bell houseing. you need a jack to support the motor because you will be removing two mounts. you will also need some sort of hoist for the tranny. Use a cherry picker if you have one. i used a block and tackle pulley system over some rafters in the garage. here is the problem though. once you get the tranny off and start to lower it down, it will spin around in all these wierd angles before it falls to the ground. oh, bactracking, getting off the axle nuts will be a bish. you either need a high power impact wrench with a 36mm socket, or you need a breaker bar and about a 6 foot pipe on the end of it. we are looking at a ballpark figure of 200 lbs of torque here. also, when you take out the transaxles, make sure that you pull them out of the motor FIRST. Ok, once you get the tranny out, unbolting the pressure plate and flywheel is also a bish, but just get and adjustable impact wrench in there, set it to a low setting and buzz all those bolts off. make SURE you get the flywheel turned. i had to go to 4 different shops before someone would do it because no one had a machine that was a small enough diameter. Now, i was never able to get the tranny back into the engine compartment the way it came out. it just doesn't freaking fit! i don't know how it made it out of there in the first place. so before you wrestle with it forever just start undoing the front motor mount and pull off the front crossmember, there is about 3 pieices of suspension from each side that you will have to remove, and getting the transaxles out is a lot easier if you separate the lower ball joints. prolly time for new boots anyway. so drop the front crossmember and the tranny slides right up in there. it is prolly easier to use a block and tacke because of the amount of up and down control that you have. a cherry picker isn't that easy to move quickly. i had this setup. one friend controlling the height of the tranny with the pulleys on my command. one friend that would occasionally turn the crank manually and look in the top of the engine to help me line it up with a flashlight. and me under the car bench pressing the tranny. once the tranny is sitting inside the lip on the pressure plate you just have to joggle it A BUNCH to get it to line up right and slide in. then you can ROTATE it and you stick a bolt in the bottom and have your friend stick a bolt in the top. reassemble and enjoy.
i ended up with only three little bolts left i have no clue if they wer even off the lude.
now after all of this i took a looksie at my project. if i had taken off one more motor mount, power steering lines, a/c lines, and other miscellaneous vaccoums, that's all i would have needed to pull the engine. i would highly highly recommend pulling the engine out, and doing the clutch on a floor, it turns it into a one person job, and you actually have to take LESS stuff apart. less suspesnion, because the transaxles dont' have to be pulled out of the way, and the front cross doesn't have to come off.
now i've heard of people successfully doing it from under the car with out taking the cross off, but we are talking like 1 out of 20 here.
Thanks! No, i have not ordered the clutch yet.....which one is the best? I want a HIGHLY streetable clutch like the ACT street/strip with the heavy duty pressure plate. But, i do not want to pay for ACT....
would highly highly recommend pulling the engine out, and doing the clutch on a floor, it turns it into a one person job, and you actually have to take LESS stuff apart. less suspesnion, because the transaxles dont' have to be pulled out of the way, and the front cross doesn't have to come off.
now i've heard of people successfully doing it from under the car with out taking the cross off, but we are talking like 1 out of 20 here.
how would pulling the engine out to replace the clutch be easier? less stuff to take off because you remove the engine? you have to pull the axles off, there's just not easy way to get the tranny out without damaging them or the differential seals.
my tranny was put back on without removing the cross member.
Originally posted by UBetterBelieveIt Thanks! No, i have not ordered the clutch yet.....which one is the best? I want a HIGHLY streetable clutch like the ACT street/strip with the heavy duty pressure plate. But, i do not want to pay for ACT....
I was facing the same decision, but a friend talked me out of Excedy and I ended up shelling out $320 for the ACT set-up. If you do go Excedy, check out clutchcityonline.com. I believe the have a decent Excedy set-up for about ~$260.
I got the exedy clutch. but if you plannin on doing some serious streeting and you've got the money go with the act.
as for pulling the engine, yeah, either way you've got to pull the axles. as for less stuff to take off. yeah, if you are somebody who manages to get the tranny back up in there without taking the front crossmember off, then more power to you. but if you get the tranny down from the engine and then spend four hours trying to get it back up, and end up taking the crossmember off to make it easier, then in the long run it would have been easier to pull the motor, and you wouldn't have had to take any of the suspension off of the crossmember. as i said, some people can do it. shops that have done many hondas before can, of course honda can do it, and i'm sure if i had the time and a few more clutches to change then i would be able to as well. but i am talking mainly for your first run on your own trying to do this. still lining up the tranny from under the car is a seriuos pain even if you do manage to get it up up in there it's pretty tight to line it up. and to get it up take a little up, little over, up over up over sideways, ughhh, by about this time your arms really hurt. in comparison to removeing the crossmember, there is less stuff to take off, but personally, if i ever did it again i wouldn't even try it that way. i will pull the motor, (as i said before not much left to pull the motor), drop it on the floor, unbolt the tranny, you have plenty of room to work with, bolt the new one back on, and put the engine back in, of course, you need someone to guide the engine back in while you operate the lift, but there is plenty of room and it just rests on the crossmembers until you hist it about an in and lock in the mounts, connect all your hoses and your ready to go.
Why would you take off the axle nut? You can pull the axles by just separating the lower ball joint. This is how the helms tells you to do it.
I think that is would also be easier to take the whole engine out as well. In order to lower the tranny you have to unbolt some of the suspension which is not needed when pulling the engine out. I also think you need to get an alignment done as you remove the radius arm which controls toe (I think).
Originally posted by Zimmlude Why would you take off the axle nut? You can pull the axles by just separating the lower ball joint. This is how the helms tells you to do it.
because you can't get them off the car without removing the nut
Why would you need them to come out of the car? When I did my swap I just got them out of the tranny and swung them out of the way and into the wheel wells. Don't mean to argue, just curious.
you lose some coolant, you have to drain and refill the a/c system, undo the fuel lines, remove the power steering lines, remove the clutch lines (and have to refill and bleed the system), undo the mounts, probably remove the hood for easier access, and i dont know what else, that was just off the top of my head...
tell me again, how would that make it easier than just removing a few bolts from the suspension to get the axles off?
Originally posted by Zimmlude Why would you need them to come out of the car? When I did my swap I just got them out of the tranny and swung them out of the way and into the wheel wells. Don't mean to argue, just curious.
i didn't remove them at first when i did my clutch, but then i had to anyways because there was no easy way to get the tranny in with the axles still there. i dunno, maybe you had better luck than i did.
it is some kind of hybrid disc.....how long does it last and how much is the difference in the pedal compared to stock? is it worth the $247 and what does it come with?
Taking the tranny out will probably take you between half a day to a full day, and another half or full to put everything back in. I pulled an Auto out of a Lude Vtec (I'm not in the US) and took me 6 hours and that was on a Hoist. It just the little bits that take a while.
it is some kind of hybrid disc.....how long does it last and how much is the difference in the pedal compared to stock? is it worth the $247 and what does it come with?
Unfortunately, it's $347 not $247......I believe that is the Heavy Duty Pressure Plate (which I have) and I'm not sure if that is the organic street disc (which is what I have). If it's the organic street disc, it'll hold about 35% more torque than stock. The pedal will only be slightly stiffer than stock with the Heavy Duty Pressure Plate. Stay away from the EXtreme Pressure PLate if you're afraid of hard pedal pressure. The kit will also come with a new throwout bearing & an alignment tool.
The ACT clutch will last a long time, buit it all depends on use & abuse. If you're street racing/dragging all the time, it might go less than 30,000 miles (just like any clutch that's been abused)- as far as normal driving, I've seen them go close to 90,000 miles. It'll take more abuse than the stock clutch, but even it has it's limits. Also, remember that the first 500 miles are critical for breaking it in. No dumping the clutch at high revs for the first 500 miles
As far as price, also check out groupbuycenter.com - that's ultimately where I bought mine.
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i have no clue if they wer even off the lude.
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