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The joys of clutch replacement


Kerplop
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So I got my '79 back some time ago.  The previous owner said, "Yeah the throwout bearing makes a little noise but it isn't too bad."  To be honest, after that car left me in my divorce, once I found it again I didn't even care what was wrong with it.  I just wanted it back.  He could have said it needed an engine rebuild, wouldn't have cared.  Thought nothing of it, bought it.

 

I drove the car for a little while and it did make some noise.  Then it got progressively worse.  I've noticed that the clutch didn't have a whole lot of free play but didn't think much of it.  I drove it around, the chatter got a bit worse, the sound was meh.  I thought, "if it's a throwout bearing I'll just drive it and enjoy it for now and replace it once summer hits."

 

About a week later it turned into a horrific sound with a shit ton of chatter.  "Kakakakaka*grind*kakaka" is the best I can describe it in text form.

 

Finally, after I did some recent maintenance on the car I took it to work and on my way home the clutch started to slip.  When I checked the freeplay there was almost none.  I thought that seemed odd unless it was just getting too hot and stuff was expanding.  I thought, "Ok this thing needs to come apart, something is way off here."

 

Thankfully, doing a 924 clutch is about 20x less painful than a 944, so I didn't feel like stabbing myself over and over with an icepick.  I got everything apart in the afternoon on saturday with the help of the beach boys on an old 8 track and lots of coffee.  Upon having it apart I found all kinds of super fun failures.

 

1.  The center torsion springs were all broken.

2.  The teeth on the pressure plate were bent, at least 40% of them, to some degree.

3.  The clutch material was down quite a bit compared to the new disc.

4.  The throwout bearing didn't want to move much and had a ton of resistance.

5.  The back of the throwout bearing surface was U shaped, obviously from heat/lack of lubrication/resistance and spinning against the release fork

6.  The rear main seal was leaking like a sieve and there was oil all over the damn place.

 

Figured I'd share some pics since it's an interesting failure.

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Bracing the transmission on a jack so I can slide it back. Thankfully on a snail shell transmission car, you don't even have to drop the transmission to do the clutch. Just slide it back and be ultra careful not to put too much pressure on the torque tube shaft.

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Oh yeah, that looks lovely. Oil all over. My first thought was "yeah that rear main seal is hosed."

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Look at all those bent teeth. The whole top right you can see are bent down, some way worse than others, some not terrible. Still... bad. You can see one of the broken springs here too.

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Terrible rear main seal. Seen worse, but still.

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New style disc vs old style disc. You can see it's a bit taller than the other, and it is.

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Way more material.

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Every one of the center springs, broken.

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The entire surface of the throwout, U shaped, because heat, lack of lubrication and hosed.

5yPafzhh.jpg

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924 parts are relatively inexpensive for the most part so it's not that big of a deal. Just labor intensive. It'll feel better than new with the updated clutch design and new fresh parts under it :)

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8 track??? :o

 

 

Very interesting to see all the bits and pieces with detailed explanation. Thank you for sharing. Good luck putting Humpty back together again!

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8 track??? :o

 

 

Very interesting to see all the bits and pieces with detailed explanation. Thank you for sharing. Good luck putting Humpty back together again!

 

Flywheel is off getting resurfaced and all of my parts are here. So this weekend will be packed full of new goodies.

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You have a working 8-track player?! Wow!! And with 8-track cartridge too! :shock:

 

You car projects always look interesting and inspiring!

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I need to do the clutch on my 944 Turbo. It is shot. I wish I had the facilities to do it myself, but I no longer have the tools or knowledge and you really need a lift. I love watching your projects though, very cool stuff.

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I need to do the clutch on my 944 Turbo. It is shot. I wish I had the facilities to do it myself, but I no longer have the tools or knowledge and you really need a lift. I love watching your projects though, very cool stuff.

 

I wrote an entire tutorial for 944online on how to replace it from start to finish, should you ever wish to tackle it yourself. You definitely do not need a lift. Just a jack and some jackstands and a list of tools. Although a 4 point lift would make it 20x more convenient.

http://www.944online.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaB...?num=1294429473

 

You have a working 8-track player?! Wow!! And with 8-track cartridge too! :shock:

 

You car projects always look interesting and inspiring!

 

This is at my dad's place, it's sort of a sentimental thing to go there sometimes and work on my cars with him. He's still got his old 8 track player and a bunch of old 8 tracks. Good times.

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This is at my dad's place, it's sort of a sentimental thing to go there sometimes and work on my cars with him. He's still got his old 8 track player and a bunch of old 8 tracks. Good times.

 

Ok, that makes perfect sense now as I was thinking even I am not old enough to embrace the 8-track cassette era so how can you be? :icon_mrgreen:

Still amazing that your dad has a functioning 8-track machine. :icon_thumleft:

 

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Ok, that makes perfect sense now as I was thinking even I am not old enough to embrace the 8-track cassette era so how can you be? :icon_mrgreen:

Still amazing that your dad has a functioning 8-track machine. :icon_thumleft:

 

He's had that thing since I was a little kid. I'm only 30. But my favorite times as a kid were when we worked on cars together and listened to the oldies stations and listened to the Beatles or the Beach Boys. Granted I've kind of surpassed the amount of car work he did since he only really tinkered, I still reminisce on it and enjoyed it greatly.

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He's had that thing since I was a little kid. I'm only 30. But my favorite times as a kid were when we worked on cars together and listened to the oldies stations and listened to the Beatles or the Beach Boys. Granted I've kind of surpassed the amount of car work he did since he only really tinkered, I still reminisce on it and enjoyed it greatly.

 

If I take "tinkering" at face value, your "kind of surpassed the amount of car work he did" would be the under-statement of the year! Your dedication deserves a :eusa_clap: & :turboalex: .

 

Sorry for going OT but how did you/your dad keep an 8-track player in working condition? Wouldn't the rubber rollers and belts etc... be all dried up and literally fell to pieces by now? Spare parts are pretty rare too.

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If I take "tinkering" at face value, your "kind of surpassed the amount of car work he did" would be the under-statement of the year! Your dedication deserves a :eusa_clap: & :turboalex: .

 

Sorry for going OT but how did you/your dad keep an 8-track player in working condition? Wouldn't the rubber rollers and belts etc... be all dried up and literally fell to pieces by now? Spare parts are pretty rare too.

 

I'm not sure how it's still working to be honest. It's sat on the same shelf, in the same part of the garage, since I can remember :lol2: I'm sure it'll take a crap sooner or later.

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dude you are gluten for punishment.........and have way too much time on your hands

god bless you!

 

I'm a divorced single man who has all the time in the world. I'm so totally ok with this right now hahaha :lol2:

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Drives like a fcuking dream now.

 

- Removed the release fork assembly, cleaned the entire bellhousing inside and out. Lubricated assembly.

- Replaced old pilot bearing and seal

- New clutch, pressure plate and resurfaced flywheel, throwout bearing

- Flushed transmission

- Cleaned end of clutch cable and re-greased

- New gasket for header where the exhaust mates. New hardware to mount it up.

- New guide tube

- New pedal rubber (because if I'm going to adjust the clutch it may as well feel good)

- Adjusted release arm and set clutch to about 1/4" of free play

- Fixed exhaust fitment issue that was causing it to rattle against heat shield in one area under hard cornering

- Fixed heat shield fitment hear header

- Shimmed the bushing for the shifter linkage in the cabin area, it was kind of off and to the side a bit and I didn't like that, so I used a few pieces of aluminum I had laying around. Shifter feels more crisp. Though I believe the bushing on the torque tube is starting to break (well, rather, the linkage bushing to the torque tube) as it has a little bit of slop. Still works fine.

 

Not bad considering I worked on this for 2 saturdays and 1 sunday.

 

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Pretty sure the transmission hasn't been flushed before. Yikes.

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NICE! I still want a 928.

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  • 1 year later...

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