R32 Gtr Clutch Change

[MrStabby]

Here's how to replace the clutch on an R32 GTR. In this case its an early R32 with a push clutch. I believe the pull clutches in later 32's and 33's require an additional step, which i've commented on. Here's a photo of a push setup http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=201068 if you have a pull, the slave will be on the other side of the fork. The rear main seal and spigot bearing replacement is typically done at the same time, because its a big job and you don't want to be doing it again any time soon. Some also do the gearbox input shaft seal. I did this solo on the floor of the garage, foreveralone.jpg.

Tools

Here's what I used, of course everything is metric. Not having the right tools is an indicator of self loathing

-Half inch drive socket set

-3/8s inch drive socket set

-Metric ring on open ended spanners

-Ratchet ring spanners

-2 x 500mm half inch drive extension bars

-half inch drive torque wrench

-4 stands

-2 trolley jacks, at least one big one (~30cm arm)

-compressor + rattle gun (if you're removing flywheel, for machining or doing rear main seal. There are other options, this is just the easiest).

-17mm flare nut spanner

-circlip pliers

-vice

-hand oil pump

-16mm diameter shaft (if replacing spigot)

Parts

-Clutch/pressure plate/throw out bearing

-(Optional) Rear main seal

-(Optional) Gearbox input shaft seal

-(Optional) Spigot bearing

-Grease

-Engine oil (if you're removing the flywheel)

-Cable tie

-4 replacement front driveshaft bolts (potentially)

Summary of Steps

1. Remove shifter

2. Put car up on stands

3. Mark rear tailshaft and disconnect

4. Mark front driveshaft and remove

5. Remove front pipe

6. Remove attessa connection and plug hose

7. Remove speedo cable

8. Disconnect reverse wiring

9. Unbolt clutch slave from bellhousing

10. Unbolt starter motor

11. Put jack under gearbox and remove crossmember

12. Unbolt bellhousing

13. Remove gearbox back out gearbox and lower, to clear tunnel, rotate starter motor bump down then pull gb back

14. Remove pressure plate and clutch plate

15. Remove flywheel (if replacing rear main seal, or if it requires machining)

16. (optional) replace rear main seal

17. (optional) replace spigot

18. (optional) replace gearbox front seal

19. Replace throw out bearing

20. Replace flywheel

21. Install new pressure plate and clutch

22. Install gearbox

23. Install starter motor

24. Reconnect reverse wiring

25. Reconnect tailshaft

26. Reinstall front driveshaft

27. Reconnect attessa

28. Install shifter

29. Check gearbox oil level

30. Bleed attessa

31. Check clutch pedal

1. Remove shifter

Pull up the rear of the boot or boot surround near the ash tray - it has sprung clips and will pop out. There's no need to pull the boot off completely so just pull it up and push it to one side. You will then see the body to shifter boot. Undo the four bolts on the metal ring holding it down and pull it up and out of the way. You will now see the gearbox to shifter boot is held on by a cable tie. Cut the cable tie and pull that boot up. There is a circlip that holds the shifter in, so remove it with circlip pliers then pull the shifter up and out.

2. Put car up on stands

You need a reasonable amount of height so the gearbox will clear the bottom of the car. I didnt measure at the time but ~30cm should be about right.

3. Mark rear tailshaft and disconnect

The tail shaft has a flange that connects to a flange at the end of the gearbox and these flanges should be orientated the same way when you assemble them later. To make that possible put a small paint mark at the same place on each flange. If the gearbox has been removed before it should already have been done, so dont confuse yourself by putting another mark on. Then remove the four large bolts. The tail shaft wont fall down unless you riggle it back a bit towards the diff.

4. Mark front driveshaft and remove

Again check for orientation marks and put some on if required. It seems that these bolts are often overtorqued and/or frozen. None of my smaller sockets or ring spanners would fit on either the bolt head or nut, and the open enders I used just rounded all four of then off so I used a die grinder to remove the bolt heads. It may be worth getting some cheap ring spanners and grinding them down to a thin wall so they'll fit...

5. Remove front pipe

One of the 500mm socket extension bars will be useful on the front turbo's dump pipe. A smaller one on the rear.

6. Remove attessa connection and plug hose

The attessa connection is the hose right at the rear of the gearbox. Use the 17mm flare nut spanner here. The hose will drain fluid so plug it.

7. Remove speedo cable

There's a small bolt that holds a metal clip that must be removed first, then the main nut has keyways so you can use an open ended spanner on it.

8. Disconnect reverse wiring

The wiring is on the drivers side of the gearbox, and the connectors will be inside a dust cover. The clips have a release that must pressed before the clips will come apart.

9. Unbolt clutch slave from bellhousing

Tie it out of the way

10. Unbolt starter motor

The starter is on the drivers side and held on by two bolts. Its no fun to get off - use a ratchet ring spanner.

11. Put jack under gearbox and remove crossmember

Support the gearbox with your jack then remove the four small nuts holding the gearbox mount to the crossmember. Then remove the four large bolts holding the gearbox to the chassis and remove the crossmember.

11a - Pull clutches only - you need to relase the fork from the throw out bearing.

12. Unbolt bellhousing

There are a number of bolts around the periphery of the bellhousing. The ones at the top are only reachable when you lower the gearbox a little and use the two 500mm extensions. You'll probably need a uni joint at the socket unless your extension ends allow some pivoting.

13. Remove gearbox

The gearbox is 80kgs and will not just back out as the lump in the bellhousing to accomodate the starter fouls on the floorpan. Put the tailshaft flange on top of the gearbox flange to make it possible to move the gearbox backwards. Lower and back out gearbox until the starter bump fouls, paying attention to the tailshaft, then rotate the gearbox so that the starter motor bump is lower to the ground then pull gb back and out.

14. Remove pressure plate and clutch plate

Perhaps it doesnt matter if you're throwing the old one away, but i prefer to loosen the bolts gradually. If the flywheel rotates when you're trying to get the bolts started, put a bellhousing bolt into one of the holes and jam a large screwdriver into the flywheel ring gear teeth to stop it rotating. The pressure plate spring will mean that the bolts wont be able to be removed by hand until the plate is almost off. Hold the pressure plate onto the flywheel as you take the last bolt out and it should hang on the dowels. Then remove it with the clutch plate with both hands, it a bit heavy.

15. Remove flywheel

If the flywheel surface is rough and requires machining, or if you want to replace the rear main seal, you need to take the flywheel off. This is easy with a decent rattle gun.

16. (optional) replace rear main seal

Here's what it looks like;

Lever the seal out with a screwdriver use the edge of the crank as fulcrum. Be careful not to damage or scratch the crank surface the seal sits on. Carefully clean the surface. Put a little grease or oil on the inside of the seal (where it will mate with the crank) and the outside where it mates against the block and carefully and gradually tap it in all the way around, making sure it slides in evenly and is not skewed.

17. (optional) replace spigot (or just grease it if its ok)

Here's what it looks like; its the copper coloured ring in the middle.

To get it out either use a puller, or pack the bearing cavity with grease and then slide a 16mm shaft inside the bearing and hammer it. This will push the grease against the back of the bearing and it should pop out. Well that's what's supposed to happen - it didnt work for me. The new bearing is porous and the pores are there to hold lubricant. Fill the entire center section of the bearing with grease then place your fingers on both ends and push the grease into the bearing. A little should weep out the sides. Now tap the bearing into the same depth as the old one (it can go further, so be careful) making sure it doesnt go in skewed.

18. (optional) replace g/b front seal

I didnt do this, but I believe you take the front plate off to get to it, and reassembly requires 3bond/sealant on the bolts.

19. Replace throw out bearing (push clutch shown)

Remove the carrier from the clutch fork. There's a spring clip. Here it is with one side removed;

Find a socket of about the same OD as the bearing carrier. Rest the bearing on top of the jaws of the vice then hammer the carrier out using the socket as a drift.

To install the new bearing, find a socket that is the same diameter as the inner ring of the bearing. It is important not to put too much pressure on the other surface as it may damage the bearing. Now put the bearing, socket and carrier in the jaws of the vice and wind it shut to push the bearing onto the carrier.

20. Replace flywheel

Put a few drops of engine oil on the flywheel bolt threads then torque them up to 142-152 Nm. Use the bolt with screwdriver on ring gear as above to hold the flywheel still.

21. Install new pressure plate and clutch

You need a clutch aligning tool to make sure the that clutch plate is in the correct position when you bolt on the pressure plate. Here's my one;

This one has different diameter ends so the 16mm one is chosen. Install the clutch and pressure plate and bolt it up finger tight. Insert the aligner into the spigot, then move the cone shaped part up into the clutch plate and wriggle it in util the clutch plate is dead center. Now gradually do up the bolts a little at a time so that it goes on evenly. Once all the bolts get tight, torque them to 34-44 Nm.

If you are using a multi plate clutch you also need to ensure that the splines are lined up. An old gearbox input shaft can be used in that case.

22. Install gearbox

You will face the same fouling problem on the way in. Some hammer some more space into the floorpan but that sounds a bit brutal to me, so I used a die grinder to take a little material off the starter bump ribbing. I believe this helped a lot.

23. Install starter motor

24. Reconnect reverse wiring

25. Reconnect tailshaft

Remember to line up the marks. 88-98 Nm

26. Reinstall front driveshaft

Put a little grease on the splines. 24-32 Nm if you have some way of getting a torque wrench in there. I put some grease on the thread and did them up as tight as I could without damaging the bolt head by feel. FWIW lubricated threads means that you only need to apply about 3/4 of the torque on the bolt head that you would on an unlubricated thread.

27. Reconnect attessa

Flare nut spanner again.

28. Install shifter

Remember to replace the cable tie around the shifter to gearbox boot. I also put one on the body to shifter boot.

29. Check gearbox oil level

If its low, you can get a hand pump from supercheap/repco etc for $20.

30. Bleed attessa

I used the instructions at http://www.skylife4ever.com/2011/01/bleeding-attesa.html but ended up with an overfilled resevoir. 10mm over the max line would have worked better for me.

31. Check clutch pedal

Adjust take up point if required

Now beers. You deserve them.

[GTR260]

Awesome write up mate! Very informative

[tricstar]

Yeah great writeup, having done that job the same way a few times, that will be very handy...

[JRC]

Hey Adam thanks for the wirte up, I just had a few questions in regards how to pysically get the gearbox out, i am plaining on removing my box from a R32 gts-t rb20det, Im asuming you had all four wheels off the ground when you had it on the stands, not just the front or rear? you say 300mm is enough clearance but whats sort of jack where you using (normal trolley jack, slimline trolley jack with a gearbox adaptor or a gearbox jack)? just curious to see if my standard trolley will get it out, what sort of clearance did you have between the box and car when removing? and finally do you have any photos of you doing this? your help would be much apprecated thanks, Jonathan

[MrStabby]

Hi Jon

- yep all 4 wheels off the ground

- 300mm was a rough guess because i didn't measure at the time.

- normal trolley jack because its all i have - i just used it to get the box to the ground then just slid it across the floor a bit to make some room. There's probably an ideal height for the car - too high and the arm of the trolley jack wont reach the gearbox, too low and you wont be able the get the box out of the road. Shouldnt be a big deal if you get it wrong, you just have adjust the stand heights and try again.

- Blocks of wood or even bricks can help a lot when you're moving things about - even just as something for the box to fall onto if it slips

- not sure what you're asking about clearance between box and car - do you mean when the gearbox is on the floor?

- no other photos

Dont worry too much. The gtst box is smaller and lighter. You could slide it off the jack onto a old bit of carpet or a collapsed box and slide it along the floor to get it out.

[JRC]

Thanks for the help Adam awesome write up, though i found i needed more than 300mm to get the box out, i ended up just leaving the box under the car haha it all worked out in the end tho

[XKLABA]

had a quick skim, great write up, just another option for the spigot bearing removal

soak some cardboard in water and then pack it in the same as you suggested with the grease and with a drift ( or an old input shaft which is what I use ) that fits tightly in give it a good bang, has worked for me half a dozen times in both the 32 and 34

[K4L4M1TY]

Cheers for this Adam, excellent tutorial that i have been looking everywhere for. One question I have for anyone who can help is when stated: 'If you are using a multi plate clutch you also need to ensure that the splines are lined up. An old gearbox input shaft can be used in that case', I take it this was a used part bought for this reason as opposed to using the one in the gearbox which i'm guessing is bolted in etc?

I'm looking to replace a worn push type clutch with a multi-plate setup is my reason for asking.

Edited May 12, 2013 by K4L4M1TY

[MrStabby]

Yeah that's what i meant. I dont know how difficult it is to pull the input shaft out of the gearbox. I've noticed some twin plate kits now come with a plastic aligning tool.