Absolutely need flywheel lock?

[Gielamonster]

Middle of a clutch job (well almost). Do I absolutely need a flywheel lock to crack the PP bolts loose, then retorque the new ones?

On most other cars I've worked on, there's usually some way to lock things up without a special tool. Carefully placed punch or prybar is enough to provide the sufficient counter torque. Or even pulling a spark plug and stuffing nylon rope down into the cylinder (being sure that the valves are closed).

$27 for the tool isn't too bad, but does anyone in the Detroit area have one I could borrow for a day or two?

Also, does anyone know where I can buy the manifold to cat section nuts? Copper lock jobbers? And I snapped one of the studs, how about one of those?

realoem.com has the part numbers but not the parts. I guess I should call my buddies at Pelican and ask?

[Jeron]

Remove the bolts with a impact wrench.

Re-torque them buy screwing in one of the E14 tranny bolts and one of the clutch plate bolts, then slip a 3" C-clamp or similar strip of metal over the two bolts to hold the fly.

The manifold studs are $30, I don't know how much the cat section studs are. Most people use a stainless steel bolt to replace broken ones.

[Gielamonster]

Sweet answers! I've probably used the bolt+clamp combo before, I just forgot about it. I don't have a 6mm allen socket, I'll just have to pick one up. Although I might be able to crack them loose once I have the flywheel locked.

I already have new SS non-locking nuts and lock washers to try, but I thought I should look for the right stuff first. And I was going to test out a SS M8 bolt to use in place of the missing stud.

So thanks for the help.

[Gielamonster]

Finally got the pictures up, check out this toothy grin!





Sorry for the poopy pictures, I think I burned out my "garage" camera's imager taking pictures of welding.

http://evilallianceracing.com/ipw-web/gallery/E36clutch

I was able to crack the PP bolts loose after rigging a ~6" length of chain between a bellhousing bolt and a punch wedged down into one of the holes in the PP. I used just a plain old L shaped allen wrench and a 2 lb mallet to crack them loose. Only one of the bolts stripped, and it was pre-weakened by my earlier attempts at removal. Still, I'll throw six new ones on there to be safe, I don't want to do this job again!

Thanks again for the suggestion on how to lock the flywheel, I just needed a little hint to get things done.

A little background... the T/O bearing started squealing about a month before my FSAE competition. I had ZERO time to try and fix it, I was in the shop about 4-8 hrs every day after I got off work. So I kept driving it (about 120 mile commute!) and it kept squealing. It got noticibly louder with only a few days before comp, but finally gave up with 3 days to go. So I limped it home via starting it in gear (no clutch disengagement) and clutchless shifting, parking it until I could fix it.

Looking at the parts, its obvious that the bearing just ate itself up until it couldn't spin anymore and then started grinding away the pp fingers. I'm sure there was massive heat, they probably fused to the bearing on shutdown, then they'd rip off once it started again. Really, not too bad considering this is very likely the original clutch and the car has over 170k! And the disc, flywheel and PP (beside the broken fingers) were all still in great shape, plenty of life left.

Anywho, I'm slating tomorrow and Sunday for reinstalling everything and getting it back on the road. Then I'll probably spring for a little bodywork to fix some awful looking body rust followed by another winter of Blizzak Bliss!

[Gielamonster]

I finished it! It took me 5 weeks to take it apart, 2.5 days to put it back together. Of course there were a LOT of breaks in both of those timespans, but I had the time to do it this weekend and I got it done. Its running great. The first start had me worried, no clutch disengagement! I didn't bleed the slave because I never opened up the line. Well I figured just like doing a "no-bleed" brake pad change, maybe I just had to pump out the cylinder until it was back to the right position. So I pumped it a dozen times or so and all was well.

I bought new PP bolts and copper exhaust nuts from the dealer, $2.25 and $2 each, respectively. I figured the cash was cheap insurance that I wouldn't have problems in the future. The broken stud was a ROYAL PITA, I ended up having to dremel two grooves across the hole I drilled because I kept burning up bits trying to drill it out normally. So I dremeled the grooves until I reached the threads, then just popped the two C shells out. A SS bolt replaced that missing stud, with a copper nut actually doing the clamping.