Separating a '70-'71 911 Transaxle from the Engine

[jluetjen]

Ok folks, I searched the archives and the tech articles and this one does not appear to have been covered very deeply.

The situation:
I'm helping a friend do an engine swap on his '70 or '71E which has the 911 (just to be clear -- not 901 or a 915) transaxle. The factory shop manual shows something about installing some sort of a sleeve on 3 "rivets" on the clultch/flywheel assembly to relieve the pressure on the throwout bearing. Then turn the throwout bearing with a screwdriver to separate the transaxle. We can see where the throwout bearing has a flat edge that we need to rotate until it aligns with the release arm.

Things we're confused about.
1) Where can we get a description of these sleeves? Does anyone in the Boston area have a set to loan? Are there any alternatives? (ie - Use a socket? washer stack? etc?)

2) How do you move the throwout bearing with a screwdriver? There don't seem to be any features to grab on.

3) Any other words of advice?

Thanks as always for your help.


- John

[jankemi]

On my 71 with a 901 transmission I used pieces of copper tubing about 1/2" long with a flat washer on top and a metric bolt through the center. It was ugly but it worked good enough to relieve some of the tension on the bearing. I could then easily turn the bearing flats to line up with the forks.

--Mike

[john walker's workshop]

keep the trans bolted to the engine, until the fork is off the t/o bearing. it's a pull clutch, so pull the bottom of the fork arm in the direction of the trans, which pulls it away from the t/o bearing in the bellhousing. then with a screwdriver, rotate the t/o bearing 90°, which will allow the fork to slip by it. you don't have to use any spacer sleeves and bolts, like various books say is necessary.

[jluetjen]

OK. Great. Thanks.

I ended up doing something similar to Mike and it worked -- sort of. One of the rivets snapped.

Since we had removed the transaxle bolts/nuts, I'll put them back in and do what you recommended John and we should be all set. Since the engine swap is a long-block, we'll need to remove the flywheel anyhow and then we'll see what we can do about that rivet. It appears that when it was installed, it pulled into a bronze bushing. The bronze bushing is what came out when the rivet snapped.