[Head416]

There's nothing too exciting in this post, I just feel like recording my experience for posterity.
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I'm not one of those guys on here who rebuilds engines and restores 911s to their former glory. I change my 911's oil. I've installed larger sway bars, done tune ups, replaced calipers, replaced the alternator, stuff like that. Over the last few years, I've become semi-competent doing all this stuff.

My BIL's clutch went out on his '02 Camry last Saturday night. Trying to be a nice guy (and paying forward that my brother had replaced an Accord clutch for me a few years ago) I offered to help him out. Money is tight for him, and I knew he didn't have the cash to take it to a shop.

I knew this was a big step for me - definitely stretching my abilities. I was fairly worried, but figured I'd work through it like I've worked through a few things in the past, and tried to just be condifent and go for it.

Well, it was a bit of a b@#$&. For some of you it wouldn't be a big deal, but this was the biggest thing I'd ever done, and my brother (more experienced) wasn't there to bail me out - though, he did get a few phone calls along the way.

We started on 7/5 since I had the day off work, hoping to get it done in one day. Unfortunately the axle nuts requried a 30mm DEEP 12pt socket, and I couldn't find one ANYWHERE. We had to call it, order one for $40 including rush shipping, and continue this weekend. I have two jobs, so couldn't get to it until Sat. night. I bought a few more tools along the way, deep sockets and such. Also, all my 1/2-inch drive sockets are 12pt. I figured that would be better so if a bolt was 6 or 12, I'd be covered either way. Well, I didn't realize how easily a 12 can destroy an already damaged bolt head. There were several bolts I was worried about along the way. We had to remove the tie rod ends and ball joints, some trans mounts, obviously unbolt the trans from the engine, remove the radiator, lot's of other little tidbits. Many times during this I felt like a particular bolt was never going to come off. The trans fill plug got ugly for a while. I think I prayed that one off.

After buying some 6pts and using some Liquid Wrench I was able to get them off... except one. There was a 14mm bolt on a transmission mount that was just destroyed by the 12pt. It was way over-tightened, so I couldn't get it when I put my 6pt 3/8 drive on it. I even bought a Craftsman kit for removing damaged bolts, but in the end it just shaved off more metal. We had to cut it off, and just leave the shaft sticking out a couple mm. It bugs me that we failed on that one, but I'm not worried about it holding, that bracket seems plenty secure, and supports the weight of the trans, so they're really just holding it in place, not supporting weight.

Anyway, in the end we got it done. His clutch had crumbled and blown apart on the pressure plate side. That's why it failed all of a sudden and he didn't feel it coming on. So I feel like a little bit better mechanic now. It wasn't pretty, and that one bolt got me, but I had at least 10 different times in this project where I was afraid we were gonna fail, and in the end I got through them all and completed the job. Big confidence builder for me.

He called to tell me his speedo isn't working and he has a CEL, but I'm not worried about either of those. The speedo is probably a loose connector (he was putting those things back together, so I don't have to take the blame for that!), and I'll get the code for the CEL when I see him next weekend.

Anyway, if anybody made it this far, thanks for reading. This is my biggest automotive accomplishment to date, and will help me move on to bigger and better things in the future!