Buttoned it back up (except for the interior gearshift boots) and test drove it today::::::::::::::::: Smooooooooooooooooooooth clutch action! Much less force required. Engages about halfway thru pedal travel. Such a big difference, actually looking forward to tomorrow's stop&go traffic, LOL.
Also took advantage of the clutch cable while it was loose to grease the barrel end that fits into the clutch pedal. No more squealing wild boar trapped up under the dash, my passengers can stop looking for it.
Hope it lasts. The old pressure plate was stamped "Made in Great Britain."
Hardest part of this job (other than getting the trans/bellhousing lined up and at the correct angle to mate up*-- not easy on an aggressively sloping driveway)(well, you could say gravity was
helping us in a way) was getting the square rubber isolator over the ball end of the clutch cable. And then to get the cast iron weight end to sit properly over that.
Also, the flywheel bolt holes have an oddball configuration pattern. Subtly unequal spacing that is hard to perceive. You have to try bolting it in various clocking positions. Not fun when you are having to hold up a heavy piece of metal while trying to bolt it in and having to keep rotating it until all the holes magically line up. The whole time that heavy flywheel is aiming for your chest.
So another success with the Sachs kit referenced earlier in this post. It will work, with the following modifications:
1. Some may need to remove or grind down the extra pins (if present) on the flywheel, or remove material on the PP to accomodate.
2. Some may need to grind down most of the ledge on the two metal contact pieces on the throwout bearing (so it will insert into the rounded square hole in the clutch release lever).
3. ALL will need to source the correct pilot bearing, as needed.
4. ALL will need to modify the alignment tool that comes with the kit. O.D. on the end of it (where it fits into the pilot brg.) needs to be 10mm O.D. I built it up with masking tape. Try to make it smooth so it will sit square, and also so no lumps or ridges might catch on the needle rollers and dislodge or pull them out.
Recommend surfacing the flywheel on a surface grinder instead of a lathe. Need to remove equal amount of material from the stepped outer (raised) area also. Machinist should also check the other side of the flywheel to make sure it sits flat. $55-60 seems to be the going price here.
*Good tranny jack with lots of angle adjustments is a must here. We were using the one I borrowed from the local tool library-- a Harbor Freight scissors-type that mostly worked OK (
much safer than a floor jack) but not quite enough angle adjustment, and its ratchet strap, while seriously heavy duty, was unusable because the ratchet mechanism ended up at the top of the tranny so no way to release it once it was up in place in the transmission tunnel. We used a separate ratchet strap I had that worked fine, except for when it came time to raise the jack to get the tranny into position. I was manning the jack. When I heard "OK, time to raise the transmission!" I started cranking. Well I wore myself out in a hurry.
Why was it so hard to crank it up all of a sudden??? I changed angles, used the other hand, used both hands, planted a foot on it, etc. Started looking for the cheater pipe. Then realized--
I had attached the ends of the strap to the base of the jack. Plenty stable, but it did impede the jack's ability to raise.
