ErichCS

No Problem - Throw out all the questions you'd like Having been through this job before more people here remember all this stuff pretty well...Any other questions?

Erich

pat944

I think that's all for tonight, either I'll have some more tomorrow, or I'll be able to say I've done my first 944 clutch job, well...errr...

my old man will be able to say he's done he's first 944 clutch job, something about wanting his shed back this month, lol

83na944

Pat,

I just finsihed the clutch on my 83 a couple of weeks ago, so I'm fresh on the details.

The drivshaft coupler attaches the driveshaft in the TT to the transaxle. The coupler is accessed after removing the rubber access plugs in the transaxle housing. Remove both plugs and look through the holes. Mark the coupler in relation to the drive shaft so that you can put it back together on the same splines. Then you use a hex head socket (6mm?) to remove one of the bolts and the rotate the driveshaft 180 degrees to access the other bolt through the other hole. These are on tight, so use a good tool.

Since you've disconnected the half-shafts, you'll have to grab the flanges of the transaxle to rotate the shaft. And someone will have to operate the clutch while you do this.

The shifter rod goes through a plastic tube in the transaxle housing. So you move the shift rod forward to clear the transaxle so that the shift rod is not damaged when you drop the transaxle. You remove the bolt that couples the shift rod to the shifter mechanism on top of the transaxle. You also need to move the plastic tube back if you can.

After you unbolt the TT from the transxle, you support the transaxle on a jack and remove the mounting bolts. Then you can move the transaxle back a couple of inches and lower it from the car.

If you've jacked the car high enough, you can take the transaxle from under the car. I just left my transaxle under the car and worked around it.

Hope this helps.

Mr. Avionics

To answer your question about the shift lever. Yes you have to remove the "E" clip from the shift rod, disconnect the shift rod then remove the 2 bolts holding the shift lever to the torque tube and completely remove the shift lever. This is so that you can rotate the torque tube 90 degrees clockwise, as viewed from the rear of the car, to allow you to move the torque tube aft enough to clear the bell housing. Also, the 2 bolts in the coupling have to be completely removed, as they are inserted in in a grove arround the drive shaft and the transmission input shaft. You'll see when you remove them. Don't know whay they say to mark the positon of the drive shaft splines to the transaxel, I didn't and I don't believe that it really makes much difference. The one thing to watch out for, after you are done replacing the clutch, the little bolt on the flywheel should point down before you replace the bell housing, why you ask? To prevent it from getting damaged while pushing and cursing trying to get the bell housing back up on the back of the engine. They tell you to put the little bolt down in the Hanynes manual, but never tell you why. I found it in the Porsche maintenance manual, and it says to protect it from getting damaged.
This little bolt is for the TDC refrence sensor by the way. It took us about 6-7 hours for the clutch job on my car, altho it was 2 1/2 days, I did alot of other stuff while it was up on jack stands. Make sure you remove the refrence sensors and top bolts before trying to remove the bell housing.
If I can be of any other help, I'll check back on this post from time to time.

Good luck,
Bill

83na944

So that's why the bolt is supposed to point down. I thought it had to do with the speed sensors, but you're obviously right, Bill.

Campeck

You took the words right out of my mouth

Kevin Baker

You may also want to adjust the weight distribution set up you have. IIRC there is a bit of weight up toward the front, and you don't want it to tip as you lower it.

Yes you have to remove two bolts from the coupler to slide it off. Also don't forget the stupid little plastic tube that the shift rod ride in. (Ask me why I say that = hack saw blade while Brian holds tranny steady for me to cut said black plastic tube)

Whe you go to remove the shift rod from the shifter push it down through the rubber insulation under the car, you really have to push it down and FAR forward.

Red1

Yep, forgetting to slide that tube out caused an unnecessary complication.

pat944

Well a quick update, we did hack saw throught the black tube for the shifter linkage because we couldn't get it to slide out. The whole jack thing was a little to far back, but the balance wasn't to bad. I'll keep

pat944

OK here's a bit of an update on the progress of this, thanks to all you guys for the advice you've given. The old clutch is out and the new clutch, pressure plate, pilot and release bearing's are in. The old clutch was shot, the centre had a large chunk out of it, and it was nearly down to the rivets.

We did end up moving the gearbox back a little on the jack, and it was much easier going up than down. The only prob we've got now is the bolt that holds the drive shaft collar on was stripped, it nicked the edge of the half round cut out in the shaft as dad was screwing it in, we're pretty sure it's only the bolt that's stuffed and not the thread in the collar, so we'll see what happens when we get a new bolt. The rear CV's have come of to be repacked with grease, one had some pretty solid grease in there, the other side looked like it has been done at least once more than that, but, while we were in there, I couldn't think of a reason not to do it.

We were looking at finishing by Wednesday, but I'll be happy as long as it gets back on the road eventually.


This is the old clutch, you can see the big chunk out of the rubber center. The old man had me stressing all day that it mightn't be the clutch, so I was pretty relieved to see this.

kennycoulter

my coupler bolts stripped on take off too. where did you take the exhaust off? did you take the entire piece off from the head back, or just from the manifold back? i need to take mine back out for a clutch fork.

pat944

Since the car has no cat we took the exhaust off from the bottom of the headers back, the flanges just before it merges into one pipe.

MichelleJD

You'll find it goes back together a 1000 easier than coming out, at least it did in my case. You're more than halfway home!

pat944

Yes it's true. It's nearly all together, tomorrow we bolt the exhaust back on, plug the speed and ref sensors in, and see if it starts... errr... after we take it off the car stands. Then I can finally take it down to get the ownership transferred, thank god they give 14 days, lol.

I'lll let all here know how tomorrow goes, and how much better it is to drive.

pat944

Well, it's all back together and me and "Baby" have been out for a drive tonight. It's a much better car to drive now the clutch is fixed, and our only prob today was having the speed and ref sensors in the wrong way, so we swapped them round and we were off.