944IF

Access hole, wow--this is good news. Ok, so Saturday will be getting the bolts off through the starter and various access holes.

Granite 944

I took another look at the spare bell housing in my garage. The pivot shaft stop pin is a dowel pin. Once you have the entire assembly out, and on the bench, take a 3/16” pin punch, and punch that pin out of its hole into the bell housing. Than you can get a clear, unobstructed shot at punching out that shaft. This end of the shaft has a pretty good taper on the end of it, but still be a little cautious that you don’t peen the end really bad, or you will make it even harder to come out, if not impossible.
When you go to put it back in later, make sure it fits in the hole real tight. Use locktite if you have to. Good luck!

944IF

Hmm, Dualblade. Can you be more specific as to which access holes to use? I use a crowbar to turn engine over, and I'm not seeing the bolts.

Thanks, Granite 944.

Granite 944

Access hole your using in order to remove the PP to flywheel bolts is thru the hole, that the starter goes into (just to the right of yellow highlighter in pic below). There are nine of them, 6mm allen socket head bolts (might be cheeshead on yours.....make sure), again, break each bolt loose only, one by one, then come back and then take them out completely one by one. These are going to be under spring tension from the pressure plate. Be ready for it, when you get down to removing the last few bolts, as this will be a fairly heavy assembly, and the clutch disc will be completely seperate, and able to fall on your head when it all seperates (it will all want to fall out). The starter ring is a snug/press fit onto the diameter of the PP.
Use a 24mm socket/ratchet to turn engine over clockwise at the front of engine crankshaft pulley blolt(helps if you had someone who could do this for ya, while your under there). It would be a whole lot easier to turn engine over by hand if all the spark plugs were taken out first. In the picture, the black pencil is in the hole where the pivot shaft stop pin is located (already out in this pic), the red pencil is stuck in the hole your going to use to punch the pivot shaft out with, when its all out and on the bench.

Edit: You might want to put a bolt back into two of the holes that attach the bellhousing to the block LOOSELY, so it might be a little easier to keep a hold of the assembly, till your really ready for it to drop. And it might help to put your clutch alignment tool in there first also, to keep things somewhat center while removing PP bolts.

944IF

I don't know why I didn't see those bolts at first--I rotated it back and forth, and just missed them.

As soon as I posted, I found them almost immediately. Happily, they're all loose now except one that I ended up rounding out. I'll probably try slotting it or another screw extractor on them this afternoon.

Incidentally, the engine wasn't as hard as I expected to turn over. I haven't take out the spark plugs, and instead of turning it from the front end, I've used a wrecking bar to grab the starter teeth and turn it. Works fairly well, and saved me running back and forth between the front and rear of the engine.

Granite 944

Glad to hear its getting better.

Suggestion......don't easy out that bolt! You don't need more broken easy outs. Drill the head off that bolt before you go ANY further. Use a drill bit same size as the diameter of the threaded part of the bolt, or slightly smaller (take one out and look), drill it out using lube on the drill bit, a sharp drill bit, and as slow a motor speed as required in order to cut that bolt head off with. The faster the motor speed, the faster you will destroy the drill bit. Drill only a little bit more than the head is tall. Good luck.

Edit: Be very carefull as to not damage the teeth on the starter ring by the use of a pry bar here..........you'll need to reuse it.

944IF

That was the first EZ out I had ever tried. I wasn't impressed. I'd much rather drill out the bolt, as you say. I just want to make sure that I get that hole durn square, b/c I'm happy with the flywheel I have.

Off to sears for another cobalt drill bit of the right size, and to make them give me a new ez out, just in case I ever decide to use it again. I hope I never get that desperate.

Granite 944

Personally, I don't think you need to use "cobalt" drills. Regular high speed steel (HSS) should work just fine, if you drill slow and easy with lube. Their cheaper too. You might want to have a few drills around, in case though. My experience.......easy out only as a last resort. You drill the head off, and if done centered good enough, it will pop right off. If not poping right off, chisel the head off after you've drill the depth of the head is tall, it'll come right off, when everything is off, you should be able to take the remainder of bolt out by hand or using a visegrip. Just don't drill to deep, as to get into the flywheel.

EDIT: HA! I just remembered, these bolts are set inside a counterbored hole in the starter ring. Would be a little hard to chisel the head off. However, it should still pop off easy enough when drilled deep/straight enough without damaging the starter ring. The passthru/clearance holes in ring are big enough so as not to cause any damage to it providing your straight and centered enough.

CO944

Have you put PB blaster on there? If not soak it in PB prior to drilling it out.
Makes for a good lube for drilling as well.

<-- years of experience with VW rusty bolts.

I had to drill out a PP bolt to the crank recently and it was no fun.. but after
soaking with PB blaster and waiting about 30 min the bolt came right out.
Once the head is off the threaded portion usually can turn with a eraser
off a pencil, it is the head of the bolt which is holding all the tension.

Good Luck!

KuHL 951

Is this difficulty with the pivot rod a humid climate thing? It seems they come out so easy for many of us but are a major problem for some cars. It has to be a combo of melted rubber from a failed clutch added to road salt corrosion. Those that have done a clutch know every clutch job has it's own crux point but this bolt removal problem seems pretty common back East and in the Midwest. I still think if you can somehow break the rod free with a twisting action then the sliding part is a breeze. Based upon the case-to-rod clearance on mine I would think any binding would be at a toasted bearing, the case clearance just isn't that tight with the rod unless corrosion was really bad. I'm impressed someone could get the bellhousing off with the guts in it. I wrestled with mine to find the only spot it would clear the PP. You might end up welding a bolt on there afterall and using a heavy sliding weight, at least it would be off the car. Good luck on your project, it feels good when you are all done.

Brute force tempered with finesse is always my last shot at a problem...so far I'm winning.

Granite 944

Man I can relate to that!

I don't know, I've taken apart at least four of these clutch assemblies without that much trouble with that rod. But then again, I've always done it when it was on the back of the engine, but out of the car also. Its gotta be the salt air, or salt used on the roads in parts of the country that make this such a fun deal. Corrosion can be SUCH a fun advisary.

944IF

Ok, for those of you who've been asking, here's how it stands right now:

PP bolt drilled out (head popped off using Granite_944's technique).
Flywheel sensor allen bolts removed, but although they turn, they don't come out.
I removed the bolts to the aluminum bracket (fun!) and it's lose, but something stops it from coming out.

So, I'm currently working on figuring out what it holding the belhousing and flywheel sensors on.

KuHL 951

On the sensor bracket there's a guide tube just like the trans and bellhousing. If you think the sensors are goners anyway, just keep prying the bracket towards the rear and the sensors will either bend or break off, be careful not to crack the bracket though Is the bellhousing loose yet? I can't see why the PP bolts wont come out if they are backed all the way out? They do have quite a lot of turns after they are un-torqued. Hope you make some headway on this project, it can be very frustrating I know.

944IF

Alll the pressure plate bolts are out. I noticed the guide dowel on the sensors bracket, but they're good, so I want to save them.

Yeah, tell newbies like myself not to do clutch jobs unless they have someone around who's done one before.

EDIT: addition--yes, the bellhousing is loose, everywhere except the top driver's side corner where the sensors are.

944IF

IT"S LOOSE!

I was being timid b/c I didn't want to ruin the sensors--got myself ready to pay for them and shoved it off. Now everything is sitting there loosely on the back of the engine--I'm going to get someone to help me catch it when it drops.