Techno Duck

I think i am going to make the clutch job my winter project and get it out of the way finally. I was originally going to pay someone to do this for me, but after the sucess of my headgasket job i am feeling fairly confident i can do this myself. Going to try and do it in two-three days at my fathers shop over my winter break. I will have access to a lift, air tools and a nice heated garage.. . Also an experienced wrench if i need any help.

Now this brings me to a few questions..

1. Regarding the speed and reference sensors, i read these are a real pain to take out sometimes. Is this only the case on the 944 Turbo (which has the crossover pipe heat) or will i likely have equally a difficult time on my regular n/a car?

2. Also ive read a few old threads saying i can notch something on the bellhousing making it possible to remove the bellhousing without having to remove the sensors for future work. Does anyone have a detailed picture of exactly what needs to be notched?

3. For the clutch release lever.. can anyone give me the specs on the bolt i need to use to help get it out? I know its a M8x150mm as stated in Tech-Session, but ive read a few conflicting things regarding the pitch / thread type on the bolt.

Is a 150mm bolt absoltuley necesary or can i get away with a shorter one i would be more likeley to find at Ace Hardware locally? Id hate to order 1 bolt from McMaster.Com.. .

I am happy to say once the clutch it out of the way.. i think ive convered all my bases in terms of maitenence.

chrly924s

I just got thru doing the clutch, among numerous other things on my 87 and drove it for the 1st time in 4 months last Sunday.
The 1st speed sensor came out w/no trouble. The second one, I broke off in the bracket after soaking and twisting on it for a solid week. This meant that I could not get the bracket out like you are supposed to. However, the bracket has a roll pin that one of the bolts goes thru and it pivots on this when you set the gap. If you can get both sensors out w/o damaging them, you don't need to bother the gap setting on the bracket and you are way ahead of the game when you go back together and the car will probably fire right up; everything else being correct. In my case, I moved the bellhousing back and the bracket w/the bad sensor hanging on, fell out. I thought maybe the o ring had stuck to the bore of the bracket, but it had some kinda funky electro-corrosion going on. I applied never sieze on them when I reinstalled them.
I just used one of the 8mm bolts that came out of the car while I was taking it apart. The fork shaft almost fell out anyway, which was surprising in that the needle bearings in the fork were about dry of grease and had left impressions of themselves on the shaft. I made a LOT of trips to the ACE Hardware while doing this. Luckily it is only about 200 yards from my house. The metric bolts they carry will work fine for what we need. They won't be yellow, but they will work.

theedge

1) Yes, its a pain.

2)

3) M8x1.5 thread pitch. Look for a length of threaded rod instead of just a long bolt. Chop rod down to length, thread it into the lever rod, thread a nut on the end of the threaded rod, clamp a set of vise grips on the end of the rod, then wack the vise grips with a hammer. Comes right out, no need for a slide hammer or anything.

StoogeMoe

I've taken apart a couple of NA engines. On one, the reference sensors came out easily. On the other one, they were quite stuck. I sprayed them with WD40 or PB and then twisted them while pulling. It took a while, but they came out.

With regards to the clutch release pin, I used a bolt that I found amongst my disassembled engines. I think it was one that goes to the balance shaft bracket. It was a 13mm bolt head and about two inches long. I then put it through a closed end socket wrench with a washer and tapped on the wrench with a hammer to slowly work it out. Again, if that thing has been in there awhile, it will help to get some WD on the shaft near the bearings. Soak it. If the tapping doesn't work right away, you may have to twist the pin around and try to work off the caked on clutch dust.

Good luck with the job. It will be alot of work, but you will be real satisfied when it's done.

__________________________________________
1986 944 NA Guards Red all original 91K mi. - minty
1983 944 NA Platinum Metallic w/LSD 5500 mi. beginning a new life
1985 944 NA Guards Red w/LSD (donor car)
1984 911 Carrera Coupe (gone, but not forgotten)
"If you're not living on the edge, you're not living."

chrly924s

I didn't read about the notching trick until the day after I got the bellhousing back on.

924RACR

We used a bolt from the exhaust for the clutch release fork shaft, plus vice grips, and hammer - no biggie. Time, persuasion, and patience. Eventually worked it to where we could pry it. And ours wasn't real thrilled about coming out.

FRporscheman

+1, except it came out easily both times I did it.

It's hard to take the ref sensors out on an NA car. It's even harder to put them back in, especially their bolts.



PUT DUCT TAPE OVER EVERY HOLE ON THE BELLHOUSING FROM START TO FINISH.

Scuba Steve

Same story here about the bolt from the exhaust. It worked great.

Sensors weren't bad to get out, for whatever reason. I gave them a little anti-sieze when reinstalling to prevent problems in the future. The worst part IMO was getting the bellhousing back on, while working next to all that fiberglass insulation. It was a real wrestling match and my arms itched pretty well for a couple of days.

MM951

Taking the ref sensors out is not a problem at all. Get a unviersal joint 10mm (or just 3/8th universal joint) and if they dont want to slide straight out twist them side to side.


2- I had trouble taking the clutch pin out so what I did is turned the motor over while undoing the pressure plate bolts and took off the whole clutch housing in 1 piece

job isn't bad but take your time (and slide back the trans coupling BEFORE you undo anything related to the torque tube/trans..

good luck enjoy the new clutch. I didn't get to put more then 300miles on my clutch before I sold the car..

BlueDog944

Couple tools to make sure you have on hand if you plan on doing the job with the motor in your car.

- Assortment of swivel joints for all sizes of sockets (You WILL use them all.)
- Shallow, 6-pt, 19mm socket with built-in swivel joint. (This is to get to the "famous" #4 bolt on the clutch housing.)
- Deep, 10mm, 1/4 drive socket, with extensions and swivel joint. (To get the reference sensors out.)

The Ref Sensors are a bit of a pain but patience is key. They have a rubber o-ring on them and you need to twist and pull them straight out. DO NOT touch the little set screw on the fly wheel and put the sensors back in exactly as you took them out and you should not have any trouble with them.

The clutch fork level bolt can be done with an axle CV bolt. Since you'll need to remove the trans anyway, you'll want to replace these, so you have at least a few lying around.

Again, if you're doing the project with the motor still in the car, you WILL get to the same point each and every one of us did when you are trying to take the clutch housing off.... "How the F*&^ am I supposed to get that last bolt out?! It's againt the damn firewall!" Couple hints, and it worked for me in an 84 n/a.
- Take the support out from under the motor and let it rest back on the mounts, you need this slight bit of room.
- Try from both the bottom and the top of the motor. Use the shallow 19mm with swivel. I was actually able to get better access from the top of the motor.
- You can not remove the bolt from the housing once its loose. Leave it in place and remove with the housing. (Remember to put this bolt back in the housing before mating it back up. Otherwise you'll wrench the other three down and then go through every 4-letter word you know when you realize you need to taking the housing back off to put it in.

Good luck. And let us know when you've completed the job. You're membership to the 944 Clutch Changers Idiots Club will be in the mail. Benefits include one get out of jail free card that will allow you to pay someone else to do the job next time without feeling guilty about not DIY.

Techno Duck

Good advice from all. I am going to cover my bases and buy a spare Speed/Ref sensor bracket aswell as probably two new sensors in the event these do get ripped to hell taking them out.

Will probably tackle this sometime after x-mas. Just need to start saving up for that clutch kit..

BlueDog944

Here's a good shopping list for getting the job done completly when you're there. Listing and prices are from Paragon of course . If you don't buy your stuff from them.... well... why not? Shamless plug, they are GREATguys, best price and exceptional service!

944 (Early) Clutch Kit - $539.00
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...116.911.00.htm
- Sachs spring center disc, pressure plate, throw out bearing

944 Clutch Accessory Kit - $111.52
http://www.paragon-products.com/product_p/944cak.htm
- Clutch Lever Bearings x2
- Clutch Lever Shaft x1
- Release Bearing Guide x1
- Clutch Pilot Bearing x1
- Rear Crank Seal x1
- Pressure Plate Bolts x9
- Flywheel Bolts x9

Exhaust Seal Rings - $5.75 ea (x2)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...111.203.00.htm

Exhaust Nuts - $5.95 (package of 20)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod..._exnutpack.htm

Exhaust Flange Gasket - $4.95 ea (x2)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...111.135.01.htm

Exhaust Hanger - mid - $12.47 ea (x2)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...111.142.01.htm

CV Boot Kit (early) - $12.50 ea (x4)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...331.903.00.htm

Redline - Moly Grease, CV-2 - $8.95
http://www.paragon-products.com/product_p/rlcv2.htm

CV Joint Bolt - $1.00 ea (x24)
http://www.paragon-products.com/prod...93.407.237.htm

List is not 100% complete, but its not going completly overboard either. A lot of people will agree, there are many things that you should do "while you're there" because if you put it all back together and find you need to rebuild the axles or something else, you'll kick yourself for not doing it when you had everything apart. Note, the CV and axle parts assume that your CVs are in good condition and you are just disassembling, cleaning and rebuilding the axles. The CVs on the 944 CAN be flipped, they are not directions (at least on the early ones. Since I haven't compared part numbers for lates, don't hold me to it for lates.) This is a worth while job while you have the trans out. I prefer the Redline grease, even though the CV boot kits come with a small packet. My though it.. I don't want to redo this job for a long time, so might as well spring the extra $9 for high quality stuff.

This also assumes that you will remove and break down the exhaust. My center hangers were reusable, but the rubber gromets were hard as a rock and cheap enough to replace... "While I was there."

Techno Duck

I do have most of the exhaust manifold gaskets, i have the crush ring and the two from the headers back still. Another thing i need to do is rebuild the torque tube. The rear most bearing has been shot the last 20k miles. I have a line on a free torque tube locally i am gonig to try and rebuild over the next week or two.

MM951

Hey Jon, gripforce clutches or something like that on ebay sells a complete sachs spring center clutch kit for $415 shipped. Theres where I bought mine and it was very very fast shipping to NY and a good deal.


just went to find them on ebay and saw this:

$325 for a clutch shipped wouldnt be bad at all if you wait 11hrs..

BlueDog944

Oh joy... then I guess you're looking at dropping the rear cross member as well. Thank you for not being in the local Virginia area, then I'd have to offer to help!