FRporscheman

The second time I did a 944 clutch job it took me a few days (got delays from renting a pilot bearing tool and getting the flywheel resurfaced). I think if I were to do it again it would take me 2-3 days, depending on setbacks.

That guy is not my friend, I just met him that one time. He did come off a little "i know everything, seriously". I just thought I'd bounce his idea off you guys and see what you say. He did say the spare well would be rewelded when done. If you want to hear his other ideas to mock him, I don't think that's fair. And besides, I don't remember anything else he said, except that he thinks V8 swaps are overkill and the 944 powerplant is enough.

Personally, I find it easy to drop the transmission, maybe a 1 hour job, however putting it back in would probably take me more like 3. In the end I agree it sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth to cut the spare well, but it's another angle of attack nonetheless.

I forgot why the TT needs to rotate - I encountered that too. I always thought the TT wouldn't initially slide back because the shift lever was still popped into its socket on the TT, and that twisting the TT would pop the lever out and allow the tube to slide back. Is there something else that requires the tube to be rotated?

We should all buy 968 bellhousings and 2-piece driveshafts.

Legoland951

Cutting the spare wheel well will not allow you to slide the torque tube forward as there are welded tabs to the torque tube in the late model cars you have to rotate 180 degrees to clear the torsion bar housing. Someone is telling you a story. The only way to change a clutch in a 944 without removing the transmission is to remove the engine, which is what I did when I converted my 944 auto to a semi-automatic (fully functional clutch with an auto). I have done about 20 944 clutch jobs and if my life depended on it, I can change out a n/a clutch properly with rear seal and pilot bearing in 4 hours. You would have to have every single part and tool sitting next to you and take no breaks if you are doing it by yourself. If any cheese head bolt strip in the clutch or your pilot bearing is rusted stuck, forget it. After the 4 hours, It will take me a day to recover physically. Most people telling you they can do a clutch in 4 hours is dreaming.

FRporscheman

LoL, you make your point well, legoland.

Kyle Donley

Forgive me if anyone thinks this is a dumb question but, why would you ever want a "semi-automatic"? What purpose would that serve, other than to **** with people's heads?

Legoland951

2 reasons. Its for a wife who did not want to learn how to drive a stick and having an automatic car with a bad rubber dampener. I didn't want to spend $800 for that dampener and had a clutch sitting around. The engine leaked profusely so it needed to come out for a complete rebuild. Currently, the car is a 5 speed as the conversion was completed after she got used to the idea of a third pedal.

Kyle Donley

I was sitting here trying to think of any possible performance advantage and could not come up with any. Makes sense now.

Dash01

Stretched the yellow thread around all four tires, right at the equator , secured with sticky tape. Put 1/16" allen wrench on the front sidewall bulge of the front tire as a offset device to hold the thread just off the sidewall bulge surface. Now, adjust toe-in such that thread is an absolutely straight line from rear and front sidewall bulges of rear tire to rear bulge of front tire to allen wrench on front bulge of front tire. Do both sides of car, with front tires on top of 2 sheets of wax paper, on level smooth concrete surface. Wax paper eliminates squirm of tires on smooth concrete, eliminating hysteresis or springback effect from the rubber. Takes just a few mins to do this. If you need to adjust toe-in of rear wheels, reverse the clamp bolt so that you can reach it from beside the car rather than from under it, then slip the socket extension through the wheel spokes (on my D90s at least). The rear wheels should align straight ahead parallel with the long axis of the car, or if desired for toe-in or -out, use allen wrench trick as per front wheels.

Should be done after camber is set with pinch bolt on strut, using spirit level and same ~1/16" allen wrench (or drill bit of same diameter) so that upper edge of rim is 1/16" tilted inboard from vertical as indicated by spirit level.

tifosiman

Makes sense to me. Take something that should take only an hour or so to do, and make it more complicated by adding a sawzall and welder to the mix.
Come on, please share? If someone puts some uber crazy ideas out there, they should be prepared to be taken to the mat for them...........

FRporscheman

Hahah, hmmm... well actually I don't remember much else. I had a lot of root beer that night. He said he loved Honda Del Sols, and that he'd owned like 9,425 of them. Ey, I guess we all have our inexplicable obsessions.









But, Del Sols?

inactiveuser92616

Pretty slick!

944Fest (aka Dan P)

It looks like FR's mechanic might have tested out some of his ideas on my na. Someone obviously started to try an "easy" clutch approach and gave up. For those that can't tell, this is a shot of the tabs on the torque tube that someone tried to hack off.

Legoland951

Most people don't realize those tabs are installed for safety reasons in a very hard front end wreck to keep the cabin area from collapsing. In the case of a hard accident, you will have to hit hard, push engine back, compress/break bell housing, push torque tube back (tabs make sure you will have to rip the complete rear suspension off to push the torque tube further), and finally push the transmission against the spare tire/well before the rear bumper stops everything.

This is the main reason a 944 "battering ram" configuration makes it next to impossible to compress the interior space from a front or rear wreck.