PeteL

I put a Sachs Spring Centered clutch in. My car is an NA too.
This will dig a deep hole in your wallet if you have a shop do the job.
For the record, the 944 clutch was the first DIY job I ever did on any car.

John_AZ

Just to comment.
The low hour times mentioned are for experienced mechanics or semi skilled mechanics.
They have done the job before and know the pitfalls.
They will have the car on ramps, lift and have every professional tool needed.

Now the first timer....
What can go wrong and add many hours to the job.

You do not have a lift or at least a transmission attachment on your floor jack. The transaxle is heavy.
You do not have the expensive 12 point metric hex needed for the CV bolts and FW bolts.
You do not have the expensive metric hex and strip the drive shaft coupler bolts (BTW $8 each)
You want to remove the reference sensor bracket and the bolts are corroded in the block.
The reference sensors are corroded in the sensor bracket due to coolant dripping on the bracket and will not come out.
You do not know how to twist the torque tube to clear the rear cross member
You are choking on the heat sheild that is torn and dropping fiberglass on your face.
You mess up the installation of the RMS and it rips.
You need to order more parts....................add a week.

These are only a few of the top time wasters. You will learn more.
GL
John

kobayashi

Replaced my clutch 2 months ago. Went with the take out transmission/torque tube route. Probably took about 16 total hours. Biggest PITA was the early coolant valve cable between the engine and the firewall. Must have wasted 2 hours with that.

Then 2 weeks later my #2 Rod Bearing decided to fail at the track. So I pulled the engine this time. With an engine hoist and the pit (that I built off the end of my driveway), it was not that much more work than taking the clutch out from the back. If you pull the engine, it is a good time to refresh it. Most 944 engines could use a refresh any way.

Probably would always change my clutch by pulling and refreshing the engine.

CorsePerVita

I just bought a whole clutch kit from 944online, they also sold me the torque tube bearings. My clutch was less expensive with the aftermarket one they make. It appears to be a raybestos clutch, is made in italy and is cheaper than the sachs clutch. Hell, they even paid my shipping! They said the aftermarket one is beefier than the sachs clutch, one of the guys said he's putting one in his 944 instead of a sachs here soon as he has to replace his as well. It's definitely a beefy looking clutch disc.

On a side note, i struggled with the bolts on the exhaust at the flange due to them being rusted to hell. Now hopefully the rest is easy from here....

John, I always find your posts most informative. I'm hoping this will help me while I'm down there today!

I have to ask, i've always wondered, what is your avatar from?

roman944

damn, mine is still good, have had the car for about 3 years now - and who knows how long ago it was replaced

but it's still good ... so I am crossing my fingers and holding my breath, LOL

it's also funny how you fix one thing, and another thing breaks ...

smokin_944

William Shakespeare mebbe? something like "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well..."

John_AZ

What if Apes had evolved first??....

PorscheDoc

The 968 is half the time due to the bellhousing access. On the 944, the tranny needs to come out and slide the torque tube back, then remove the bellhousing. IIRC mitchell manual lists it as 12 hours on an NA last I checked and about 16 on a turbo, I think clark's garage says 16 on an NA and 18-20 on a turbo which to my knowledge is Porsche's book time. I can knock a turbo clutch out in 4 hours on jackstands if people stay out of my way.....but i've done dozens and dozens and dozens of clutch jobs on 944's, and have a much bigger tool selection than most....it greatly speeds up the time when you know exactly what tool you need for what bolt. I typically split book time wich what I can do it in with the customer which ends up at about 8 hours. I make a little extra for knowing the job and they save a little bit for me knowing the job.

First time around, expect 12-16 hours laying on your back.

Oh and it will greatly speed up your time if you can have a guy NOT under the car that can just sit there and hand you tools. Having to crawl back and forth under the car will not only slow you up, but I promise your body will feel it worse the next couple of days.

SirLapsalot

Whoops what I was trying to say is I had only done a clutch job on a 986 (twice) before I had done a 944 and the 944 took me 10 hours. And Mitchelondemand the online service information says 9.4 hours I don't know what the IIRC mitchell manual is, Ill believe you it says 12 hours but im pretty sure AllData said 9ish hours when I checked last time. If you can really knock a turbo clutch out start to finish correctly in 4 hours on the freaking ground then WOW impressive. My co-worker said when I was doing my clutch that he was at the point where he could do it in about 5 hours but I think he was talking about an n/a

Oh and i feel like the 968 was most definitely less than half the time of the 944 it was maybe more like a quarter of the time

thirdgenbird

i am not embarrassed to admit it took me four days:

did a coilover conversion (while i was there )
used basic hand tools
had to make a few tool runs
had to order a few parts
did the job myself
i was a beginner at auto repair when i started...

lifts are for pansies

eviladam

Did My 86 N/A a year ago. Sat down with my tech manuals and read it over in about 15min. Went down to my shop and lifted the car on stands(I dont have a lift) took all of 10min. Dropped the exhaust in less than 30min, this included aerocroil soak time on the rusty nuts and bolts to the manifold(i took it all out in one peice as there is ZERO reason not too). Pulled the inner cv axle bolts and tied the cv's up and out of the way, I had to clean out years of road grime from those stupid cheap *** cheese head bolts, Took about 1hr for that. Disconnected the shift rod and pulled in forward into the cab. Reached up and undid the 2 Mount bolts on the Transaxle and put my regular floor jack in under it and proceeded to undo the coupler and then the bellhousing bolts. Pulled the tranny back and dropped it a few inches to disconnect the wires, then to the floor(Took some wiggling and elbow grease! but only a few minutes)

Moved to the front of the car and undid the TT from the bell housing, turned the TT and pushed it back(make sure you took the shifter out with the rod!). I may have done the slave and starter first but either way its 8 bolts total so no biggie, Note that I did NOT drain my slave(I have done clutch jobs on several cars over the years and i have never needed too and if you dont you can just add fluid to top it off and get away with not bleeding the system). Next i took out the slave pivot rod and disconnected the ground wiring. All that took a little over 1hr as I was a little hesitant to pound the rod out... Once I did it was no biggie! Next I moved on to the BH bolts! Bottom 2 are super easy and the top ones not so fun! Took me 1 hour to take them out and I swore the whole time. I even tried tilting the engine back but it didnt help any from underneath(Note that they went back in from underneath the car in minutes!!!!) Pop the BH off and your looking at clutch parts!

So thats about 4 hours for me to get to the clutch, No joke it took me all of about 2 hours by myself to put it all back together and lower it on the ground. NO IDEA WHY!

Now I used the Bronco 2 disc that I spaced out, resurfaced my PP and FW, and Tore down my T/O bearing cleaned it and repacked it. I also cleaned and repacked my pivot rod bearings too. All that took me a couple of hours. If but if you have all new parts ready to go your turn around time would be much faster, obviously. So I know I could do this EASILY in 6 hours, I am not a proffesional mechanic and Im only 29 and this is my dd. For me saving money was high on the list but I was also intruiged with using the Bronco disc and salvaging what I could since at 170K+ miles the only clutch problem I had was the explosive Hockey puck OEM disc which left me stranded at 2:30 am 25miles from home on the side of a highway....

No problems since everything looks good and Ive checked torque on all my bolts.

Mike C.

My first time took a big chunk of weekend (at least 20 hours). And that was on a Florida car with no frozen bolts, etc. If you don't have a tranny jack or jack adapter, you will need help getting the tranny down. I had the car up on 4 ramps which worked pretty well.

thirdgenbird

i managed it (up and down) with a cheap floor jack and a pulled muscle or two...

AScholtes

I have a question, does everyone use just the Sach's clutch, and why? I mean there are other good clutch manufacturers out there and Im just interested if its just due to being a Euro part or its what has been found as the best?

Also, Found a genuine Sach's kit for $677 (for the Turbo 944), but would need an alignment tool and pilot busing and hardware, which would bring the price up to about $720 or so and pivot shaft bearings would be a wise choice as well from what I have read... Also, anyone tried the aluminum flywheel? I have used them on previous cars and motor windup is greatly improved over a heavy iron flywheel...

CorsePerVita

I ended up not buying a sachs clutch and went with the aftermarket made in italy one. I will most definitely post up feedback on it once it is in the car driving around.

I did not use a tranny jack, just a floorjack with a nice big chunk of 4x4 wood to brace it and balanced it and popeye'd that out of there. 3 cans of spinach prior to doing it.