I lost my clutch a while back, so I just covered the car up for the winter.
Now that its warmed up (and dry), I jacked the car up high enough (I thought), to pull the tranny out to see what was going on. I pulled the tranny out in about 1 hour but it wouldn't clear the tunnel enough so I could have lots of room to pull out the Bell Housing...sooo ... I started to raise the rear end up a bit higher and placed stands on 2 inch blocks for more stability.
In total I had 6 stands, 2 in the rear and 4 up front plus rhino ramps up front as well, to add a bit more of a safety factor. I also used concrete 2 inch blocks so as to keep the stand shaft height very short.
Well, as I got the rear jacked up, the whole car went sideways ,to the right ,in the front ,about a foot. Entirely missed the rhino ramps and ended up withone of the front left stands catching the plastic jack point and saved thecar from dropping. Talk about lucky. Anyway I stabilized it again and nothing got torn up,, thank God, although the tranny fell off the cradle I had on my jack but thats ok. I'll hoist it up from the inside to re position it again.
Anyway...
Yesterday I pulled the B.H. out and clutch so what I found was a seperated puck on the old style stage 3 Spec. The Pilot bearing was just dust and the outer race is still in the pilot hole. Guess I'll have to cut that out.
Tranny input shaft is good and my new flywheel is ok as well ,so with only about 8K on this setup, I'll be sending it back to SPEC under warrenty.
I don't know if the puck seperation caused this or the bearing but they both have had issues. Going back to bushing this time.

 

that would have sucked!!

 

reminds me of that mega $$$ "tricked out" ford truck that they put up on a lift that wasn't designed to hold that much weight... oops!

 

I have 600 miles on a Stage III Spec (with pucks).
(ulp!)

I had the dealer pull out both the pilot bushing and bearing, and after examining the 2, chose the bearing.
And yours went to dust?
(ulp!)

If the bearing truly went, and all that is left is the outer race, find a metal object that just barely fits inside the race and use the grease pack method to remove it.
It might work and save you from having to cut the bearing race out.
E-mail me if you want details.

BTW, I have 2 posts on here right now about Spec drivability.
My clutch is still very chattery after 600 miles of "seat" time.
Do they ever smooth out?

Terry

wall9@juno.com

 

To get the rest of the bearing race out, go borrow the puller from Autozone. I tried that grease trick and gave up after three minutes and went to Autozone. The puller took it out it 20 seconds, so easy.

 

Grease trick worked fine for me to remove the factory pilot bushing on my '93.

It is described in the Haynes book as well.

The trick is you have to have an object that is a good close-tolerance fit.

If you try the grease routine with something that fits loose, you'll not only be unsuccessful, but get grease everywhere




Terry