I removed everything Thursday evening.....driveshaft, torque arm, starter, tranny, catalytic converter hanger, and of course the clutch assy, and flywheel. Took the flywheel on Friday morning to get resurfaced, got it back around noon, and waited until 5:30 Friday for Express shipping on my new clutch. Re-installed the flywheel, snapped a bolt. Went and got replacements. Started the clutch. Everything went smoothly until we tried to install the tranny. WHAT A PAIN IN THE A*S!!! That heavy, bulky, SOB did not want to go back in. It didn't want to come out in the first place, but it definately didn't want to go back in. After half a pack of cloves and a six pack, my friend Eddie and I got it back in. Everything went pretty smoothly until it came time to put the torque arm back on. This thing didn't want to line up at all!! Ended up jacking the rearend up and hammering the bolts in then using an impact to get the nuts tight. Then I installed the Ripper shifter. When I was putting the center console back together I noticed a small bushing looking piece laying on the floor. I threw it in the back seat not giving it a second thought. Well as soon as I moved the shifter to do a function check, I figured out it's the bushing that goes on the ball end of the shifter which takes up the slack. DUH!! I pressed on anyways. Put my foot on the clutch and the pedal went to the floor and stayed there!??? Realizing that I removed the clutch cable to the tranny, I figured there was air in the system. Pumping the pedal by hand fixed that problem. I finally started the car and moved it off the ramps. Backed it into the street, and WOW!!! THis clutch grabs IMMEDIATELY!! It's awesome....The only bad thing is that SPEC recommends 400 miles break in. I don't think I can wait 400 miles to dump this sucker and light them up Uhhhhh, yeah I can.....I don't want to do this very often if EVER again. Just thought I'd let everyone know who's not sure if a clutch is something that is a do-it-yourself project......it can be done. I just want to say thank you to my friends Eddie and Gunnar, and also Bliggida for your advice. Couldn't have done it without you guys.

Now I need to go drive my car around a parking lot and learn how to drive it again

 

Congratulations!

Yes we purposely neglected to tell you that pulling the tranny without the motor is a pain. Even if you have a tranny-jack, or better yet a lift, its still not much fun. But you had to learn to do it by getting your hands dirty. And it saved you more than 600 dollars.

I am curious though which SPEC clutch you went with? Stage 1, 2, or 3?

 

I decided to go with the stage 2. I drive a lot of stop and go in the city.....I didn't want to have to pretty much pull over and wait when there's traffic. The kit came with a pilot bearing (not bushing), throwout bearing, pressure plate, clutch disc, and an alignment tool. All for $418 shipped next day from LMPerformance.
Bliggida Thanks again for all your information. It really helped. By the way, I went ahead and replaced the rear main seal when I had the flywheel off. If you recall me asking about the oil leak. Turns out, the oil is coming from the valve cover on the left side. It's running down the block, onto the starter and down the side of the oil pan. Luckily, there was no evidence of oil on the flywheel at all. That will be my next big project........after the Powerdyne is installed that is. Probably do it around the same time I put the internals in.

 

Valve covers are easy. But I say that with the background of working on a SBC. Which, everything is easy. But, there might be some stuff in the way on our 3.8L, but even so I would expect it to take up only a couple hours of your time at the most since its only one side.
And it shouldn't cost more than about 10 bucks. Its all just labor intensive really.
Smart move on replacing that rear main seal, just one less thing to worry about when the engine gets some big mileage on it.