Has anyone ever replaced the clutch at home? Based on labor charges, I'm guessing that it's rather involved.

 

I have done it but would not do it on the S2000. To change the clutch you need to lift the engine. The bolts at the top of the transmission casing can't be reached without it. Hoisting the engine would suck. I guess if you had a lift and a hoist (ie. your garage is a service center) you could do it easy enough.

 

This sounds just like my old Datsun 1600 roadster. In order to change the clutch in it I had to pull the engine and transmission as a unit. What a pain. I had to do this several times and there were many hard to reach nuts and bolts on that car, plus 23 hose clamps. I rented an engine hoist, but if I were going to do this now, I think that I would buy one from SAM's for $400.

It was actually easy to do by myself with an engine hoist. It cost me a weekend to pull the engine, replace the clutch and put it back together, but it would be ready to go by Monday morning.
Good luck,
Bob

 

According to the service manual, lifting out the engine is not necessary when replacing the clutch.

You however do need to remove airbox and exhaust manifold. And you also need to have the car on a lift in order to drop the transmission.

I think Reverend has replaced clutch and flywheel himself.

BTW how much is the labor charge. I've heard that it's around $400.

 

Yes several but if you can afford it I would suggest you have a dealer do it as on the S it lloks to be a pain in the ass.

Due to the nature and shape of the tranny I would say you could do it with a simple floor jack setep with ramps up front but why risk it spend the moeny, the first time I did a clutch job I had to pull the tranny three times to find a binding issue, I am glad and pround that I did the job myslef but y back and neck hurt for a week.

 

Pshaw. This is a fairly typical RWD clutch swap from what I've seen (although I've just seen it, not done it on the S). Like most, it is a huge pain without a lift and a transmission jack but about a half day job with. I can tell you that I'll be considering doing my own (and so will many, and often I predict) after the warranty is up.

The "special" tool is a plastic alignment tool that mimics the transmission input shaft. It is used to align the clutch disc and pressure plate. All clutch swaps use them.

Anybody know the flat rate on this job?

 

I was just talking with a service rep this week and I was told it flat rated at 9.5 hours and an experienced mechanic should be able to do it in less than 8. Sounds like a multi-day job to this backyard mechanic when you consider Murphy and all the things that can go wrong.

 

It's a huge PITA on this car. You don't actually pull the motor, but you disconnect EVERYTHING from the motor (only the two side motor mounts hold the motor in place after you disconnect everything), you disconnect the steering rack, then you drop the front subframe 3"...

This is necessary because you can't get to the upper transmission mount bolts without doing so. Even if you do all this, they're still not easy to get to.

You'll need to jack the car up fairly high to be able to get the transmission out, so you'll need something that will get it up higher than a regular autozone jack. I borrowed a friend's lincoln jack and jacked it up until I could get my jackstands under there one or two clicks from fully extended.

As for the clutch alignment tool... although people often talk about it as a major necessity, if you're very careful, you can just eye-ball it (I did). You just need to make sure it's centered so that you can get the input shaft of the transmission to fit into the splines on the clutch disk. The clutch will center itself once you disengage it (after you finish the install), so if it's a couple thousandths off, it's no big deal.

Anyway, if you're not experienced with working on cars, don't try this one at home. If you are, don't try it without the Helm's manual - there are a lot of little things that need to be done before you can safely drop the subframe.

 

I'll second that one. You dont need a lift, and you dont need to pull the engine... but it is NOT for the feint of heart. Like the Rev said, you'd better have the Helm manual for sure and dont think for a second that you can short-cut any of the steps. Believe me, I tried. And boy oh boy are the top bolts to the tranny housing a bitch!

-jason keeney

 

It would seem that the flat rate backs up The Reverend's advice. I stand corrected.