Whoops... new clutch + flywheel time!

Anonymous · March 29, 2005, 22:22

I had a bit of an 'incident' yesterday...

I was driving home from Lowestoft after picking the girlfriend up, and decided half-way through the trip that the weather was nice enought to put the top down, so I pulled into a layby on the A12, flicked the top down, and prepared to pull away. Traffic was quite heavy so I was ready for a quick getaway: Clutch just before biting point, and holding the revs at 4500rpm-ish...

Of course, with all the traffic I couldn't hear the engine properly, and as I was trying to concentrate on looking for a gap in the traffic I didn't realise that my right foot had slipped down a bit... I ended up dumping the clutch at about 7000 revs! s:oops: :oops: s:oops: Needless to say, the '2 didn't like this very much at all, and I ended up with a hell of a lot of smoke out of the back and the car going nowhere fast, with loads of revs but no gear would engage. Eventually it cooled down enough to engage, but it's fair to say that the clutch is really on it's way out now: It slips all the time, and I'm not a huge fan of that smell at all.

I wasn't that concerned, as I've got an RPS clutch and lightened flywheel sitting at home waiting to be installed for the turbo, so I might as well get them changed now. Anyways, I spoke to Mr T (Hill's in Stortford) for a quote (labour only, remember) to fit both clutch and fly: £461 inc VAT!! Tad too pricey for me, so I rang my local garage where my Dad's been taking his vehicles for years, and they quoted just £250 inc, which is much better. They're excellent mechanics too, and I totally trust them with my car.

It goes in next Tuesday, so it's a bit lucky I don't have to drive the car this week. I've learnt my lesson... s:(

s:( s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

kanujunkie · March 29, 2005, 22:32

not a bad price at all for what is a resonably large amount of work

markiii · March 29, 2005, 23:05

tell me about it

I'll be intrigued to see what it drives like, have to persuade you to lend me the keys :-) :-) :-)

Anonymous · March 30, 2005, 13:17

Quote from: "ekona"Clutch just before biting point, and holding the revs at 4500rpm-ish...
Of course, with all the traffic I couldn't hear the engine properly, and as I was trying to concentrate on looking for a gap in the traffic I didn't realise that my right foot had slipped down a bit... I ended up dumping the clutch at about 7000 revs!

Dude, are you gonna be ok with the Hass II fitted??!!! s:D

s:D

kanujunkie · March 30, 2005, 13:19

just pass him a hearing aid s:wink: :wink: s:wink: he'll be fine

Anonymous · April 5, 2005, 18:31

Well the car went in yesterday, and I went to pick it up today... Despite what the guy on the phone told me, it's not quite ready. s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

Anyway, I spoke to the actual mechanic working on the car (while he was trying to get the airbox back in!) and he's a really top bloke. Turns out he's owned a few MkII MR2's in his time, and is quite a fan of the '2 in general: He certainly knows his stuff, and was quite happy to lift the car up and show me his handiwork. There is a couple of issues with the new flywheel going in...

The old flywheel is quite different to the new one (the obvious one being the huge weight difference, and believe me there is a hell of a difference) in it's actual shape: While it's not a huge problem, the hub of the fly sits very close to the edge of the oilpan, and I'm talking about a 1mm or 2mm gap here! The plastic cover that sits over the rest of the fly to protect it from crap needed a bit of modifying as well, as it didn't fit back properly, but after a bit of heat treatment it clips in perfectly now.

When the turbo kit goes in, and the new oilpan with it, I might see if there's any way to take a bit off of the edge of the lip without losing coverage area to stick it back to the engine: it'll still be tight though. s:? :? s:?

When I get it back tomorrow, I'll keep you posted as to how it feels.

Slacey · April 5, 2005, 19:31

Interesting info, thanks Dan. I wouldn't worry about the gap though as both the bolted flywheel and oilpan don't move at all, so as long as there is some clearance with no rubbing you'll be OK - out of interest did you use new flywheel bolts?

Anonymous · April 5, 2005, 19:36

Quote from: "Slacey"Interesting info, thanks Dan. I wouldn't worry about the gap though as both the bolted flywheel and oilpan don't move at all, so as long as there is some clearance with no rubbing you'll be OK - out of interest did you use new flywheel bolts?

Hopefully there'll be no rubbing at all, but until the guy finishes the car off tomorrow and takes it out for a test i won't know for certain. I'm pretty sure he just re-used the old bolts, but I'll ask when I pick it up.

Slacey · April 5, 2005, 19:51

Quote from: "ekona"I'm pretty sure he just re-used the old bolts, but I'll ask when I pick it up.

IIRC they are use once only items - I'll try and find out for sure.

Slacey · April 5, 2005, 19:58

From an old post Martin made...

Quote from: "mph"While you've got the clutch out, it's no extra time to change the flywheel - and a lightweight flywheel is really nice! Don't forget that the flywheel bolts are not reusable, cost about £2 each and there's eight of them! To give you an idea, (on some rather inaccurate scales I might add) the stock flywheel is just over 8Kg, my lightweight one is just over 4Kg

Anonymous · April 5, 2005, 21:01

Guess he must've used new ones then: well, after reading that, I hope he did!

Anonymous · April 5, 2005, 21:31

Let's just say for arguments sake that he did re-use the old bolts, what are the problems associated with him doing this? Are we talking stripped threads and the possibility of the flywheel coming loose, or something worse?

Tem · April 6, 2005, 06:59

About the bolts...yes, you should replace them.

However, if you just use a locktite or similar on the threads, the old ones should be just fine. My dealer reused the old ones and I've had no issues related to them. I've also done it with several older cars and never had one fail so far. It seems to be more or less common to reuse them with older cars, where budget is an issue.

Anonymous · April 6, 2005, 16:29

All done!

I'm very happy with the results: the new clutch has a completely different feel to the old one, and for me that's no bad thing. The action is far better, with the travel of the pedal being a lot smoother than the stock, and it engages perfectly and exactly where you expect it to. I only stalled it once taking it home... s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

As for the flywheel, I'm not really sure of any differences so far. Granted, I haven't given it a full workout, and it does seem to rev a bit quicker through the mid-range, but that might just be me. I'll be able to report a bit more on this after Friday (weekly 160 mile round trip to see the missus).

They did re-use the old bolts, but the mechanic said that there really shouldn't be any problem with them. I was right to be a bit concerned about the slightly different shape of the new flywheel though: The plastic cover was still catching on it after the first set of alterations (the little plastic catch on the bottom of it to be precise), so he had to cut that out and screw another piece in below it to stop the whole cover falling off.

Here's a few pictures of the old clutch (click for larger):

As you can see, the stock one wasn't in good condition at all (you can see it peeling away on the first photo, and you can literally pick it apart with your fingers!). It's not very clear in the 2nd photo, but there is a definate blue tint to the metal, no doubt caused by heat damage through my little 'accident' last week.

Anonymous · April 9, 2005, 01:09

Quick update after a proper drive...

That flywheel does make quite a noticable difference after all! I haven't conducted any tests with the G-Tech yet, but it definately is quicker when pulling from the mid-to-high rev ranges. Well worth it IMHO.

Something I've noticed about the clutch... On downshifts, you really need to match the revs to the speed, as there's quite a jolt when you don't get it right: It's a lot less forgiving than the stock one. Having said that, I personally don't feel like that's a bad thing, it makes you work and 'feel' the car a bit better. The more I drive it, the more I realise the difference from the old one: It's just sooo much smoother.

Maybe they're not the first mods you'd consider when improving an NA car, but even if I wasn't going turbo I'd still consider them to be worth splashing out on.