Coupe GT clutch job report

[ejfluhr@austin.ibm.com (Fluhr)]

This past Easter weekend, my brother and I undertook the job of changing 
the clutch on my 1985 Coupe GT.

First, I want to thank Mike Tipton, Gary Erickson, and all the other
listers that offered advice and help on the procedure.  Armed with their
information and experience, my brother and I tackled the job.

We started late on a Saturday afternoon, about 4pm.  We planned to pull
the tranny before dark, and put it all back together the next day.  Little
did we know what was to follow...

We dove into the job, and made lots of progress early.  Dropped the subframe
and control arms (6 bolts, made the job infinitely easier).  Disconnected
the shift linkage, slave cylinder, inner CV joints, and catalytic
converter-to-center-pipe flange, and reversed the front engine bumper so
it would support the engine once the tranny was off.  We decided to leave
the downpipe attached to the exhaust manifold, because the studs were a 
mess and I was concerned they might cause us some problems.   (oooooh,
foreshadowing!!)  The downpipe has a support clamp that connects it to
the tranny, though, and we unbolted that.

With that done, we stuck my newly bought floor jack under the tranny,
and proceded remove the driver's side mounting bracket and unbolt it
from the engine.  The tranny initially came apart a few centimeters, then
stopped.  After bemusedly examining it, I determined that the heat
shield was hitting the exhaust downpipe (oooooh, foreshadowing!!), and
so removed it.  The tranny then moved back another inch or two, and then
stopped.

I had read the Bentley earlier and figured I could ignore the instruction
to remove the tie-rod bolts.  Well, Mr. Bentley was right and Mr. Fluhr
should not presume to ignore him.  :)  My brother removed the two tie rod
nuts, pushed the studs backwards, and we went under the car, confident that
the tranmission would come out.  The tranny moved another inch, then
stpooed.

We found that the top of the tranny was still hitting the bracket that
holds the tie rods to the steering rack, so we proceeded to remove that
part.  Again, we headed underneath the car to slide the tranny out, 
prepared to announce ourselves victorious!

The tranny slid back another inch or two, and I could see the tranny main
shaft when looking into the bell housing, past the flywheel.  Confident that 
we were about to break it free, we redoubled our efforts.  That is when
Mr. Exhaust Downpipe made his move...  The tranny was stopped dead.  It had
no clearance to move backwards, or sideways, any way but forward, and
that was NOT the direction we wanted to go.  We struggle, wiggle, strained,
manouvered, and cursed, but it was all for naught.  The exhaust downpipe 
would not budge.  Eventually we were about to tilt the engine and get
some clearance for the tranny.  With much effort, metallic scraping, and
wails and gnashing of teeth, the transmission thudded to the the ground.

By this time, it was dark, and we cleaned up.  After the experience with
Mr. Downpipe, I decided it was time to get him out of the way.  I called
Ken, my brother and numero uno hitman, to do the job at first light the
next day.  Late the next morning (first light doesn't REALLY mean dawn,
in my family :), my brother went after the downpipe with WD40 and the
toolbox.  Two studs off, and we were anticipating an easy few hours until 
the car was back together.  The downpipe had given us some trouble, but
now its time was up, it wouldn't mess with US any more.  Then I heard
CRACK, Mr. Downpipe came a tumblin' down, and I knew he had gotten
the last laugh.  The third stud was broken, and there was much wailing
and gnashing of teeth.  :-(

Having recently moved from my father's stocked garage, and having the
minimum set of tools needed, I did not know what to do.  After lots
of debate, some useless attempts to remove the stud, and mounting
frustration, we decided to put the tranny back in.  I installed the
new pressure plate and clutch disc on the flywheel, and a new throwout
bearing and sleeve on the tranny.  The main tranmission oil seal showed
no signs of leakage, and I wasn't in the mood to replace it, so I left
it alone.  We hauled the tranny back under the car, put it on the jack,
and lifted it up.  After just a few minutes of adjustments, the tranny
slid nicely into place.  We bolted it up, and felt somewhat better
than before.  We proceeded to put everything back together except the
subframe and the downpipe.  Without the subframe, we had plenty of
room to access the exhaust manifold flange, even with the transmission
installed.  Since it was Easter Sunday and nothing was open, we cleaned
up and called it quits.

Early this morning I rode my bike over to Home Depot and picked up a
set of drill bits, a nut and bolt, and an extraction tool.  We drilled
though the stud and attempted to pull it out, to no avail.  It was stuck
in there, and would NOT come out.  In the end, I went to my backup plan.
We drilled a big hole right through the stud/manifold flange, and used a
nut and bolt to replace the stud.  Not the most elegant solution, but the only
one I could come up with.  Shortly thereafter we reattached the heat shield,
downpipe, and subframe, and put the car back on all four wheels.  Started
her up and drove around the apartment parking lot in a victory lap.

I replaced the clutch because I thought the throwout bearing was dying.
*Something* was making noise in the tranny during shifts, and my father
agreed with me (after a test-drive) that it sounded like the throwout
bearing needed replacement (the clutch had over 140K on it).  Additionally,
the transmission has been difficult to shift over the last few months,
after I had problems with the clutch (replaced the clutch MC and SC, but
it did not seem to help).

Well, it appears that the clutch was not the problem.  The disc and
pressure plate looked to be in good shape, and probably had 50K miles
still left in them.  The old throwout bearing spun very easily and did
not appear to be noisy, although it looked kind of nasty.  At least I
don't need to worry about the clutch until I hit over 300K miles, now.

On an interesting note, the new clutch pressure plate requires VERY little
pressure to actuate.  I am not sure if it is because of a different design
with lesser spring pressure or because it is just _new_, but it feels
feather-light compared to the old one.

Gary Erickson had earlier asked for clutch replacement reports on '85 Coupes
from other listers, since his seemed to use an '84 clutch disc instead of
that specified for an '85 car.  As our cars have the same build date (11/84),
and mine is an earlier VIN #, we thought I might have a similar problem.
Well, I am happy to report that the clutch disc I ordered from GPR for a
1985 Coupe GT went right into my ABV 093 transmission without any problems.

Later,
Eric
'85 Coupe GT, got a new clutch, but still difficult to shift
---
Eric J. Fluhr                                Email:  ejfluhr@austin.ibm.com
630FP Logic/Circuit Design                   Phone:  (512) 838-7589
IBM Microelectronics Div.                    Austin, TX