h22a2JZGTE

I am going to write and post pictures with the acceptation that you have at least a little know-how so I can write this with a little bit more ease.

Bear with me here as I am 17yrs old and I do know what I’m doing so don’t be afraid to do this project as its not hard, there is just a bit of steps to remember so you don’t cause problems along the way…lets get to it!!

Alright, so when I start my process I start by getting everything I need which is-
- 2qts. Of 10w-40 full synthetic oil for the tranny (OE MTF recommended)
- 50/50 mixed radiator fluid
- brake fluid for the clutch
- New clutch (stage #3 XTD)
- Machined flywheel (New Findanza 10.5lb lightweight flywheel)
- New Throw-out bearing
- New slave cylinder
- New Axle nuts
- Blue Loctite 242
- Red Loctite for small bolts
- oil filter(optional/honda oem filter recommended)

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338298275

Next after I have everything I set the car on axle stands (SAFTEY FIRST YO!) then I remove the wheels, and the axle nuts (36mm) and set them all aside, next is to drain the required fluids. Unscrew the valve/fitting on the bottom of the radiator and take the radiator cap off and let it drain-out for awhile, and while you let gravity do that, you can get started on draining the trans. Take your 3/8in ratchet and undo the drain bolt on the tranny, its not on the syncro stacks, its on the diff/output shaft housing, and let that drain as well, and when your done put the bolt back in the trans and screw the radiator shut so later you don’t attempt to fill and spill it everywhere like a noob -_-

I like to start on top and work my way down the engine bay. (Note: when I take something out, I put it in the trunk with the bolts it had so I don’t loose track of everything once it’s apart)

- Battery assembly: 10mm bolts on the terminals and on the tie down bracket, once all loosened, lift the battery out and remove the tie down and black plastic tray with it.

- Battery tray: this holds the wires and the over flow. unscrew the overflows cap and take the overflow out, then take your 12mm ratchet and take out the 4 tray bolts, and one 10mm holding the wires

- Intake assembly: I have an after market one so I have fewer things to do so I cant really explain this step, just unbolt and remove

- battery cables and starter motor wires: Start with the 14mm nut that connects to the starter motor, then undo the 14mm bolts holding the grounding bracket to the trans and lastly remove the 10mm chassis ground bolt and lay the wires across the fuse boxes and behind the hood to keep them out of the way

- Starter motor: Take your 14mm socket and undo the top bell housing bolt, then do the 17mm bottom, this one can be a bitch to get so be patient, then undo the last wire that slips onto the starter terminal then pop it out and look inside and say hi to your old clutch

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338298592

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338298592

- Safety precautions for extras: To keep things from getting in the way, I remove the thermostat radiator hose because I don’t wish to ruin other things when it comes time to remove the tranny. I also like to remove the distributor cap/wires and the rotor but NOT the distributor itself because there is a little O-ring oil seal that could possibly leak if taken off, then I also unplug the wiring harness that goes across the top of the trans that connects the reverse gear lights, coolant gauge sensor distributor plug ect. (DON’T FORGET TO UNPLUG THE SPEED SENSOR on the back part of the bell housing) And you can remove the cruise control cable just to be more safe instead of sorry later on (I deleted my cruise control so no worries)

- Removing the clutch hard line and the rubber clutch line: get your 10mm line wrench out and undo the gear-shift side fitting and the slave cylinder side fitting (I had to use liquid wrench to break the rust build up so I recommend you do too if yours looks rusty so you don’t strip!!) then you can undo your 10mm line bracket holder and take it out. After the hard line is off, take your 14mm socket and undo the rubber clutch line hose going to the hydraulic fork shifter assembly, just take it off and tuck it behind some wires out of the way

- Slave cylinder removal: There is 2 14mm bolts, pretty simple to get these out

- Shift cable assembly: there is two cables attached to the gear shift forks by cotter pins, remove the cotter pins and get yourself some new ones of the same sizes, and then slide off the cables. Next there is 3 10mm bolts holding the cable bracket assembly to the bell housing, use a long extension and remove them and set them aside off the trans

- Passenger side tie bar removal: there is a tie bar running from under the strut fork to the front lower bumper support and it gets in the way when it comes time to remover the trans. First you’re going to have to remove a couple plastic screws or 10mm bolts that hold the engine splash shield to gain access to the 17mm nut that holds it to the bumper support. I used a 17mm 3in deep socket and an air gun on a high torque setting because it was rusted. Once the nut is off, there is 2 17mm bolts holding it to the lower control arm, I used a high torque swivel joint on my air gun with the 17mm standard socket. There is a bunch of metal spacers and rubber bushings and what not in the front where the nut came off, ill show you what order they go back on to help you out

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338298756

- Removing the axles: start by taking out the cotter pins on the steering rack tie rods and the lower ball joints, then take your 17mm socket and undo the castle nuts on the steering tie rods and then take your (my lower ball joints were replaced once upon a time and the castle nuts were 11/16) and undo the lower castle nuts and either get your ball joint separator or your pry fork and get ready, ITS HAMMER TIME! And break them all loose, once they’re broke free, lift the knuckle assembly and use your thumbs and push the axle out of the hub and swivel the knuckle so its out of the way and use a large screw driver or small crow bar and pry the axles out of the trans and the other out of the intermediate shaft. Then grab your 14mm socket and maybe an extension and crawl under the car and take out the 3 14mm bolts holding the intermediate shaft to the back of the block. Once you got them all out, grab your small crow bar or screw driver and pry the shaft out of the case and now the axles are out!

- Removing the bottom bell housing cover: on the bottom of the trans there is a small black cover that is held on by 3 10mm bolts, take them out and remove the cover and say hello to your old flywheel

- Removing the bottom engine block-to-trans bell housing bolts: now you can use an air ratchet, or a lower torque rated air gun (its aluminum that the bolts are threaded into, last thing you want is to completely tear them out)or a nice 1/2 in extended ratchet, I used a low torque air gun with a 17mm socket and a 6in extension for 3 of the bolts. Crawl back under the car, and you will look around and see 5 of the 6, the 6th is hiding behind a little ledge of the block, and there is one bolt you DO NOT need to take out and that one is the very top bolt that connect to the block and just the rear mount, you can leave this one in because its not needed to come out and its also a huge pain in the *** to get out(i removed my oil filter and the black intake manifold to block brace to gain better access to the bolts). Remove the 5 bolts, two should be about 4in long, one goes thru the block near the bottom and the other behind the blocks ledge, then two 3.5in long ones which are the rear mount bolts and then one 2in bolt which is the very bottom mount bolt. You’re done with everything under the car, you’re almost done!

-17mm deep socket w/swivel on the hidden bolt
https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299213

-oil filter and braket removed to show better space and access to bolts
https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299213

-bolt size reference picture incase people have trounles reading
https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299213

- Removing the top engine block-to-trans bell housing bolts: there are 3 17mm bolts holding the top part of the bell housing to the engine. Take your method of choice you used under the car for the bottom bolts and use it on these, they are all the same length on top and one has the clutch line mounting bracket on it, make sure not to loose it or ruin the bracket when reinstalling it!!

- Removing the Trans chassis mount: before I tell you to remove it, get your jack and find a small 2x4 to place on the jacks lift point to make sure it doesn’t drop your tranny on the floor. Jack it up until it’s almost touching the Trans so you can adjust it once you start pulling it off. Now there is 3 17mm bolts holding the mount to the Trans, remove them and then jack your jack (sounds weird but bear with me) until your 2x4 is on the bottom of the Trans. Then take your 17mm socket and method of choice and remove the long bolt holding the mount to the chassis and then wiggle and remove the mount so its out of the way

- Removing the Trans from the engine: before you start man humping and wiggling the hell out of the Trans, double check and make sure everything is out of the way and then grab a friend (in my case I had my girlfriend help me) to come assist you and operate the jack while you pull the Trans out, this step can take a bit so be patient, and whatever you do, DO NOT get smart and start grabbing screw drivers and small pry bars to pry the trans away from the block, you could ruin your bell housing and make more problems then there already might be, be patient

- Party time: once the Trans is off of the clutch and away from the engine, lower your jack a little and give yourself some room to work with so you don’t have to bang your new clutch around to get it on. Now go take a break, grab a beer and relax for a bit (now I’m 17 so I skipped this step ha-ha)

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299484

- Pressure plate removal: there should be 6 little 10mm 12 point bolts holding the pressure plate onto the flywheel, so your going to need a 12 point 10mm socket with some thing compact that can catch the teeth of the flywheel and keep it from turning on you (again don’t use an air gun on these, unless you like driving to the stealership and getting your money taken away) take them off and set them aside. Now you might need to use a small flat head screw driver pry the pressure plate away from the flywheel, do so as needed and remove the pressure plate and clutch disc and throw them away

- Removing the flywheel: your going to need a 12 point 17mm socket to remove these along with a long breaker bar of some sort because these are torqued very high (Honda calls for 75.9 ft-lbs) and they are also very fine thread so be careful with these, they aren’t cheap!! Remove all 8 and carefully remove the flywheel, its quite heavy, the stock flywheels can range anywhere from 20.2lbs to 23lbs and if your reusing your stock one, I highly recommend you get it machined even if it looks like it has no hot spots or burns, no acceptions here, just do it right and do it once

- Reinstallation preparations: before you get all happy and start bolting stuff back on, check your rear main seal first, it should appear dry and not have any leakage, if it does then your going to have to replace that, but I don’t need it replaced so I am just going to stick with the clutch job. Next take some scotch-brite and clean the mating surface of the crankshaft where the flywheel sits. Now find a clean rag and use some paint thinner (doesn’t leave the little fuzzies on things) and clean the threads of the flywheel bolts and the pressure plate bolts and get them all nice and clean and ready for some Loctite!

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299676

- Installing your flywheel: I’m installing a findanza 10.5lb aluminum flywheel because I like thinking it could make a performance different, line your flywheel with the crankshaft dowel pin and get it sitting on the crank and have your helper put a SMALL amount of blue 242 Loctite on a flywheel bolt and thread it in and repeat for all the other 7 bolts ( avoid putting too much Loctite on your bolt, if too much applied, the Loctite will do the opposite of keeping the threads seated) now grab your torque wrench and your 12 point 17mm socket and torque your flywheel bolts down to the recommended specification of 75.9ft-lbs (I do this in a crisscross pattern first at 45ft-lbs and then 75.9ft-lbs to make sure they are for sure seated first before I tighten them)

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299745

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299745

- Installing your clutch disc and pressure plate: before you put your clutch disc and pressure plate on, use a rag and wipe down the flywheel to make sure you didn’t get any grease on the flywheel. Now grab the alignment tool your kit came with and install the disc and center it, then install the pressure plate over it and line it up with the correct dowel pins in the flywheel (my pressure plate could only be installed one way so it took a bit to get the pins right). Now grab your Loctite for small bolts (its purple not blue) and install the 6 pressure plate bolts, then grab your torque wrench and your 12point 10mm socket and torque them down to the recommended specification of 28ft-lbs and again do it in a crisscross pattern to seat them good first, MAKE SURE THE CLUTCH DISC IS CENTERED WHILE DOING THIS!!

- Preparing your Trans for installation: you can take some degreaser (AFAccord has found some good stuff!) and clean out the inner bell housing but I’m going to skip this step. Take out your old throw out bearing and slide your new one and grease the ends of the clutch fork where the bearing sits and make sure it’s seated and make sure you make sure the ball pivot point for the fork is greased up too. Now take some scotch-brite and clean off the corrosion on the Trans and block dowel pins so it slides on easier.

-girlfriend cleaning the tranny
https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299887

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1338299949

- Reinstalling the Trans onto the engine: jack the trans back up and get some gloves on and start picking up the Trans and wiggling it to get the splines lined up with the clutch disc and once its on the clutch splines slide the dowel pins and get it sealed and get one of the bolts lined up and started so it holds the trans to the engine. Now go underneath and reinstall the back Trans bolts and if you’d like to, they’re torqued to 47ft-lbs (all-data specification). Then reinstall the trans to chassis mount start by threading in the main chassis bolt first, the use your air gun or ratchet of choice and tighten the 3 17mm bolts down tight, then tighten the chassis mount bolt and then you can get rid of your jack as the trans is mounted back to the engine now.

- Reassembly: reassembly is a reversal of order, nothing too hard, just some small steps to keep in mind like; when installing a new (or your old) slave cylinder, use some grease on the ball point that sits in the end of the clutch fork so you don’t get a squeaky clutch noise when you use your clutch; before installing your slave cylinder, thread the clutch hard line FIRST on both the slave and the hydraulic shifter fork assembly to prevent cross-threading, then you can safely bolt the slave cylinder on; when everything is back together and its time to bleed the clutch lines, get your helper to push the pedal while you use your 10mm line wrench and open the slave cylinders bleed nipple, have it open when you tell your helper to push the pedal down, and then close it and tell them to pull the pedal back up, make sure you add brake fluid to the clutch reservoir every 7 or-so cycles to prevent sucking air in, keep bleeding the clutch system until you haven’t seen or heard any air bubbles in the fluid coming out of the nipple, then have your buddy push the pedal down with the nipple open, and then close the nipple tight and top off the reservoir and screw the cap on and have them bring the pedal up, and tada! You did it!

- I take it you know how to fill your Trans up and your radiator, so I’m going to skip those steps, but do post questions if you have them!

- Torque specs: axle nuts/ 181ft-lbs; transmission bell housing-to-engine block bolts/ 47ft-lbs; flywheel to crankshaft bolts/ 75.9ft-lbs; pressure plate to flywheel bolts/ 28ft-lbs

- Est. work time start to finish: 7hrs/25mins with moderate experience (17yrs old)

- Please ask any questions you may have about doing this job and/or related problem you have ran into doing this job

Hope this helps, Sam (h22a2JZGTE)

h22a2JZGTE

incase if my pictures dont show up on the hyperlinks in the post

h22a2JZGTE

the last of the pics lol

djkurious

Nice DIY and I vote for a sticky and pics to be placed in order.

Good Job Well Done!

Also, what about changing the rear main seal while you are in there?

Is that a FRAM filter?

h22a2JZGTE

sorry my computer sucks, windows 7 makes it hard to upload alot at once on HT haha

and i alread had it done at 192k and i did this at 220k just now and it was fine, ill do a rear mai seal change next time i have one of the accords torn down this far

and yes its a FRAM filter, dont judge haha i know they suck but it was memorial day and had no other place but walmart open so i had to get a FRAM, sadly

djkurious

Good deal man overall! Luckily, my local walmart sells Purolator filters now!

wgbm92

X2! STICKY THIS! I actually read the entire write-up even though I am not planning on doing it yet. I am nineteen, and although I do not have much experience on cars, I think I am capable of doing this job with my friend! I will definitely refer to this when I have to change mine!


By the way, I am going to assume that these procedures apply to any F-series engine?

h22a2JZGTE

Damn wish my small *** walmart had the purolators haha

Great to hear! Like I said, this isn't that all too hard of a job, it just requiers bassic knowlage and organization so you don't forget any small things, good to hear your going to use this a reference

,sam

Arthas

Please replace 10w30 oil for the transmission with OE MTF from Honda. MTF has additives for the transmission that 10w30 doesnt have, and if its good enough for race cars, its good enough for other cars.
Also, its only $10 a quart at the dealer.

Last but not least add the step for doing the rear main seal. Not doing the rear main when doing a clutch is a huge mistake, if it leaks you have to drop the tranny again. Other than that this is a great thread with great pictures and very informative. If my clutch starts giving out this is the first place im looking!

h22a2JZGTE

ill add the OE MTF as a recommended oil for the trans in the thread

the only reason i didnt do a write up on the rear main seal was because i did it 25k miles ago and it was bone dry and needed a car to get to school so i skipped it this time around, but can write it up seperatly from this if people seem to want me too

,sam

djkurious

Yea Honda MTF should be used. My cousin has a 92 Accord manual has the 10w-30 oil for tranny fluid. I guess this was before Honda made their own.

h22a2JZGTE

^ yea i know, but im a high school student with limited money, and if the nearst honda dealership wasnt over 75miles away i would have bought the OE MTF and a honda oil filter gotta love those blue filters haha...but yes, if anyone does do this, please dont use FRAM and 10w-40, i only used these things to get my car on the road again asap

,sam

djkurious

Find out who makes Honda oil filters. You will be surprised!

TouringAccord

no sticky but I have added it to the FAQ

cam_2

This is a really good post and I may try this myself. A few comments:
- all the hyperlinks are broken - I sent the admin an e-mail.
- I counted 13 links but only 12 pictures- is one missing? Also, the last five pictures are small.
- a PDF version.
- a tool list
- For the jack, did you use a trolley jack or a transmission jack?
- I didn't see an FAQ for replacing the main oil seal. Haven't searched the forums yet but sure it's there. A link from this post would be handy.

NZXTInerTia

The OP of this thread has been inactive for quite some time now, hence the last posting being in mid 2012.

1. General tools, screw drivers, sockets, wrenches, pliers, hammers.
2. You can use both, I used a trolley jack but if you feel like using an dedicated transmission jack that's perfectly acceptable. I didn't feel it be necessary because the manual is honestly not heavy enough.
3. https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/need-replace-leaking-transmission-oil-seal-driver-side-axle-2782768/

cam_2

Thank you. I'll probably replace the flywheel at the same time. It's a timing thing - I don't think that a machine shop will be open on the weekend when I do this. My garage mentioned that it would cost $40 if needed and they are $44-70 at Rock Auto.

NZXTInerTia

Your flywheel shouldn't be warped. The cast iron ones are pretty dang durable, just use a metal rule or high end level to check for major warping.

cam_2

Hmmm, you could be right. It has 250,000km/156,000mi and it's the original clutch, so odds are good.

James Long

life saver! thank you so much! for anyone looking for the bolt that they couldn't find it's the one behind the engine bracket next to the oil filter.

ejhondalex

So, I see this thread hasn't been active for a while. Pardon my semi-necro.

I'm not a car guru, but there seems to be evidence that my clutch is failing/needs to be replaced, and I'm considering doing it myself despite the most intense thing I've ever done is replace a front wheel bearing :fingerscrossed:

My question is simple, I have a 6th gen (2000) accord rather than a 5th, is this whole process going to be relatively identical, or should I take the time to locate an alternate guide of some kind (of which I doubt there's one as detailed).

wid2001

I am currently doing this on mine. I would be lost without this write up. Thanks for your work.