I have a 94 vtec prelude and I am not a mechanic, I have the repair manual on howto install a new clutch, but I am intimidated, can someone tell me the level of difficulty for a normal non-mechanic person to install a new clutch? Or do you recoomend getting a professional to do it?

 

Ha. Its a bitch. Its not hard, it just takes a lot of patience. A LOT!!! As mgags7 - he warned me before I did mine. Its a bitch. You need a lot of extensions and you need a 10 or 11 mm 12 pt socket because of the pressure plate bolts. It took me some hours to find a 12pt socket.........ha......as long as you're mechanically inclined, you should be fine. Take your time, and make sure you do it right. Don't pull on the cv boots, - they rip pretty easily. I just took mine off, and re greased them. Good luck. And you'll definately learn a lot from this.

Take your TIME!!! Don't rush at all. Make sure you have the vehicle speed sensor in their correct, oh, and don't drop a bolt into the bell housing - you'll have to take it back out.

If you're not sure about doing the replacement, have someone else do it. But it'll save you a few hundred. Read the manual - find all the bolts before hand. You should be fine. ........if you have an Autozone close by, see if you can borrow a few extensions........you'll need them.

 

Like how many hours did it take you? I installed some new shocks and springs on my car and that was a bitch. Will this clutch be multiple times as hard?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tonysaur &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Like how many hours did it take you? I installed some new shocks and springs on my car and that was a bitch. Will this clutch be multiple times as hard?</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol, if you think suspension work is a bitch, good luck with tranny/clutch work. took me about 4-5 hours. I'd have to say it's 10x more difficult. not to make it sound intimidating but I'm finishing up putting on my 4th tranny(stupid syncros) in the past 3-4 years in my 4th gen prelude and it's a freakin bitch everytime. just remember that there's 2 bolts on the back of the block that's holding the tranny on. there's also I believe 3-4 more bolts on the rear bracket. when re-installing the tranny, make sure your wiring harness doesn't get caught in between the bell housing and the engine. that's what happened to me. sucked cause the connector broke off and I had to take off the tranny again to get the connector out. anyways, I'd have to suggest taking it to a professional if you're not too sure. like KingPin said, it's a learning experience...EVERYTIME...lol.

 

Should I get a new flywheel too with my stage 1 clutch? Would I have to take more things apart for a new flywheel?

 

Its not hard, its just time consuming...I did my clutch by myself, I wouldn't do it again unless I had someone help me, cause the only PITA was having to put the tranny back on. If there are 2 people, it would be easy, but when its just you and a floor jack, its sucks

 

if ur doing a clutch, u might as well do a flywheel too. It all depends on what you want out of the car.
I did the clutch and flywheel this summer, the motor revs up and down quicker, but the car is easier to stall now. so there are pluses and minuses to it.

 

How hard is it to do when the engine and tranny are out of the car?

 

Way easier. Just get a friend to help you line it up and stab that biatch. Thats what i did. No way was i gona put my jdm h22 and trans in and then find out the clutch needs to be replaced.

 

Like allready said, but i will echo his post. If you think suspension is hard DON'T do the tranny. It is not easy to work on the Ludes tranny. I have had mine out 2x and it is a B!TCH. I need to take it out this winter and i\'m NOT looking forward to it.

GO to http://www.ntpog.org Mybe you can find someone there that can help you out?


Good luck.

 

i just finished my install on my 5th gen and yes it is a pain ...after you tear down the ENTIRE passenger side suspension be careful with the cv axle not to pull the bearings out of the hub or you'll have to rebuild it (pia)been there done that.. it's alot easier if you remove the entire axle so when you put it back together you have a better range of motion to insert the axle in the tranny an helps to keep from destroying the tranny seal..i labeled all nuts an bolts with a sharpy a section at a time and put them in a zip lock bag.. plan to have a buddy there to lift the tranny back on the car.. when i mounted the tranny there was an inch gap witch you just need to slowly crank down the bolts an pull it together...bleeding the clutch is made easy by attaching a vacum line to the bleeder insert other end in a bottle of fluid witch keeps air from getting sucked back in to the system... plan plan plan do alot of searches..and come with swivels and a breaker bar and a large *** socket for the axle nut ... lots of luck ..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RC’s ride &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i just finished my install on my 5th gen and yes it is a pain ...after you tear down the ENTIRE passenger side suspension be careful with the cv axle not to pull the bearings out of the hub or you'll have to rebuild it (pia)been there done that.. it's alot easier if you remove the entire axle so when you put it back together you have a better range of motion to insert the axle in the tranny an helps to keep from destroying the tranny seal..i labeled all nuts an bolts with a sharpy a section at a time and put them in a zip lock bag.. plan to have a buddy there to lift the tranny back on the car.. when i mounted the tranny there was an inch gap witch you just need to slowly crank down the bolts an pull it together...bleeding the clutch is made easy by attaching a vacum line to the bleeder insert other end in a bottle of fluid witch keeps air from getting sucked back in to the system... plan plan plan do alot of searches..and come with swivels and a breaker bar and a large *** socket for the axle nut ... lots of luck ..</TD></TR></TABLE>

You know, you don't have to disconnect the axle from the hub to get it out of the
transmission. Just disconnect the LCA from the subframe, undo the 2 strut fork
bolts from the LCA and the 2 radius rod bolts from the LCA and you can
push out on the suspension enough to get the axles out of
the transmission. Suspension work's pretty easy

 

To answer your question - it took 3 days.

 

I recently did mine and it took me around 10 hours to do. 8 of that getting it back together. If you don't have the splines lined back up, you get the tranny back together with the exception of about 1". Talk about shitty. I did it by myself as I did my swap mostly by myself. Next time I have to change a clutch in a car, I will pay someone $300 to do it. It was fun for the experience, but never again.

 

goddamn, i just did my clutch in my 95 lude, it took me and my friend 4 hours to do the whole thing, including resurfacing the flywheel. It's not hard at all as long as you know anything about mechanics. But i must agree, if you think suspension work is hard, STAY AWAY FROM TRANNY AND CLUTCH WORK!