Time for a new clutch. Anything I should do while the trans is out?

MadMikeyL

SCCoA Member
Well I was driving up to my uncle's house this morning in my 89 XR7 to do some work on his vette, and I go to pass someone and the tach shoots up about 500 rpms as soon as I get on the gas, then drops back down when I let off. I'll be pulling the trans out tomorrow to replace the clutch. Hopefully I can get the flywheel resurfaced same day and get it back together tomorrow night. While I have it apart anything you reccomend I should do? The car is completely stock right now with 160K miles. Anything I can do to get a little extra performance or reliability, or both?

Mike
 
Exhaust, exhaust, exhaust. Also, do the different trans and crossmember bushings. And, a short shifter may not be a bad idea.
 
Already have the short throw shifter. What can I do about the exhaust, short of getting a whole new system bent up which I don't want to spend the money on just yet. Good idea about the crossmember bushings, I will definitely replace those.

Mike
 
Replace the slave cylinder while you're in there. What clutch are you going with? If you machine the flywheel be sure to shim either the slave cylinder or the flywheel the same amount to ensure proper clutch geometry.
 
DEFINATELY change the gear oil in there with some Royal Purple ATF. Dont forget to add the friction modifier for the synchros. I would also try and hook it up with an aluminum flywheel (I think NO164Ford has one for sale on the for sale thread RIGHT NOW with a clutch) to gain some rpm speed. You will thank yourself later for the gear lube swap.

Chris
 
Replace the slave cylinder while you're in there. What clutch are you going with? If you machine the flywheel be sure to shim either the slave cylinder or the flywheel the same amount to ensure proper clutch geometry.

I already plan to replace the slave. I'm just going with a stock clutch. Most of my money is going into the 393 for my 91 cougar, so this is pretty much just keeping the car on the road and doing some stuff while I'm in there. For shimming out the slave/flywheel, how important is that, and where do I get the shims?
 
DEFINATELY change the gear oil in there with some Royal Purple ATF. Dont forget to add the friction modifier for the synchros. I would also try and hook it up with an aluminum flywheel (I think NO164Ford has one for sale on the for sale thread RIGHT NOW with a clutch) to gain some rpm speed. You will thank yourself later for the gear lube swap.

Chris

Will do on the fluid. I was thinking about putting some GM syncromesh fluid in there. How does that stuff do in our trannies? No aluminum flywheel for now. I already bought the spec clutch from NO164, but that is for the 393 I'm building, so this car will have to do with a stock clutch for now. Once the 393 is up and running, I'll start rebuilding this car, but for now it basically just needs to get me around. And while I'm in there, if I can do some stuff to save me some time and effort later, I figure I might as well.
 
You should have changed it when you came down for the auto fair their was enough of us there to do it real quick like!!!!! I do not remember how your motor mounts were but while you got the stuff out you might want to change them. I changed one clutch and when I dropped the trans the whole engine kind of fell forward. What 1vicfan was saying to do is open up the manifolds were the exhaust meet them. The syncromesh does good as long as your syncros are not completly gone it is expensive. I hoped you enjoyed you visit down to NC. This might help with the exhaust http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86254&highlight=porting Good luck to you.
 
Try to locate the Valeo stock replacement as they were the OEM clutch boys and appear to also be the base materials Centerforce uses for their upgraded clutch.

Slave, Pilot bearing. I haven't seen anyone post on shims for the slave. Anyone have dimensions to measure? From what I understand you want to measure your stock flywheel. Then after the machining add what they took out into the slave as shims.
 
Ok, well I got the trans out and sure enough my motor mounts were both in multiple pieces, so I spent the better part of the day figuring out how the hell to get the driver's side motor mount out of there without pulling out more stuff than I needed to. That really made me miss my 5.0 cougar. I could do motor mounts on that thing in about 20 minutes for both sides as opposed to about 3 hours that I spent doing them for this car. I also got the flywheel resurfaced, replaced the pilot bearing, and replaced the rear main seal, so tomorrow after work I have to deal with the 4 broken studs in the exhaust manifolds, and put the trans back up in there and I should be driving it again tomorrow night, or wednesday night at the latest if the broken studs fight me every step of the way. As for the clutch, a few months back I bought another cougar that I parted out, and the guy had just replaced the clutch about 3K miles before it popped the head gaskets, so since that clutch is basically brand new, that is what's going in this car for now. Also the trans that was in there has no 3rd gear synchros and 2nd gear is going out, and when I drained the fluid a chunk of synchro came out on the drain plug, so I'm going to swap in the known good trans that was going to go behind the 393, and I'll send this one out to get rebuilt so that way I won't have to drop the trans out of this thing again.

Mike

PS. Danny, the reason I didn't touch the clutch at autofair was because it wasn't slipping then. It only started slipping yesterday, and not very much (only slipped when you got above 5psi or above 80mph), but I'd rather not risk it going out on me so I figured better just pull it out and get it over with.
 
I hate it for you Mike been there and done that twice. I remember telling you it I think your mounts were shot when looking how your engine moved when you stepped on the gas. I wish that I could help you because I told you that old country boy rebuilt my trans 5 years ago for $125 and had it done in a day and I have never had any problems with it. I use to live in NJ and I know how much $$ everyone up there charges to do stuff. I have done three sets of mounts and have expanded my ability to curse by great lengths :D . I would also sleeve the crank while your in there. I did not do it once and a brand new rear main leaked not bad but the ones I have sleeved never did leak. Let me know how it works out. Danny
 
I'll have to look into how much shipping would be, but if I sent this trans down to you with the money, would you be willing to take it to that guy to have him rebuild it for me? I'm sure it's going to cost me at least $500 to have it rebuilt up here, so it might be cheaper to do that.

Also what do you mean sleeve the crank? It's a little late since the new rear main is already in, but just for future reference, what do you mean?
 
The seal wears a "groove" in the crank. After so many years, even a new seal will not seal against the groove. You can slide a metal seal over the rear, and it will eliminate the groove AND seal against the new seal.

Chris
 
The seal wears a "groove" in the crank. After so many years, even a new seal will not seal against the groove. You can slide a metal seal over the rear, and it will eliminate the groove AND seal against the new seal.

Chris

Ok, makes sense. I think I'll be ok though cause the old seal wasn't leaking from the side that goes against the crank, it was leaking out around the outside where the seal presses into the block.
 
Car is back on the road finally. Exhaust question?

Ok, so I finally found the time to get everything back together on my car. I ported the manifolds on the car (just hogged out the collector area). I also had a full exhaust that I pulled off a 5.0 car that I bought and then resold (guy buying it wanted a quiet exhaust) laying around, so I figured rather than putting the stock exhaust back on I would bolt this up. I must say this sounded MUCH better on the V8. It's 2.25 downtubes, no cats, into a mid-mounted flowmaster dual 2.25 in, single 2.5 out, then out back and split to dual 2.25s again. It sounds good at idle, but above 3K rpms, it gets all rattley sounding and I don't like it. Anybody know what I can do to get rid of that sound? I would rather not drop the $600 it would cost me to get a full exhaust done right now, but if there's something small I can do to make it better, I'll do it. Would putting cats on it help the sound much? I have a set of high flow cats for the car, but I don't want to have them welded into this setup if it isn't going to change anything. Maybe replace the flowmaster with something else? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike
 
Well it's a muffler, but its mid-mounted where the resonator would be. Problem with putting mufflers where they normally would go is the tips exit the back of the car closer to the center, so there wouldn't be space for a normal muffler. I like the way it looks exiting there, so if I can get this thing sounding decent without putting mufflers at back I would prefer that. Maybe a different muffler in place of the one on there now? Any reccomendations?

Mike
 
I have some straighter mufflers on mine, not much bigger than the pipe itself. They don't work as well as a full size muffler, but it's definately better than nothing!


Will snap some pics tonight when I'm around the car again.
 
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