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Clutch Installation
First off, if you've never done it before, give yourself a FULL WEEKEND. We're talking starting bright and early Saturday. This is a BIG JOB - the more you do it, the faster it goes, but your first time will be a bear. I assume you have a good assortment of tools, lifting devices, jackstands, etc. You'll need 'em. First off, get the front of the car in the air. I prefer using ramps - they're VERY sturdy. You can use jackstands, but ramps are far superior, IMHO. OK, time to take stuff off. Remove the shift lever - the trim boot pops off, unscrew the shift knob. If you dig down in the rubber boots, you should be able to find the innermost rubber boot that has 3 10mm bolts. Remove the 3 bolts and you can pop the shift lever out with the boots still on it. Pop the hood. Disconnect the negative battery terminal. Remove the clutch slave cylinder - it's on top of the transmission, and goes on with 2 12mm bolts. Remove the bolts and pull the slave cylinder up out of the way. Be careful with the rubber hose going to it - don't overtwist or kink the hose. There's a ground you need to unclip while you're up there too - a black wire that bolts onto the tranny and has a white clip that attaches to the firewall. OK, under the car time. Remove the WHOLE exhaust - this will burn up about 2 hours. Get a can of PB Blaster (penetrating/rust busting oil - the BEST) and squirt down all the bolts. Like I said, this will take some time - you need to remove the cats (if you have 'em) and the Y-pipe. You might be able to leave the mufflers there. With the exhaust off, next step is the heat shields. They're held on with a bunch of 10mm bolts, and it runs along the bottom of the body, just under the tranny/driveshaft. Time to drain the tranny. Get a pan to drain the tranny into and remove the drain plug. If your car is NA, there's one big drain plug - it's 15/16" (I think the metric size is like 23mm, but I don't have that size - the standard fits fine). The turbo has another drain plug - on the side, and it's square. The gear oil will smell WAY nasty. Make sure to catch it all in the drain pan - it sucks laying in a puddle of gear oil! Next is the driveshaft. Get some paint or something (I use white out) and mark the driveshaft flange to differential flange. This is to make sure you put it back on the way it came off - it's balanced that way. There are 4 12mm bolts/nuts holding it on - get a socket on one side and a wrench on the other. You'll need to rotate the flange to get to all 4 of 'em - block one rear wheel with some wood, drop the emergency brake, jack up the side of the car that isn't blocked (just enough to get the wheel off the ground) and rotate the wheel. This will rotate the differential. Turn it so you can get to the next one, then bring the jack down so the tire is on the ground. Do the next one, repeat, etc. When you get all 4, the driveshaft just pulls out of the tranny - have a drain pan underneath, a little gear oil will come out. Now, unplug the wires going to the tranny - don't worry, they only go back together one way. Unscrew the speedometer cable and put it out of the way. OK, now things will start getting interesting. Remove the starter - 2 electrical connections, one bolt, and a bolt and a nut. Remove the transmission to engine bolts - they're all 14mm, and you'll need a LONG extension and a universal to get some of them. Note that one of the bolts up high on the driver's side has a large wire connected to it - this is the main ground for the battery. Don't forget to hook it back up later :). Make sure you get ALL the bolts - feel all the way around the tranny bellhousing. Now, get at LEAST one friend to help. Put a floorjack and some wood under the tranny. Undo the 4 bolts on the transmission mount. Pull the transmission back from the engine - you'll have to jerk and wiggle on it some. Keep coming back and down with the transmission - you'll eventually get it free. Be careful - that sucker is HEAVY, and it will pinch your finger, fall on your shoulder, or worse! Just keep your eye on what you're doing. Success! You've got the tranny out. You're halfway through now. Remove the throwout bearing on the tranny. Just pull the fork forward and it will slide off. Take the fork out as well - it just clips onto its pivot point, pop it off. You may want to take this opportunity to clean the transmission thoroughly - Super Clean and water does the trick. If you have an NA tranny, check the front cover of the tranny. This is the part the throwout bearing slides on - it's held in with numerous 12mm bolts. If ANY of the bolts are loose, remove all the bolts and the front cover. Clean all of the gasket surface on both sides, put a thin coat of RTV on the gasket surface, re-install, and put in all the bolts with Loctite. I have seen MANY NA trannys that had most of these bolts FINGER-LOOSE! The bolts vibrate loose, the gasket fails, the tranny leaks and runs dry, and bye-bye tranny. I've seen at least 3 trannys here in Pensacola that went out like this! The Turbo trannys don't have this problem. OK, let's pull off the pressure plate and clutch. There's a number of 14mm bolts that hold the pressure plate onto the flywheel - remove 'em. If you stick a screwdriver in the pressure plate just right, you can keep it from turning while you break loose the bolts. Remove it and the clutch. Compare the thickness of the clutch disc to your new one - big difference, eh? :) Now, pilot bearing time. First off, inspect it. Most times they're in good shape - all the needles on the bearing should be there, the oil seal should be in good shape. If you put your finger in the pilot bearing, it should turn smoothly. If the needle bearings are damaged or worn, replace it. You'll need a pilot bearing puller to do the job right. Mazda has the best tool, but in lieu of that, Pep Boys will rent you one that works just as well. BTW, Rotary Performance will loan you a Mazda tool if you buy a clutch from them - a very good idea. With the pilot bearing tool, insert the attachment, tighten the bolt to expand the tool, hook up the slide hammer, and whack the slide hammer back. You have to give the slide hammer some REAL power. Usually, 3-5 good whacks and it's out of there. Clean the flywheel with some brake cleaner (in a spray can at the parts store) - just keep hosing it down until it's nice and clean. Make sure to clean out the pilot bearing area too. Now, time to inspect the flywheel. If there is any *gouging* (ruts that your fingernail catches on) the flywheel needs to be resurfaced. Pain in the butt time - I won't go into that. If it's just discolored, you're in good shape. Get some 600 grit sandpaper and go over the friction surface numerous times. This will remove most of the discoloring - there will still be some there, no big deal. You're mainly looking to clean up the surface some. Now, apply some grease (I usually use high-temp wheel bearing grease) into the shaft for the pilot bearing. Find a socket that's the same size as the pilot bearing - use it and a hammer to drive the bearing in. This will take time and patience. Once it's flush in there, get a SLIGHTLY smaller socket and countersink the bearing - about 1/8" in there. Next, put in the oil seal - drive it in with the same method. It needs to be flush in the opening there. Put a liberal amount of grease in there, stick your finger in there, and work it into the needle bearings. Take the clutch alignment tool - you should be able to push it in there smoothly, and it will pull out with a "pop" This is a good seal. If you are re-using the pilot bearing, lube as mentioned above. On the tranny, lube the pivot point for the throwout bearing's fork. Lube the two fingers on the fork, and lube the area on the input shaft that the throwout bearing slides back and forth on. Install the fork and bearing - make sure it slides back and forth nice and smoothly and doesn't hang up at all. Put a little lube on the very end of the input shaft (the part that goes into the pilot bearing). Time to install the new clutch. Make sure the friction surface on the pressure plate is nice and clean - squirt some brake cleaner on a rag and give it a once-over. Go clean your hands - you do NOT want to get any grease on the clutch, pressure plate, or flywheel!!! Put the clutch alignment tool through the clutch and stick the head of it in the pilot bearing. Put the pressure plate on over it, and finger-tighten all the bolts. Now, grab the alignment tool, rotate it around, and find the "center point" You want to make sure the clutch is centered in there. Apply Loctite to all the bolts and torque in there - the spec is only 25 ft-lbs or so - get it good and tight by hand and you're in shape. Once it's on, make sure you can remove and reinstall the alignment tool smoothly - it should slip in nice and easy. This means the disc is aligned properly. Here comes the fun part - putting the tranny in. Take a break first - this is HEAVY work, and something will probably not line up/go wrong/etc. when you're doing it, all while you've got 100 pounds of tranny over your head! Call ALL your friends over to help. My technique is one person standing in front of the car, one inside, three below (five people). Have the guy standing in front grab the motor and push the TOP of the motor towards the BACK of the car. The engine leans forward a little with the tranny out - this compensates. Give the guy in the car a rope tied to a bar of some kind. You can hang this through the shift lever hole and loop it around the back of the tranny. Have another guy under the engine, and a guy on each side of the tranny. Lift up the tranny and install it - like I said, it will be a bitch. You'll have to wiggle it a lot and shout some swear words. You might have to set it down and try again. I've seen some trannys go in in about 1 minute, others took an hour and a half. Anyhow, once you get it in there, put the tranny mount bolts in. Once you have them threaded in there, that will hold it - everyone can relax. Tighen all the engine to tranny bolts in there, then tighen the tranny bolts. It's all downhill from here - start putting stuff back on. One of the last steps is filling the tranny - use a gear oil pump to pump it into the fill hole. The NA tranny has one fill hole, the turbo has 2. Fill 'em until fluid starts coming back out the hole - it holds 3 quarts. I recommend Redline for the tranny - if you don't have any (it's usually not available locally, unless you have a well-stocked speed shop) AutoZone sells Mobil 1 synthetic tranny oil. Try and find 75w90, and try and get synthetic. Make sure you get the main battery ground and the small ground that clips onto the firewall back on. Also, when installing the clutch slave cylinder, the bolts go in at a strange angle - get them started by hand first, then tighten with a socket wrench. Double-check everything, then start her up and back it down off the ramps. Remember, when you drive it for the first time, you won't be used to the clutch at ALL - take your time and be gentle. It will probably engage at a different point and grab a LOT harder. Just take your time. Congratulations! You're done! You will be VERY dirty and VERY tired when you're done. I've done about 10 clutch jobs now (both 2nd and 3rd gens) and I've gotten my time down to 5-6 hours. It's backbreaking work, but very satisfying when you're done.