Clutch Replacement

what is involved in replacing the clutch... My 1996 240sx 5 speed needs a new one and 500 dollars in labor isnt something i really want to pay... What kind of time and equipment am i looking at to get a nice sport clutch in my car on my own... is it to much of a job to tackle?

it's not too hard Im sure if you searched you'd find several posts on this topic

yeah, i'm gonna put a new clutch in sometime too but i don't think i could do it myself, unless there's somebody who has step by step instructions, which i don;t feel like looking for cause i don't care so much right now..

Pretty easy. If I had to do it again, I would probably pull the engine though. Having an engine hoist is a plus. A basic set of metric sockets, a few extensions, a universal joint(big plus), ratchet, and about five hours. If you are pretty expirienced with turning a wrench, you could get it done in about three hours. You'll need a floor jack and some jackstands as well.

You kind of lost me when you said a "nice sport clutch"....

Pretty easy. If I had to do it again, I would probably pull the engine though. Having an engine hoist is a plus. A basic set of metric sockets, a few extensions, a universal joint(big plus), ratchet, and about five hours. If you are pretty expirienced with turning a wrench, you could get it done in about three hours. You'll need a floor jack and some jackstands as well.

sounds not too bad at all.. now to find a clutch.. anybody know of a nice sport clutch? logik you may be able to help me here! :grinno:
but seriously, for the guys who have already done it, what assembly did you choose? my car is a daily driver btw so any suggestions would be appreciated.. i've never even thought about looking for a clutch and to tell you the truth i don't know where to start.. are there reputable companies that sell clutches for s13s? or are clutches generic?

http://www.store.yahoo.com/phase2motorsports/ check this out there are some nice clutches on here.. I'd get the RPS max street.. unless you're all stock then RPS street sport or ACT Strip street.

ACT Heavy duty pressure plate and organic disk. I love it. Holds up to what I'm putting down now. I even raced it before the 300 mile limit(sorry, its too tempting) and no chatter what-so-ever. Just a little more pedal resistance than the stock but you'll like it. I would definately recommend removing the dampener box as well. Much better clutch feel and IMO easier to drive. You get more of an area of clutch engagement. ACT is kinda pricey though. Worth it if you ask me. SFI approved!!!:thumbsup:

EDIT: Pretty much any performance shop is going to sell clutches. There's a list of online stores in the FAQ. Many of them will sell a bunch of clutches. I bought mine at www.nipponpower.com

so you think the organic disk will do?
or...
http://www.nipponpower.com/drivetrain/clutch/spec_nissan.html
Stage 1 - Clutch Kit w/ Organic Street Disc 267 lb-ft SN541 $ 285.95
Stage 2 - Clutch Kit w/ Kevlar Street Disc 300 lb-ft SN542 $ 315.95
Stage 3 - Clutch Kit w/ Sprung Hub Race Disc 350 lb-ft SN543 $ 325.95

which one would you reccommend? i told myself that if the difference is only $40 then i might as well go big (or go home).. i wanna get the clutch sometime in january.. that'll be the next thing i do.. but then if i'm replacing the clutch, you said (nissanfanatic) that it would be easier to take the engine right out.. maybe i should rebuild then too.. but then i'm gonna want to put new internals in.. DAMN thats a lot of money.. if i'm gonna do that it'll have to wait till march/april.. but damn worth the wait!!!

but what about ebay? i'm finding some there but would there be a huge difference between those and the ones from above?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7940072953&category=33730
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7940289102&category=33730
are all stage 3 clutches 6-puck??
and will any stage 3 clutch do?? i'm not understanding the differences.. and if you feel like flaming me for not looking in the faq, go ahead. i'm guilty. i don't care. the faq sucks as far as i'm concerned (for some things)

damn i'm getting excited by all these thoughts of hot friction!!

I heard Spec clutches have good grip, but keep near stock pedal feel. D-Bo, if you go to high then you'll get sick of the pedal pressure, it'll be to much for nothing. There was also something in a mag about the some company's 3 disc clutch being able to hold like 600 lb-ft and still having stock engagement, it might of being an Exedy.

Well I don't see there being a big difference between the organic and the kevlar, but when you start getting into puck-style clutches, you'll get less smooth engagement. What are you planning to do? I believe the ACTs are underrated as well. I don't think the organic is going to disappoint you. BTW, multi-disk clutches, like Exedy's twin disk, are hella-expensive. IIRC the twin disk was in the quad digit area. It is a great clutch and is pretty streetable from what I read. I believe they had it in the Dsport R33 skyline project car and it was daily driven. I just wouldn't pay for it when you can get a clutch plenty capable for much less. Good luck.

so in the end, do you reccommend the 'stage 1' i listed above?? could i get that exact one??

for a daily driven car, most metalic clutchs suck balls. theres no play, its just grab or no grab. it chatters like crazy when you try to slip it for stop go traffic like in nyc.

as for the organic clutch. Jay's KA-T S14 has a ACT heavy duty pressure plate with a Street Disc organic clutch and made over 400whp.

hell my stock clutch held about 250whp on the dyno and it didn't slip once.

right now i'm using the ACT setup like nissan fanatic and Jay.

ok heres some common misconceptions on transmissions

its not easier to pull the engine/transmission in one piece, you still have to do everything you would have to do to just take out the transmission plus a lot more work for the engine.

I don't recromend you work on your drivetrain yourself, being a weekend warrior... sure you might get it right by some luck, but if the slightest thing goes wrong your going to be shit out of luck, stripped bolt, misalign something, lost part, improper cleaning, improper reassambly, these are things we even fuck up on from time to time and we are professionals. And I can gurantee you won't do everything and some things won't be done right, I don't care what kind of instructions or books you have, if your just starting out working on transmissions your going to be in for a world of hurt if you don't have someone with YEARS of experience training you. The only thing that saves our asses is half of our shop is setup to deal with these problems. Shit happens in the transmission world, its a very touchy area of the car... engine work is way easier. Hydraulic systems on manual cars can be a BITCH to work on too, sometimes things go half as planned, sometimes things get you pissed off and take 3 people half a day to figure out(thats a long time at our shop, we are used to pulling transmissions in about 15 minutes to an hour!).

ALSO I cannot stress this enough, when working with transmissions, perhaps the most important thing is to be 100% certain that the part in your hand you are going to replace something with is 100% the same part you are taking off, sometimes different years have slight variations or companies will send you wrong parts in wrong boxes.... this is the cause of many frustrations

so i'm not gonna try anything myself cause what sr20 said knocked some sense into me.. hopefully i can get it done cheap.. and tat, how much did that assebly cost you?? was it one i listed?

i got screwed.. any other time of the year if my clutch had went i would have been able to handle it, but its xmas time and i just got a ticket (stupid!) so i cant afford much anything... the guy who sold me the car said he would buy a clutch for it if i paid the labor as i said ^^above^^, so i had to stick with stock for now, but later in the year when i have some more money again ill upgrade... $400 for a ticket (points dropped i hope) and $400 for labor pretty much has me screwed on new, race clutch

I definately wouldn't pull the engine and trans together. If you are going to remove the engine to do the clutch job, an engine tilt would be a great thing to have. Not necessary, but it would help a great deal. If not, don't get your pannies in a bunch because you can't get one. Just do a little manual engine relocating.;)

SR20 I disagree with you. I took 1 year of autotech and I have pulled my engine(KA) and replaced it. as well as switching the tranny over and a clutch install with little to no problems. and it was me and a friend neither had too much experience. I'm not sayin that everyone should go try to do something like that, but I had no problem. and the money I saved doin it myself was well worth it :)

you didn't have many problems cause you took that one year of schooling..

lol I didn't learn shit... just chaning breaks and shit just a basic HS class.

I have pulled both the engine and the transmission at separate times. I didn't have really any problems. Just your basic getting things back to the way they were. I pulled the transmission to change my clutch. That was before I even joined this forum. Then I pulled my engine to put my turbo kit on. I have no automotive schooling. To tell you the truth, forums are the best place to learn shit about your car. Its a little more like a club where you get thrown in with very expirienced people and just pick stuff up as you go.

so nissanfanatic, would you suggest i get the stage 1 that i listed?? or would stage 2 be worth it? cause i could probably buy either of them by new years.. basically, i'm taking the same road you and tat took.. my route, though, was:
1) suspension (already purchased but waiting to be installed)
2) clutch (deciding)
3) rebuild (sometime before march)
4) mafs (i know where to get a z32 mafs for $185CDN or less so i'll do that in january)
5) injectors - i'll start another thread on this sometime soon
6) re-wire pretty much everything since its a disaster right now

and so on..

what do you all think?

I wouldn't get either one of the clutches you listed. XTD seems like knock off brand like ss autochrome. Just save some more money and get an ACT or at least a Spec. You figure the ACT stage 1 is going to outhold what the XTD is advertising. ACTs are SFI approved for a reason.

so you're saying maybe this one??
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7941486137&category=33730

I would go for that one. I got the HDR4 I guess???? You can get them for about $40 more from an online shop. But yes, I would get the HDR4.

man we been open for over 30 years and we do many cars a day, maybe our volume is more then what you did but most CERTAINLY stuff messes up, and we know how to fix it or atleast where to start. A lot of guys will build hot rods and things and mess up shit so bad for the transmission its almost funny. You might think your doing a good job but if you really knew what you were doing you might think otherwise. any monkey can take a couple bellhousing bolts out etc.. but to know what you are doing is totally different. For instance the first time you drove a car were you as good at it as you are today? experience makes shitloads of difference.

Dude, SR20, just let it go and when he fucks up, you can greet him with a middle finger and a gentle "I told you so."

you said you have the ACT Heavy duty pressure plate and organic disk.. i think thats the NX4-HDSS (NX4=nissan 91-94 240sx ka24de, HD=ATC Heavy Duty Pressure Plate, SS=ACT Performance Organic disk) which apparently holds up to 267lb-ft of torque, which i'm sure is not more than what i'll ever be running.. what i'm gonna ask the seller is if the NX4-HDSS is $370.. i'll still do some looking around till i find the right one.. but for now i think i'll stick to this since its working for you and tat..

Dude, SR20, just let it go and when he fucks up, you can greet him with a middle finger and a gentle "I told you so."

if you were referring to me, i'm not gonna do it myself.. if anything i'll get the old mechanic from the shop to do it and i'll be right with him every step of the way (not to say i'll do one myself but i'll have an idea how to do it).. i have faith in this guy, he loves his car.. he has an 11 second mustang and has done EVERYTHING himself.. and its a sick car..

Well I meant anyone who was planning to do it himself, so I guess it doesn't apply to you anymore, lol.

And there is only one way to get expirience, isn't there?

very true.. but lets not get ahead of ourselves.. i gotta buy the damn thing first..

You will make the right choice.