>>>My son and I are preparing to replace the clutch on his '94 Integra
>>>(pilot bearing is seizing). Any special considerations?
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> had fretted its way out of the cage that held it and was jamming
> against the pressure plate, snagging on the fingers.
Somebody's got to learn to be gentler and smoother on the clutch, then.
> Now, if we can
> get the pilot bearing out
Rent a small slide hammer, use with a hook attachment.

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TeGGeR®
The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
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Michael Pardee - 05 Jan 2006 19:31 GMT
>> We got the tranny off last night, and I'd missed the diagnosis by a
>> bit. The pilot bearing was fine, but one of the springs on the disk
>> had fretted its way out of the cage that held it and was jamming
>> against the pressure plate, snagging on the fingers.
>
> Somebody's got to learn to be gentler and smoother on the clutch, then.
Moot point - he recently bought the car (with 130K miles on it) from
somebody who had no idea how to operate the car. He was the second owner,
and fortunately had it too short a time to really mess it up. When we
changed the timing belt - a tad overdue, no? - I couldn't get over how clean
the cylinder head is... wipe off the oil and it could pass for brand new.
The guy didn't even know he had a torn CV boot and had no idea what one is.
He bought the car with the expectation of putting a lot of sweat equity into
it, and it is a fine car.
The disc was down to the rivets also, to give you an idea of how the car was
driven. My son accelerates moderately hard, but shifts gently.
>> Now, if we can
>> get the pilot bearing out
>
> Rent a small slide hammer, use with a hook attachment.
Michael Pardee - 06 Jan 2006 03:50 GMT
>> Now, if we can
>> get the pilot bearing out
> Rent a small slide hammer, use with a hook attachment.
Done and broken. Rob actually rented a *large* slide hammer from AutoZone,
but the hooks didn't quite fit through the bearing. He tried it with a
single hook and a wooden shim, but it popped out without moving the bearing
a bit. Dad to the rescue! I rented a puller from Checker that had a separate
spreader screw and puller nut. We managed to break one of the hooks off the
brand new puller.
Eventually we pulled the flywheel off and drove it out the backside. It
seems there is a lip, and the bearing can't come out the front! Rob found
the reference for pulling the flywheel to remove the bearing in a different
part of the Helm manual. After a while we decided it was better to laugh
about it than cry, which marks it as a hassle instead of a tragedy.
Anyway, we got the tranny back on a few minutes ago. Also for reference, it
is very tempting to start with the tranny rotated quite a lot, just because
it has to be rotated some to get past the cross-member and somehow it fits
the hands better when it is rotated almost 90 degrees. Unfortunately, the
thermostat housing gets in the way unless the tranny is rotated only enough
to get past the cross-member and then turned right side up. About an hour
and a half of struggling and making feral sounds ("golly gee whiz" was one
of them, I'm sure) and it was done. Now I remember why I hate replacing
clutches.
Mike
TeGGeR® - 06 Jan 2006 18:28 GMT
<snip hair-pulling>
> Anyway, we got the tranny back on a few minutes ago. Also for
> reference, it is very tempting to start with the tranny rotated quite
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> them, I'm sure) and it was done. Now I remember why I hate replacing
> clutches.
Suddenly I don't miss not having done mine myself... :)

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TeGGeR®
The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
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> We got the tranny off last night, and I'd missed the diagnosis by a
> bit. The pilot bearing was fine, but one of the springs on the disk
> had fretted its way out of the cage that held it and was jamming
> against the pressure plate, snagging on the fingers. Now, if we can
> get the pilot bearing out we will be ready to reassemble....
I read a hint in Pop Mechanics about packing the pilot bearing with
grease,then pounding a close-fitting dowel in the center,and hydraulic
pressure forces the bearing out;never tried it myself,though.

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Jim Yanik
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at
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Michael Pardee - 05 Jan 2006 19:24 GMT
>> We got the tranny off last night, and I'd missed the diagnosis by a
>> bit. The pilot bearing was fine, but one of the springs on the disk
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> grease,then pounding a close-fitting dowel in the center,and hydraulic
> pressure forces the bearing out;never tried it myself,though.
We tried that with the alignment tool, gripping it with vise-grips. I think
I had too many air bubbles caught in the grease. D'oh!
Mike