Anybody have any helpful hints on how to do it? I've done a clutch replacement before on my old 94, but I'm not sure how different the T-45 is than the T-5.

 

Pretty straight forward. But have fun with that top starter bolt . It's a true pain in the mother ****ing *** to remove! And I say don't worry about putting it back in. 40,000 miles without one and it still starts just fine

 

It shouldn't be much different then the T-5. It still sucks either way.

 

When I pulled my old starter out of the 00 it had one bolt in it instead of three... Needless to say the top bolt was not replaced. How hard is it going to be to get to the top bolts on the tranny? If I remember right that was the hardest thing about the last clutch job I did.

 

Swivel socket with a 4 ft extention. That's what I use.

 

And if you dont have tons of extensions you can break them loos from up top be firewall and wrench them out

 

Haven't tried that. But I just bought a 4 ft extention from northern tools. It was like 10-15 bucks. Well worth it.

 

Yeah extentions and swivel sockets are the ticket with most any Trans jobs! The top starter bolt is a pain in the *** but you'll get her out! The T45 is a full cast housing and the good ole T-5 has a removable bell housing...

 

The transmission bolts were not nearly as tight as I thought they would be, and the torque for the pressure plate to flywheel bolts were really light. I was expecting something a lot more than 24 lb/ft, but I guess that's it.

Anyway, I am at the just past halfway mark, have the flywheel/clutch/pressure plate back on, but need some help getting the tranny back in place before I can keep working.

 

Yea that's the worst part. I did it by myself but its not fun. Not fun at all. Really it sucks.

 

Well I just finished, and so far I'm not super stoked about this clutch. (Spec Stage 1. When it was advertised as "close to stock pedal feel" I was all in... It is anything but. It is very heavy (probably as heavy as the clutch in my 94) and it stutters like crazy. I know, it has to be broken in before you can really judge it, but I'm hoping this works out.

Some notes about the install: I could not for the life of me get the transmission lined up with the pilot bearing. I used the alignment tool to get it inline while the tranny was off, but as soon as I got the tranny up it just didn't want to slide into the clutch and through to the pilot bearing. Two things I had to do 1. I had to tilt the motor back (up in the front, down in the back) my tranny was up as high as it could go, and it could not get even in the pressure plate, let alone in the clutch. 2 I had to do the unspeakable I pulled the tranny in with the bolts. As far as doing it the wrong way goes, though, I think I did it the least wrong of the ways I could have. I made sure the gap all the way around was the same( to make sure it was aligned, and not trying to go in crooked), and I put the driveshaft in so I could make sure the input shaft was engaged in the clutch plate. Once I did that I tightened the three side bolts ( only one side bolt on the passenger side) until it was flush. I continuously checked to make sure the gap was closing as a unit, and not one side at a time.

Other than that it went pretty smooth. I can't say I'm looking forward to ever having to do it again, but I feel like it wouldn't be so bad the second go around.

 

It will be grabby for a while. Did you resurface or replace the flywheel?

 

I had it resurfaced.

 

Cool. The spec takes a while to smooth out. Should be fine soon.

 

Did it smooth out? I am curious to know how it went.

 

It did smooth out a lot. It feels really good now, just considerably heavier than stock. I would suggest to anyone who is going to replace their clutch, do not use the Spec TOB. I had it on for less than 10 minutes before it started making noise. A lot of people say to use Ford Racing TOB's. I don't know first hand about those, but I know they can't be worse than this one.

 

I've had a centerforce and have a ford racing now, there's no difference in the whine between the two.

 

Sweet, so no chattering or anything?