F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

From saturday morning until now, i've been helping my friend replace his clutch on his 95 accord. It wasnt shot, but we replaced it with a stage 3 clutch specialties to handle the extra power when his turbo kit is installed in a few months.

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We figured this would be easy...our initial plan was to take off the tranny and leave the motor intact but to just sink it down an inch or so to drop the tranny out and to install it.

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After stripping out everything we could in the engine bay, I realized we had to take off the pass side axle nut...
So after removing the radius rod, i had to re-tighten that bitch down on the LCA.

Attachment 34435

And then, of course, the bolt decided to stick itself to the axle like none i've ever encountered before in my life. First we soaked it, then we hit it with the hammer, then we torched it with the acetlyene until that ran out, then we used the propane, we broke 2 breaker bars on it, we bent one huge ass pipe in half, i tried holding the brakes when the one bar broke, and then we finally just cut it to pieces with the cut-off wheel to get it off...

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Ya know...I think we could have gotten away with not taking this axle out after all...oh well, we'll just hope it was neccesssary... the nut ended up being in many pieces and very cut up. In the process we messed up the ridge the wheel seats on so I spent about an hour today pounding and filing that stupid thing back into shape.

Next we tried to loosen the tranny in our hopes to drop it while the engine was still in the car...

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(this was about 12am, when the tranny had all the bolts loose that we could "see," after trying to pry it apart for a while, i climbed under and noticed a bolt still holding it together, the only way i could get to it of course was with a foot long extension that made it neccessary for the oil filter to be removed in order for it to work)

what we thought was the tranny pulling apart:

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but then we had to go under again and try to get that horrid last bolt out that we never even saw until it was the only thing holding the tranny to the engine

Attachment 34439

So once it was actually unhooked, we pulled and pulled for about an hour until the tranny finally dropped somehow at about 2am.

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At that point day one was over.
The next day was started with some flywheel scuffing in prep for the new clutch.

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We figured since the tranny dropped off the motor, it should go on the same way! Actually not. The tranny had to be spun to get it on so that it hit the rear crossmember b/c there is almost no clearance at all in this accord engine bay. We had the tranny jacked in place, so that it would just line up and attach to the motor, but it didnt happen aftery trying it for an entire day with 3 people on the light little thing.

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So since that didnt work, we just dropped the motor, which seriously took less than 2 hrs to do, even though we just spent the whole day trying to get it to bolt on... (dropped at about 1am)

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Attachment 34441

Even though we were tired, pissed off, and rushing at this point, we only broke the IAT sensor off the back of the IM. Too bad it's a 94up accord part (making it impossible to find in the junkyard) and its almost $40 from honda (ouchy).

So another work day we installed the tranny onto the motor, which took about ten minutes since it was out of the car. We spent about 5-6hrs raising the motor into the bay b/c its a really ------ tight fit. Since we filled the motor mounts with some roof grade poly sealant, they were really tight and didnt feel like letting are motor brackets slide over them at all. It took about until 12am to get the motor bolted up to the 3 mounts other than the one that attached to the front crossmember that was out for clearance to the motor.

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After the motor was in, we gave up for the day again.
Next we spent about 7 more hours bolting everything else up that we broke/mangled/destroyted/lost while taking the motor out.
We started out with this random pile of bolts:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b2...n/IMG_0888.jpg

And thankfully by the end we only had one big one without a place (oh well, the motor runs and doesnt fall apart).

So the motor started up fine, but the problem is the only gears that work now are 3rd and 5th... I'm guessing we weren't supposed to take off the cable controlled gear selector box, and since we did, its out of adjustment now, and we're screwed since no manual touches on how to adjust this thing so that it shifts into the gears correctly. The cluch grabs good (in the driveway for the few feet it drove forward before we had to push the fatass of a honda back toward the garage), and the car runs fine, even without the sensor.
We decided the only way to get this fixed now is send it to the honda dealer. All they have to do is take off the little gear selector box and adjust it, so hopefully it wont cost much. I mean there isnt anything else to fix for this, so once thats done, the car will finally grab some gears and will vibrate nicely while doing it thanks to its home-made filled mounts.

Attachment 34442

Overally I now hate this car b/c i have NEVER had this much trouble doing one thing on a honda before. I mean swaps go much faster than this and pulling B series motors only takes me 2 hrs at MOST to do, while in the junkyard, with only a single box of tools. This beast took a freaking half a week to do, and it still sucks...God, i wonder if this car will ever be the same again.... >:(

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

You didn't need to take the axle nut off.

Sounds like a bunch of noob mistakes that are best learned through experience 8)

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Pretty much. :1

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

All that and yer still not turbo? :X

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Installing the turbo won't be as hard as all this was. All he needs is the ecu, oil lines, bov, fuel pump, and connectors/clamps, and that should be installed.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

that accord got raped by nubbers

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I like how you're trying to take the axle nut off while the cars in the air with the wheel off. hahaha

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

we all had to learn somehow hehe

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Nothing like learning through experience.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

for the gears. you ended up moving the selector w/ the tranny out of the car .

what you need to do is...


1. remove the cables @ the tranny.
2. put lever in 1st gear
3. reattached cables, and try the gears. if works, yahoo, if not...
4. remove cables again
5. put shitfer in another gear
6. attached cables do step 3 again.

have fun

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

With the bolts, thats why you label EVERYTHING. Good thing only 1 is left over though, haha, I've heard of worse.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I always loosened the axle nuts before I bother to jack the car up. Now I don't even bother. Just remove the fork, unhook the ball joint and pull the shaft out of the tranny. Bag the end of the shaft and swing them out of the way.

Also, it really helps if you support the engine from below (with a jack and a piece of wood so you don't damage the pan), remove (or at least loosen) ALL the motor mounts except the top driver's side. Slowly drop the jack and tip the engine down towards the passenger side wheel. That should give you enough room to slide the tranny back on.

Yeah. Noob mistakes, but that's how you learn. First clutch job took me 3 days. Second and third took me 1.

Oh yeah, a REALLY good way to keep track of your bolts is to buy sandwich bags and throw them in their own bags with a scrap of paper saying what it is or where it goes.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Exactly. I'd do that or put a label directly on the bolts. It really does help in the end.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Na. I was re-attaching the radius rod to the LCA and we put it back on the ground with the wheel on.



How do we know if that gear selector box (one that bolts on top of the tranny) is on right? It felt like it went on just as easy as it came off, but I could be wrong. It might be fine though, i'm just afraid it isnt since the manual said nothing about taking it off.


On our first try we did detach all the mounts from the motor minus that mount, but we still couldnt get the tranny to clear the rear-crossmember when we tried to slide it on the motor. I wanted to use the jack it down from below but someone just had to get some use out of the new cherry picker. We swapped out a d series and put a b series back into my friend's rex using the jack from below method and it was way easier then using this stupid hoist.
When it came to the pass side axle we just detached everything and pushed it out of the way. We did it on the driver's side axle too, i just wasnt sure if it would give us enough clearance with it still attached since we had to have the tranny under there...now i see we would have been fun, just sucks i didnt realize this on saturday, oh well, now i know you don't have to touch those nuts.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

HAHAHAHAH I GET TO LERN FROM UR MISTEAKS

Yeah I get to help my friend change his clutch, then I'm changing mine in prep for turbo. Hope I don't go the hell you did.

I know the first time I changed my headgasket it took me erm a day, a lot of stupid stuff that I didn't figure out until I did it. Now I think I could change one in 30-90min...

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

This is no where as easy as a civic or ingetra the accord and prelude are a different ball game...I felt like a noob helping witht his accord arem't fun to work on :3

Dan and i aren't noobs to this stuff this car was just a huge pain

I like to put my bolts back in the where they go so i don't lose them or I do the baggie thing ;)

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Ah good, I figured civic would be a bit easier :) I think I'll bag and label my stuff this time, when I changed my headgasket I didn't and had a HELLUVA time putting it all back together.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I used to be like that, but i just got lazy...I should probably start doing it again. ;)

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Never bagged a bolt in my life. It always works out in the end. Unless you are rebuilding the whole motor there really can't possibly be that many bolts that can fit more than one place.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Haha true but it sucks when you end up with a bolt left over and have no freakin clue where it came from.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Thats usually how I work. I generally just rely on the big bucket-o-honda bolts.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

dam mang,i feel your pain. i hate working on the accord too. For some reason its always a bitch. Just expect more of that when you go turbo. accord trannies suck ass w/ boost. im on my third one and like 4th motor, and it never gets easier. but like everyone says, you learn through experience.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Danronian, just curious, what was the price on that clutch and where'd it come from? I'm looking to buy a clutch before I turbo, was looking at the ones at LSDMotorsports.com

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Its not Dans car its our friend Dustins, I believe he got it from LSD its a stage 3 clutch Specialties, its also what I am running in my CRX with a B18b, good clutch and everyone on here will agree

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

bah, who needs to label bolts, missing bolts are weight reduction :6

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Yeah I know it's not his :) About asked what clutch he bought for "his" car but remembered he was helping a friend. So it's also an LSD? Great, I was considering a stage 3 sprung 6-puck, glad to hear it's a good clutch :)

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

86-89 accord is much easier to work on than 90-97 or newer...i hated the engine/tranny swap in my 95 lx... took forever, not many eff ups, just took a long time.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Just dropping the motor in that accord took a few hours with the tranny already off of it...everything just took forever. I'm used to working on integras now and even the 90-93s w/the cramped engine bays are a ton easier to work on than that accord. I was afraid the 86-89 would be the same way, thats good they aren't, i'm kinda looking for one of those as a winter beater to turn into a turbocharged beast come next summer...that is if this uber cheap teg deal falls throught that matt found.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

----. That sucks, i had no idea the trannies sucked too... I think I'm just gonna tell him to sell the bitch, b/c 5 spd trannies suck to find for them, and on top of that how hard they are to put in, totally not worth the effort in my opininon for whats still not a sports car and is way ------ heavy for a honda. >:(

How much power killed your trannies?

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

This is dustin the owner of this beast to work on. The clutch cost me 300$ shipped from infinite-auto.com.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I remember helping RENR on the clutch, it was a complete bitch LOL, everythings on the way of the tranny,top and bottom. After that one time i tell myself if i ever own an accord i`d just paid someone to do the clutch :P

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I know, my thought exactly.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

x2 :-\

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

my 1st accord clutch sucked too.. those axle nuts never come off good on accords. i didnt have to drop the motor though.. it was like i was giving birth to a baby whale trying to get the tranny out the wheel well hole, mine might have been easier though because someojne already broke the dowels off the trans

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

yea ive heard its a bitch to do. i found a mechanic who has done tons of instals but forgot what a bitch it was to do the accord and paid him to do it. after he finished, he raised the price he charge for changing any other clutch like mine lol.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

I believe it. Funny stuff.

Re: F22 Accord clutch change disaster (LOTS of pics)
 

Just lived this same nightmare with my friend and his 1995 toyota celica, and now that I will never touch his car ever again. The 5sfe(i think thats the code) is a bitch to work on compared to a B series. I think it took us about a week with him making tons of noob mistakes like seperating the axles; ordering new shift cable retainer clips... compared to my last B-series job, which was swaping a ls for a gsr engine, which I didn't even have to take the wheels off the car to do, and it only took about 5hrs start to finish.