best way to change a clutch?

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toms3

Active Member
Posts
375
Location
west yorkshire
Hi my clutch went the other day :( and I'd like to replace it myself and learn a thing or two. I have most tools and an engine hoist and after pondering how to tackle it tonight in preperation to do it this weekend while looking at the engine there's so much to undo a especially as its got a twin tank veg oil conversion on it and heat exchanger ect.

Could I remove the seat bases and the top pannals on the seat box and use my hoist through the door and do it by taking the gear box off?

I'd love to hear any advice how you did yours, iv been searching and found out a bit already but some fresh advice would be much appreciated. I need to do my rear main seal too while there apart as its leaking a bit.

Iv not done a clutch before and dont know anyone who has. If I get chance to do it this weekend I'll take some pics and put them up on here, so any tips advice is much required and welcome!
 
Drop the gear box off as you've said, on a 200Tdi when you drop the gear box down low enough to remove it your engine will be lent far enough back to nearly touch the bulk head so you may need to remove your heater matrix pipes, it might pull the wiring out of your glow plug relay too depending where it's mounted.

I'm guessing other engines will be similar; what engine is it?
 
Lowlight said:
Drop the gear box off as you've said, on a 200Tdi when you drop the gear box down low enough to remove it your engine will be lent far enough back to nearly touch the bulk head so you may need to remove your heater matrix pipes, it might pull the wiring out of your glow plug relay too depending where it's mounted.

I'm guessing other engines will be similar; what engine is it?
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Its a 200 TDI disco engine to the original 90 lt77 gearbox. If I removed the bell housing cover to get easy access to the bolts and use a block of wood under the sump with a trolley jack would this support it?

Cheers!
 
I did mine a few months ago by taking the gearbox out. Bearing in mind that all the work is underneath with all the **** falling in your face, and that the gearbox/transfer box is awkward to manouver even with a crane, next time I'll take the engine out. Taking the gearbox out requires a lot more stuff removing and putting back than you at first think. Having done it both ways I reckon engine out is less messing about.
 
Last edited:
hughesy said:
I did mine a few months ago by taking the gearbox out. Bearing in mind that all the work is underneath with all the **** falling in your face, and that the gearbox/transfer box is awkward to manouver even with a crane, next time I'll take the engine out. Taking the gearbox out requires a lot more stuff removing and putting back than you at first think. Having done it both ways I reckon engine out is less messing about.
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Aw noo! Was hoping I could do it without. Is there not much room to do it? Do you recon it would be possible to change the rear main seal while I'm at it with the gearbox off method?
 
id advise you to go the engine out route. it requires removing quite a few items but they are all simple to do.
 
R0B said:
id advise you to go the engine out route. it requires removing quite a few items but they are all simple to do.
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I've always taken the floor out and pulled the box. Probably not much in it time wise but it's a more simple nut and bolt job imo.

That's all Series though (x4) but not very different and possible with straps and pulleys instead of a crane.
 
I think last one I did was engine out, beats all that **** in your face, plus as the chassis is well waxed its also cleaner to pull the engine.
If you think about it, with the rad package and exhaust down pipe out of the way, that its baring a few wires and heater pipes, starter cables can be a cock to get at though!
 
Tenz said:
Sorry to sound stupid but why have you got to drain the coolant and remove viscose fan?
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If you are removing the engine:

So you can disconnect the engine block from the radiator so that the engine can be moved towards the radiator. Might be worth protecting the radiator with a sheet of ply or similar. For the small amount of extra time it would take, I would remove the radiator to avoid any chance of it being damaged and flush it and the block at the same time.

If you are removing the gearbox:

I've not done this, but I would guess it's so that you can tilt the engine and gearbox, so that you can separate them.
 
Opinions seem very divided on weather to take the box off/engine out method! I'm gonna have another good look with a cuppa and think about it. I was quoted £500 for it doing in a garage but If can do it on my own I can do it for around £100 including the rear main and the clutch alignment tool if baught. It would be great to learn how to do it too! I'll take the floor and gearbox panels out if I get chance tonight and power wash what I can see to make things easier/cleaner. Cheers for the info so far its been very helpful!!!
 
I don't think there's a "best way". Many times what determines whether it's an engine-out or a gearbox-out job is whether the floor panels etc have to be undone. On a 300tdi I never needed to remove the floor panels hence I always preferred the engine-out option. There's much more stuff to remove but it's all relatively simple. A friend of mine who's a Land Rover mechanic prefers to move the gearbox backwards by a few inches and he gets the job done in under 4 hours!
 
toms3 said:
Opinions seem very divided on weather to take the box off/engine out method! I'm gonna have another good look with a cuppa and think about it. I was quoted £500 for it doing in a garage but If can do it on my own I can do it for around £100 including the rear main and the clutch alignment tool if baught. It would be great to learn how to do it too! I'll take the floor and gearbox panels out if I get chance tonight and power wash what I can see to make things easier/cleaner. Cheers for the info so far its been very helpful!!!
Click to expand...

I did mine a couple of weeks ago on my Disco 1. 300 tdi (different vehicle I know but may be similar). This decision was made up for me as I simply had no way of getting engine out, no hoist or ramps.

Like you was looking at 500 notes and although it cost me 2 days work it was partly down to trust as well as money. At least if you do it you know it is done right.

To be honest the only real hard bit was re mating the box to engine. I struggled with ratchet straps and some 3x2 through hole under centre console and a 2ton trolley jack. Took me about 15hrs in all I think although the Mrs put the centre console back in as I couldn't lift my arms. lol.

Whichever way you go my only advice would be try and have patience and take your time, for me there was a lot of scrambling in and out from under the landy which is tiring so glad I split it over 2 days.

Good luck.
 
Have someone close by, shouting distance, if you're working alone, or easy access to a mobile!

Top-Cat tried to do his clutch a few years back in his mates garage alone, at night, working from below in a pit and above through the doors/floor, just parting the engine and gearbox and working them apart enough to slide the clutches in and out. At some point he got stuck, made a call to Landyzone and I drove out (about 11pm) to find him cradling a gearbox in his arms, stretched out with not much he could do to move it!! We got it done, took a few hours ... ;)

First time I'd met him and we've been great mates since .. but not something I'd recommend!
 
We I got away from work a couple of hours early so I took the floor pannals out, the tunnel, the handbrake gator and clip, the seats, drivers and middle seat base pannals and 3/4 of the way taking the seat box out (I want great access to make it says easy as possible and do a good job on rear main seal and gasket)

Looks like this so far.......



The only hiccup iv had is the battery side of the seatbox with the battery box is a bugger to remove, is the seat box riveted together here? Could I drill out the rivets and remove the drivers and middle section of the seat box separate (and leave passenger and battery box section still in) any pointers here would be great!
 
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