What a great day!!

At 7:30 this morning the SC looked like this:

Two feet in the air on 6 jack stands and a set of ramps. I'm kind of paranoid.

It hit the ground at 5:00.

With the help of my two oldest sons and my daughter, the entire exhaust system came out, the tank came out to change the fuel pump, filter and vent lines to fix a leak. The drive shaft and transmission came out to change the pressure plate, clutch disk, TO and pilot bearings, rear transmission seal, as well as the clutch slave cylinder. We even put it all back together when we were done. We didn't have any bolts left over.

A few important things were learned:

Some people shouldn't work on cars...ever. Namely whoever changed the clutch in this car last. The driveshaft flange bolts on the rear end were finger tight. Literally finger tight, as in no wrench needed to take them out. Three of the six bell housing bolts were just as tight, one of them was backed out 1/4". I don't see how the car didn't just fly apart. If you buy a manual car, it might pay to check those bolts, they're kind of important.

I will never again own a shop without air conditioning. I didn't break a sweat all day. I actually had to raise the temperature because I got cold. I'm now officially spoiled.

Ford rocks, as least as far as the T-Bird goes. I could get my hand on every bolt that needed to be removed. I could get a 3/8 impact wrench on most of them. This was the easiest clutch replacement I have ever done. Nothing broke, nothing stripped. The only fight I had was getting the clutch bled. Even the transmission slipped in without a fight. I'm kind of shocked.

Big shout out to the wife too, for running parts for me when I decided to replace the clutch slave and rear transmission seal. It took three stores to find them in stock.

It was a good day.

Hope y'all had a good one too.

Excellent! Glad to see an older car that didn't fight you.

Awesome sauce . . . Pics and/or video of a burnout after clutch break in

Cool.

nice...

when I bought the e30, I drove it 50+ miles home. A week later when I finally got under the car, I discovered the front driveshaft was being held to the transmission flange (with the rubber giubo donut), with 1 bolt completely missing, 1 bolt with no backing nut, and all the rest were finger-tight at best (if that).

And I thought it was just an out-of-balance tire causing all that vibration over 40mph driving home....

my wife would never do parts runs for me though....you got it good!

Without the parts chaser and built-in pit crew it would have taken you 2 days at least. No wonder it was a great day.

The eldest son is 25, he was extra muscle. The middle son is 13, as of yesterday. He was the tool guy. The daughter is 20, she was the tool girl after the middle son left for the grandparents house. Having a dedicated tool runner probably saved me a hundred trips out from under the car. I felt like a surgeon calling for a scalpel.

And the wife was willing to run parts because she wants to drive it at the next autocross.

Honestly, she will usually make a parts run if asked.

It would have definitely have been a two day or more job without them.

I've been working on a project for a co-worker's son. He drug a 89 Prelude Si home that had an incomplete head gasket job, so incomplete that the previous owner neglected to re-assemble the engine. At least he left most of the important parts in the trunk of the car, notice I said most. Anyway, I got it all put back together and today was the day I was going to start it up. Except the co-worker's son beat me to it, or so he thought. He put the plugs and wires on the engine, and filled it with oil and the rad with water and coolant. But when he went to turn the key... Nothing. Well, i was sure it was because I had left some connections undone that i was going to complete once i got there, but it turned out to be a bad starter once i got to see what was going on. No way to get a replacement today, and he wanted to push start the car, but i talked him out of it. It's been a over a week job just scrounging parts and dealing with requests to make it faster by taking out the airconditioning components. If anyone need an AC compressor and lines from a B21 (2.05) Honda Prelude, i know where you can get them cheap.

Well, i know this is kinda off topic, but I was actually glad he couldn't get the starter till Monday at the earliest. Now i've got the rest of the weekend to wrench on my own stuff.

+1 on garage a/c. Once you have it, you never want to go back.

Hopefully I'll have a nice garage session soon... I'm now off to do more electrical wiring instead... With no a/c...

No kidding, I've been sweating my butt off every time I do something in the garage during the summer. Maybe having a/c in there isn't so crazy an idea? It's still crazy, I can't afford it.

Looking pretty youthful there.

Portable or window units aren't that expensive.

Cheaper than many car parts.

But then ?

I've got a 26' x 28' garage that isn't finished (no poured floors, uninsulated, usual story) so...yeah.. It gives me something to complain about when the subject comes up.

Just got back from a 100 mile cruise out through the country. Took the Wife and Daughter with me and we stopped at a little country inn for a late lunch.

The clutch was perfect, the fresh Synchromesh has the transmission shifting smooth as silk, and with the fuel tank slap full, there were no leaks.

Today was pretty good too.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

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