Well, minor 'progress' on the civic. Got into the front to adjust the coil-overs (fronts settled down about another inch over where I wanted them at, made it hard to even get the jack under there! hah) and saw where the PO had totally botched a front brake job. Both front calipers have a cross-threaded bolt mounting them to the brackets. One is so bad that it lets the caliper flex when you apply the brakes and has blown out the piston seal, so the right-front brake leaks like a faucet. Left front I think I can pull and chase the threads and be okay, but the right will have to be replaced.

Gotta love POs not having any idea what they're doing.... The worst part is that I bought this from a single mom who still had her kids car seat in the back when I showed up to take delivery, with this dangerous of a brake job having been done .... no good!

 

Minor update. Finally got back into the civic to fix the brakes (Car's been laid up since late April when I posted last, been too busy changing jobs and various other things to get to her). Got both front calipers swapped to new ones, along with new pads. Tossed a speed-bleeder at it and had the whole thing done in less than an hour.

Car drives completely differently now. No more pull when braking, just a bit of pull under normal driving, which I think can now be aligned out. Last issue to address that directly affects driving/handling feel is that I apparently have a tire out of balance, as I get a pretty major vibration through the wheel (which is able to be felt through the chassis, as well) at speed.

Dad and I can't find a decent project base that will take a V8 without major work, so I think the civic may go back into the shop / under the knife again soon. If we go that way it'll be a full rebuild, including engine/trans swap. Still not sure what way I'd want to go, due to so many options. I do know I want to go boosted if we go down that road though...

 

Aaaand the civic is down, again. Clutch is all but completely blown, the motor will end up nearly at redline in every gear to pull an extra 10mph out of it Once you get up into 3rd and above it doesn't slip anywhere near as bad, so I was able to limp it home, but she's down for the count until I get ahold of a new clutch kit and figure out how to change it.

Do I really need to completely remove the trans to change the clutch on this dang thing?

 

LOL, yes, the transmission needs to come off. There is absolutely no other way to replace a clutch since it is sandwiched between the engine and transmission. Just a long process, but do-able. Took me about 6-7 hours with help from a friend.

 

this.

i did it way back on my first civic with the help of my uncle. wasnt too bad but ended up having to get air tools so it took 2 days. as far as DIY work i would consider it pretty high up on the list of difficult things though but not undoable. just take your time and make sure everything is in right. i left some bushing loose and it always made a terrible noise after that...

 

someone should DIY this, maybe? take a crap ton of pictures? it would make people feel more at ease.

I'll be changing my clutch when I pull my tranny, but that will only be if my new motor mount bushings don't fix my shifting issues.

 

I planned on making a DIY guide, but after 3 hours of plugging away, making the DIY guide was taking a lot more time than I had thought. In order to get the car done that day, I needed to ditch it and get the clutch done. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Well, I know that I have to 'remove' the transmission to change it, but what I meant was, is it possible to do it without completely removing the transmission from the engine bay?

I guess I should just cave and buy an engine lift anyway, since I'll need it for either this car or the project my dad wants to start, and I'm sure just pulling it all the way out is much easier than trying to shift things around and work half blind.

Ugh. Stupid cars, taking all my money. hah.

Edit: I could have sworn I saw on another forum once that it's "possible" without completely removing it from the engine bay. I think I'll save the inevitable heartbreak of attempting that and just pull it completely.

 

Get the car up high enough and you can just leave the the trans on the ground in the bay while you swap it out. Doing the clutch is not bad at all, on my civic I could have the trans of and back on in probably 2 hours, but my bay is completely tucked so there's nothing to really remove. Doing the clutch is a good easy yet challenging thing to do, makes you feel good about doing it yourself, but nothing you can really completely screw something up. A good confidence builder lol, starting my engine after I built the whole thing was much more nerve racking than anything, take your time and it'll be no problem. Air tools and/or cordless impacts help a lot too.

Now the big challenge is doing the clutch on my evo this weekend... Much more complex. I'm surprised your clutch slips worse in low gears, usually clutches slip in higher gears since its more load on the engine to accelerate in a higher gear, my evo's clutch slips when boost initially builds since it builds boost really quick.

 

Thanks for the tips. Regarding slipping in lower gears, just due to the way the idiots around here drive in traffic, I basically have to be on it hard in first in second, but once I can get up into third I don't have to give it much at all to keep up with traffic. I rarely hit 4th on the commute home. I did go test tonight and it does indeed slip in every gear, getting progressively worse as I move up, if I try to continue accelerating.