Bobtam

After talking with Chris as Monster Clutch he gave some excellent tips on reassembly of the drivetrain. I pulled the whole drivetrain out and installed new pressure plate ,clutch, pilot bearing and slave without removing bell housing. Did drop the headers. Had new bearings put in the torque tube the couplers were fine.
Chris gave great advice on reassembly
Bolt the torque tube to the bell housing first, a lot easier than trying to maneuver the whole drive train. Then bolt on the transaxle to the torque tube holding everything up with a jack. Ther raise the rear subframe in place. This was a lot easier than trying to put the whole drivetrain in in at once and possibly damaging the pilot bearing. I've been there.

striper

When I did my clutch I did leave the cradle and trans attached to each other. It actually made it easier and more stable that way, because it allowed me to use a Harley lift to lower the assembly and roll it back. Is the C6 easier or more difficult to do, I wasn't sure what you were implying? By using three totally different type of jacks I was able to lower and raise everything correctly and do it completely by myself.

Socko

Interesting point about the weights evil. I can say that may not always be the best approach as my stock clutch had a number of weights on the pressure plate and flywheel. So i took it to a trusted race shop, and even beat to **** with 40k on it, the total weight was 2 grams out of zero. We assumed this was within GM's acceptable tolerance and likely had no weights added when hot balanced. The mantic i replaced it with was closer to 0 than 1 gram out of zero so the guy marked up everything and i put it on with 0 issue. I am very glad i didn't blindly move weight over, not that it would have been easy going to a nonfactory clutch.

I agree you should check and match the stock flywheel balance vs zero but just moving weights over would have cause me a big headache.



I took mine all apart as well. Dropped the cradle, use a HF trans jack to lower the trans/diff with the torque tube on a jack stand, popped out the tt by hand, put back in same way reverse order. Only bothered 2 friends for help with the subframe which took liek 15-20 minutes each way. probably could have done it with 1 friend. Everythign else was soloable, pita but soloable. I considered a motorcycle or atv jack to drop the subframe. Its pretty easy once you realize where the center is if you even have 1 helper. Really depends on what jacks you have what way will be easiest. If you are using a regular car jack to lower the subframe, it would be pretty sketchy with the diff/trans on the subframe, though many people do it that way, i wouldnt. It also means you need to be that much higher.

Bluefire

Put a remote bleeder in too.

That is all.

Evil-Twin

The weights on the Pressure plate are there because that assembly has to be zero balanced because of the components.. the idea is the clutch and pressure plate go into the assembly with Zero balance leaving only the clocking point in the flywheel to adjust the engine balance. Some engines require more weight then others..

Some one mentioned they didn't have to remove or unbolt the bell housing. They also didn't say they replaced the flywheel, which after frying a clutch is a very poor way to do it.. Not replacing the flywheel will shorten the life of the New total assembly because of internal stress that builds up as the clutch is starting to slip or gets stress cracks or hot spots. Seem like a poor method of doing a clutch on a C5. Even slight unbalanced rotating assembly will take out your torque tube over time.. and you will have to do this job over.. AS I always say, there is only one right way to do anything....
Bill aka ET

Bobtam

I did replace the flywheel without removing the bell housing. Used a whole Monster set up lightweight billet flywheel stage two clutch and pressure plate and new slave. No balancing no vibration.

Evil-Twin

IM only going to add this one thing. I've been doing this stuff for a living and GM has been paying me and still paying me 15 years after retiring.. you say you have no vibration? right ?
You say you used an aluminum fly wheel. That why you didn't need to loosen the bell housing. .its smaller !... Now, are you really going to tell me that your 8 lb. aluminum flywheel does not vibrate on engagement? its the down fall of any aluminum flywheel. it doesn't have enough mass to engage 400/500 HP to the drive train without vibration, where as a stock steel flywheel wont vibrate from engagement because it weighs 18 lb. and designed to dampen vibration on engagement, which has nothing to do with an out of balance...rotating mass. if your car goes through the gears with no vibration you are lucky, your engine had very little balance issues.

Bill Curlee

I do NOT know why anyone would not want to do a C5 clutch job correctly one time vs taking short cuts that may cause repeat repairs.

If you replace the clutch, (even at 40K miles) your PILOT BEARING will be in less than desirable condition. Mine was dry and worn at 48K miles.

I would LOVE to see someone replace the pilot bearing without removing the drive train!!

Its a royal PAIN when you have good access.

As for the flywheel balance,, ,,, Some C5's and C6s don’t need any additional balancing.. Some do. You will HATE yourself if you stab in a new rotating assembly and have an annoying vibration at 2800-3000 RPM!

I had my new SPEC dual disk flywheel match balanced to the old C5 ZO6 flywheel. I had one off set pin in the old flywheel. I have ZERO vibrations.

The master cyl will be full of nasty clutch dust GOOP! Trust me on that one! Why not replace it so you have a reliable hydraulic system??

I did the entire drive train removal and reinstall on jack stands by myself. One thing that I can recommend that makes the job a LOT easier is,, install the Torque Tube and then install the trans/diff onto the TT..

Bill (ET) is just trying to keep you from having to do the job more than once. He's been around the block a couple of times and has some great lessons learned and C5 knowledge.

Bill C

TOPCATHR

Evil twin is telling us the correct way to repair a c5. Its not the only way its the right way I am always glad get his input and advice.

Evil-Twin

Correction:
Its not the only way its the ONLY right way

Thanks for understanding that I am not trying to be a know it all because God knows, I am not... but there are some things that I am an absolute expert, so I offer my expert advice, however there are many threads that I do not get involved with because I do not have the expertise to give expert advice.

Over my time here I do get a lot of flack because I am passionate about people getting good sound advice, and can see through the BS.
I come off as arrogant at times defending my input. But I would rather do that then allow a member to go down the wrong path because some guy learned everything he knows from his grandfather who worked at a gas station back in the 60's.... I just cant help myself.

Anthraxmm

I changed the rear cover without removing the bellhousing. I've pulled the stock flywheel out and put another steel one in without removing it or backing it off. Though I did get all the bolts out but one when I did the cover to pull it back some.

Bobtam

Wow man take it easy. I never said I used an aluminumflywheel. It's a billet steel lightweight flywheel that is available as option with a Monster clutch kit. It is not smaller than the stock unit. I pulled the origional flywheel out without removing the bell housing through the bottom after removing the bottom cover plate. Used a blind hole bearing puller to get the pilot bearing out. There is no need to remove the bell housing.
I was told by monster there was no need to balance. The clutch works great and likes said absolutely no vibration.

strand rider

I have little to add, my clutch replacement experience is turning my credit card over to the service manager, while admiring the ribbons and assorted pictures of his show horses around his desk. And his shop was $200 cheaper in labor costs than others . So , I would also attempt the best remedy the first time.

I clicked in to try and add perspective. While I really liked the hot rod TV show, one must always consider the goal is not self help instructional video, it is to make money by creating entertainment so people will watch the commercials. The video in question might be perfect information, or it might shortcut for reasons known to the producer.

I learned early on that all the world is a stage in the entertainment industry. You need product to sell, and the quality of information might not be as important as other considerations.
I picked this up when I worked in movie theaters long ago , when I asked about the phrase based on a true story. I was told it meant, "once upon a time." Everything is product, it could be a million dollar deal or some half done stuff, if it sells, you move on to the next product. Like a can of corn, some are better than others, but they are all product and need to sell. Facts, details, all must serve the story, move the entertainment. If it doesn't ,it is changed to make the vehicle better.

I would add that at about 80,000 miles, my pilot bearing was destroyed, nothing in the hole but dust. I would always replace that when exposed.

TurboTnZ06

I did my clutch by myself, hand tools only, with jackstands and some floor jacks, one trans jack. It was not that hard to pull the whole cradle out by myself. Getting the exhaust off, is the hardest as you have to have the car way off the ground. Getting it back in was easy too, relatively.

FASTFATBOY

To update this thread:

The clutch finally went haywire, the slave failed and the pilot bearing was gone(absent).

I removed the headers, ex, tunnel plate.

I put the rear cradle on my trans jack and moved it down a foot and back about 1.5 feet.

I had enough room to get a slide hammer over the top of the torque tube to pull the pilot bearing.

I did not pull the bellhousing, just took the bottom half of it off.

Did not replace the master, fluid is crystal clear.

I put a GM replacement LS6 clutch in with flywheel. You can buy it at Autozone for $380, the exact LUK clutch that GM sells. Slave was $100. Clutch came with pressure plate, disc, flywheel, pilot bearing and throwout bearing.

Car drives as new and fluid is still clear.

CS3black2004

Can throw-out bearing seal be replaced w/out replacing all the above?

vettenuts

Think I would ask in a new thread to get better answers since this thread drifted a bit, but the throw out bearing requires removal of a lot of stuff so it becomes a question of age of parts, etc. and the inevitable "while you have it apart".

Bill Curlee

NO! When the Throwout Bearing goes, its basically a Piece Of Junk! Its loose inside, rattles and no longer has any grease.

The EXTREME MECHANICAL DISASSEMBLY and REASSEMBLY that you have to go through to service the Throwout bearing makes it foolish to just replace that part.

Like stated earlier, when you are that far into the beast, its best to replace the:

Pressure plate, Clutch disk, Slave Cyl, Throw Out Bearing, Pilot Brg and ADD A REMOTE BLEEDER!

Man handling the differential/Trans/TT as a complete assembly by your self is A ROYAL PITA but can be done. Getting the TT input shaft properly aligned and into the clutch can be frustrating.

I learned that separating the TRANS/DIFF from the TT and installing the TT by its self and then the Trans/Diff onto the TT makes the job a lot easier.

While those parts are out, it always a good idea to replace the seals on the Diff and couplers on the TT.

As for the vibrations from an unbalanced rotating assy. Some engines needs the additional HOT BALANCE and SOME DONT! If your ar in the DONT NEED IT, Rock on!

God Help you if it needs it and you didn't do it. You either LIVE WITH the Vibrations or do job all over again.

BC

danh52

I did a new clutch in June and removed the LS7 clutch and replaced it with a Monster LT1-S twin disk setup. All work was done with the bellhousing in place and the inspection cover removed. My car has an LS3 conversion so I went with the as shipped zero balanced assembly. All LSX motors are internally balanced by design. C5 corvettes were spun balanced during the dyno break in procedure. I've not heard of this happening on any other factory installed LSX engine so I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind this but it sounds like more of a "band aid fix" that occurred during this timeframe than a desired design feature. This procedure added some amount of cost to the overall build so the preferred solution would have been to not need to do the extra work. My guess (as a retired engineer) is that GM experienced some vibration complaints from customers that they narrowed down to a tolerance stackup issue with components in the rotating assembly. Tighter tolerances on components also increases costs so they decided on a procedure that would find the few engines that were out of spec and fine tune the balance on those. If I had had the original LS6 engine in my car I would have match balanced the new clutch/flywheel assembly to the old parts as it is easy enough to do.

Bill Curlee

ALL LS engines 1997 - 2017 that are connected to a manual transmission in a CORVETTE are HOT Balanced to eliminate a felt Noise, vibration, harshness in the drive train due to the manual transmission being connected to the engine via a ridged TT.