Hey guys, I'm going to be replacing the clutch in my 93 soon here and want to know how bad it is to do yourself. I've replaced many clutches on FWD cars but never done one on a RWD. Also how heavy is that tranny? Can you lift it into place yourself or would you need to use a tranny jack? I'm also thinkin about goin with a fidanza flywheel also, anyone runnin an alum flywheel in their C4? I've been reading the forums and it looks like you don't want to go with a puck style clutch with the alum flywheel so I'd probably just get a stocker with the alum. Any tricks I should know or special tools I'll need before attempting this job?

 

The job is not to bad as long as you take your time, get the car way up in the air and get a trany jack. The ZF is one heavy mother and I would hate to try and put that on my chest and shove it in. You need a trany jack in all reality, harbor frieght sells them for $49 that work great. It took me about three to get it back in.

Here is s hort list probably forgeting a lot
1. pull the center console boot and shift ****
2. get the car up
3. drop the exhaust
4. support trany
5. take the bolts out of th C-Beam and slide it to the side in the rear
6. removethe u-joint retaining straps and get drive shaft to drop
7. ti-strap the drive shaftto the trany so it wont slide out and spill oil
8. un hook the CAGS and other wires
9. remove the 5 bolts from the trany to bellhousing
10. Lower trany and remove it
11. remove 6 bellhousing to block bolts
12 remove the PP, clutch and FW

13 Reverse order and stick it all back togeather

 

13 easy steps . . . sounds like an hour job to me.

 

Thanks for the input, I'm gonna give it a try but will be awhile yet. I'm lookin for an aluminum flywheel, anyone know a place to get one at a good price?

 

why?

The aluminum units are a pain in the ***... allow me to list:

1) At ~12 lbs, they're just too damned light for the job at hand.

2) They create a drone between 1200 and 2000 RPM once the engine is warm. Annoying as hell.

3) Expensive as hell.

I have one. I hate it.

If you want a cheaper alternative, get a steel SMF from the Camaro/Firebird. It is a direct fit. All you need to do is:

1) Cut .090 off the face so it will be the correct thickness.

2) Match balance it to the DM. This will maintain internal engine balance. You see, the DM is part of the engines balancing act.

3) Use a conventional clutch disc and Corvette pressure plate.

These units are about 22lbs. The extra bit helps a ton. You will still get some gear rattle, but no where near as bad.

Besides, they are $177.00 at GM parts direct. Chris May is about the same price (Superior Chevy, 1.800.728.8267, tell him you are a forum member and that I sent ya), but charges mucho less for shipping. And I prefer a human being to talk to! It's GM part number 10125379.

 

What is the weight of the stock flywheel? I'm looking for better throttle response, will look into the camaro/firebird flywheel. Although, wouldn't lighter be better with even faster throttle response? Does anyone else with an aluminum flywheel have this problem?

 

That's the problem... too much of a good thing becomes bad.

At 12 lbs, the aluminum is just TOO light. And for the street becomes a real pain in the ***. Also, many folks who drag race prefer the "flywheel effect" of the heavier flywheel.

the forum member formally known as "bradvette," hot rod 90, has the same opinion. Several others will echo the <2000 RPM drone, too.

For what it costs, I simply don't see the value.

The stock DM weighs ~40lbs (varies, due to additional or less weights added for balance). The Centerforce steel, I understand, weighs about 30lbs, the F-body FW is about 22lbs and the Fidenza is about 12.

 

i recently changed my clutch and flywheel. i went with the spec stage 2 clutch and the spec steel flywheel. awesome combo. but i also suggest to change out the clutch master and slave cylinders. you will also need to bleed the hydro system. use "phoenix injectors" or "the might vac". if you have any questions, pm me. its a great time

 

under normal conditions, I would agree, change out the hydrualics, but I don't know if I would right now.

GM has had such a problem with leaking components, some folks here are getting REAL good at replacing them.

My system is currently leaking, but I am keeping it, cause I don't want to replace it for a bigger leak.

 

Recently replaced the clutch and DMF flywheel with stock units from carolina clutch. The result was a great feeling clutch, and as the replaced DMF was toast even the trans noise went away. Installed a hurst short throw while I was at it. Another good move it works great and increases the usablity of the cup holders. The tranny wieghts in at 146 lbs. the DMF wieghts 36 lbs.

I did not by the tranny jack, cuz I only had the car about 18 inches off the deck. With a helper I could balance the tranny on the hydorlic rolling floor jack and set it in correctly.

Other ideas, Get a copy of the GM manual to help with instructions, they are great. Take extra care in centering the new pressure plate and clutch on the flywheel. The tranny will drop right in if this is centered correctly, if not you have to take everything apart (flywheel, clutch yoke, clutch, preasure plate) and do again. Drain the tranny oil before and replace with the BMW oil after it is reinstalled. The clutch yoke and piviot is a pain, once the lock bolt is off it is a left hand nut that will remove from the inside of the bellhouseing. Autozone has a three peace 1/2 inch drive allen set for 17mm, 12mm and 14mm for about $8 get a set it will help with draining (17) the tranny oil and the clutch yoke piviot(14).

Good luck I have done this twice and it can be done in 2 to three weekends by one hack.

 

bogus is dead on right, i hated the Fidanza when I had the damned thing in too. no i didn't just hate it, i despised it with every fiber of my being.

also remember i have a '90 which is the "early" ZF, and this is an unfriendly accompaniement with a super light FW. bogus does as well, having a '92. that being said, all cars will behave a little differently, the Fidanza will make more noise in some and not so much in others. problem is, you wont know until everything is bolted in.

bogus provides a good alternative. i went straight with the stock DMF replacement, once i had the Fidanza & sprung hub clutch disc removed. like the factory original, i have NO gear rattle at all, dead zero. the only thing i do have now that i didn't have before (prior to my engine mods) is a mild fluttery sound of the DMF when idling.....the only thing i can think of is its an unavoidable consequence of the larger cam. the fluttery noise disappears once i leave a dead stop, and is nonexistent in every gear under all conditions. the othergood news is that its only heard (i stress its only very mild) in the cockpit, not outside the car.

The freakin' Fidanza totally sucked in my car. It was embarrassingly LOUD and rattled like HELL. The noise was totally uncalled for when idling inside and out of the car, and could be heard 50 feet away. Thats BS and ridiculous. It was horrible from a dead stop, and I lost HALF of the slingshot torque effect even compared to my L98 when it was stock. It actually worked against the performance upgrades. It did rev real quick, but screw that who gives two hoots about it when every other aspect about that thing completely pissed me off. Oh, one weird thing I experience was too much engine braking (others haven't reported this).....kept having to put the foot on the gas after shifting into 2nd or 3rd around town as the aluminum FW slowed the car down too much once speed was reached (say, 35-50mph)......this was one annoying feature that drove me crazy. With my stock DMF, all the problems are gone and I love it. And yes, with approx. 400chp it works just fine, thank you. I don;t use my vette to raise hell at the track, so I'm not dumping the clutch incessantly at 4,000 rpms. If I went to the track as a hobby every weekend I would opt for the camaro FW option as described by bogus

 

I changed the clutch last year and was a lot of work but can be done easily with a friend. For a really modest setup you need to lift your vette with 4 towers. Removing the exhaust system takes some effort because of corrosion so you better soak the bolts with some kind of bolt releaser befor proceeding.
Once you get the exhaust, and other parts you will have to eventually remove the the driveshaft so you can remove the ZF6. Here comes a tip that worked for me very well. You will need a rubber globe like the ones used by doctors ( thin latex ones ) and you will start to shove it in the transmission end, this looks like a shaft. This way when you take your transmission out and balance it a little, the oil will not spill in your face and body.
We used an hidraulic jack to move it and lower it carefully.
Every part was torqued when assembled. It is not very difficult but time consuming. I live in Mexico and decided to do it because GM would charge me about $3800 US DLls for the work.
I spent about $300 dlls on parts and did my work, and the most important thing is that I did it carefully without breaking one screw or connector.
GM technisians will not care as long as they do the work rapidly.

 

I strongly agree with bogus its too light. regular driving will become more of a pain, with the dual mass you dont even think about what you are doing just ease the clutch out and start rolling,a 12lbs flywheel requires more finess with clutch and throttle due to minimal weight to keep things rolling E.G..at the drag strip I can launch at 5600 rpm with et steets at 20psi and still bog the motor.

 

Could any machine shop cut the required .090 off of this steel fw and what would I have to do to get it match balanced to the DM? I already planned on using a stock clutch and pressure plate as I've heard the puck style clutches are a real pain for daily driving.

 

Yea... but check with them first. Make sure they understand. You may want to find a corvette specialist in your area and see who they would use.

 

also be extra careful with connectors. i had to buy three new ones b/c of how brittle the old ones were.

 

Bah, you guys are crazy. I love my Fidanza. Yeah, it's noisier than the stock flywheel, but it's only really noticeable when the A/C is running and the engine is idling a little rough. Other than that, it's a mod that will definitely give you a noticeable performance increase, and it beats the hell out of paying over twice as much for a dual mass replacement.

And as far as driveability is concerned, I don't know why everyone thinks these things make the car harder to drive in traffic. You have to have the revs up a little, like a couple of 100 rpms, but it's nothing like some here have described. Some guys make it sound like you have to rev it to 5 grand and dump the clutch to get it started. Really you don't have to rev it up at all; the trick is feeding in a little more throttle than normal as the clutch engages. If you are revving it past 2k just to get the car started in traffic, you are doing something wrong.

I have the OEM pressure plate, so clutch feel is identical to stock.

But that's just my opinion....

 

hammerdown, you have the blue tag ZF, am i correct?

trust me, that fidanza is NOISEEEEE in a black tag, at least in mine it raised all kinds of hell that i wanted nothing to do with. mine is a daily driver, and any noise other than the nice loud exhaust with long tubes and/or heavy loud hard rock 'n' roll is not appreciated in the cockpit. the price differecne alone - $625 for a DMF vs. about $400 for the SM fidanza - is a no brainer.

realistically i had to rev mine an extra 5-600 rpms...typically anyway. i know how to drive a stick shift, been doing so for 20 years and would never drive anything but. the launch with my dual mass is MUCH more satisfying that that super-light aluminum thing i gladly had ripped out of there (and i would only imgaine the steel camaro setup would be the happiest medium)........not necessarily because the mechanics of it is easier but because the performance with the DMF feels so much better. thats just my opinion. with the mods I have in, the revs are still plenty fast (revs alot faster than when engine was stock) with the dual mass and i couldn't be happier having the stock setup back in.

i literally had dream fantasies at night when the day would come that the fidanza would be OUT of there!

this just goes to show at the very least that the light alum. FW will react different in any given overall setup.....as i stated before, you wont know exactly the effect until its already bolted in.

 

Mine's a blue tag ZF. My engine is also a stock LT1. You have what I would call a heavily modified L98.

What kind of clutch were you using with the Fidanza? How is the idle of your engine? Lopey?

 

I would say the Fidanza is a much better fit for the Lt-1 than the L98 due to the ways they make power.