Well my stock clutch and A&A supercharger arent playing nicely. Did a small pull and the clutch pedal stuck to the floor. Ive read a few writeups here on the forum and it doesnt seem to bad. Im thinking lining everything up on the install appears to be the hardest.

Ive pulled the motor and tranny out the bottom on my fbody, did heads and cam on it, pulled the motor in the wifes car to get built, but Ive never done a clutch. Think I can handle it?

Im not a transmission guy so dont laugh, I havent read anything on transmission fluids. Should I drain and refill while Im in there? I was assuming it had to be drained anyways to do the clutch. I come from fbodies, Ive only had this car since October, the blower has been on about 2 weeks.

 

It appears we're on parallel paths I haven't had any malfunctions per se, but my clutch definitely does not like a hard launch. Joe is installing a McLeod RXT for me Monday along with my headers. I opted to sit this one out.

I asked him about changing the tranny fluid. He said they can do it without changing it, but it would be easy to do since it was all apart. He also recommended a new slave, pilot bearing, and a remote bleeder since it would all be apart and easy to change while he's in there.

Edit: Forgot to mention, when I started asking about clutches I got *a lot* of strong feedback suggesting a billet flywheel to replace the stock flywheel. So I'm doing that too.

 

Ha ha, Joe already tapped me out with all the preventative stuff I decided to have him install also. Coolant crossover, oil pump, timing chain, trunion upgrade. I THINK I can do it, just want to see if anyones gonna tell me I dont know what Im getting myself into.

On a side note, the wife brought home a portable a/c unit so I wont die in the garage next month when its 115* out.

Edit: I forgot you installed your blower. Joe did mine, Ill try and tackle the clutch. We are just the opposite, lol.

 

I haven't tried a clutch install on this car, but from what I can tell, you'll need some good ground clearance. This was the primary reason I decided to have it done. You'll also want to read up on balancing. Are you going to resurface the flywheel or get a new one?

If you get new, you have to make sure the pp/fw are zero balanced, then transfer the existing weights from their indexed positions from the old flywheel to new.

If you stick with old, there are some rules about resurfacing. i.e. Minimal material removal. Also consider the stock clutch is built (and "tensioned?") for stock power. I'm told with the added power, it's not a good idea to keep stock flywheel.

 

I talked to Joe about an LS7 clutch and he said for my needs it would work fine. I dont launch it and dont intend on taking it to the track. Im going to get the LS7 clutch, flywheel, LS6 slave and master cylinder, pilot bearing, and remote bleeder from GM parts house.

From what Ive read Ill need 2 feet of ground clearance. My floor jack goes 21 inches, jack stands go 2 feet. Ill have to go looking for another floor jack possibly. Ive got a few neighbors with a LOT of tools and knowledge so if I get stuck I can get them to help.

 

Sounds like a good plan. Read this for more info on balancing.

 

I have a third-gen f-body and IMHO, the C5 is easier to work on. I just changed my motor and installed a clutch. If you've dropped the motor out of a fourth-gen, you shouldn't have any problems with the clutch change. Fluid changes will also be simple while you have the trans and differential out.

 

So I should take the stock clutch and pressure plate along with my new ones to be balanced the same?

 

I did mine alone and alignment was the main concern during re-assembly. Here is what I did and it worked really well. It is a very big job (I removed the FAST and headers) but it is not hard. I just planned for the car to be down for two weeks so I didn't have to rush and did some each night after work.

Alignment Link

 

Haven't seen this mentioned before, but with a car that high in the air, put a 5th jack stand under the front cross member. The back half of
the car will get lighter the more that comes off.

 

The way I understand it is you have the new fw/pp zero balanced to start then transfer original weights to the new fw in the sane exact index position.

 

I've done one, and it was much more difficult for me than several cam swaps, heads, intakes, and supercharger, etc. If you haven't bought your clutch set yet, I'd rethink the LS7 setup. It's very heavy, a tight fit, and not as strong as many aftermarket alternatives. Just get a full face style, and remember to measure your slave to shim it correctly. (if needed)

 

If you can follow directions well enough to pull a motor, you can do a clutch.

 

The end goal is to end up with a new clutch assy(which includes new flywheel) that MATCHES what your original clutch assy (which includes the original flywheel) with respect to balance/imbalance.

think about this critically and decide if the quoted statement is the best way to accomplish that.

That would only work if your original pressure plate was as close to zero balanced as possible by itself. That is possible but not probable. The pressure plates have a looser balance tolerance than the flywheels.
Then that would only work if your original flywheel was as close to zero balance as possible WITHOUT any added weights. This is more possible, but still not so probable. The flywheels alone have a fairly tight balance tolerance, but still have a tolerance.

GM did not take the flywheels and pressure plates and further zero balance each one individually BEFORE assembling to the engine and doing the hot balance procedure. So, the weights added to the flywheel, if needed, were accounting for imbalance contributions from ALL the components. Not just the engine. Not just the flywheel. Not just the pressure plate. All components when put together.

IF GM would have further balanced The flywheel and pressure plate after delivery from LuK and BEFORE putting on the engine, then any weights added would be accounting for the ENGINE only. That would have been the best way, but not the least costly. That would have been the best way to ensure that any added weights were accounting for engine imbalances only, and made any replacements more straight forward, but that's not what was done. This isn't a criticism, I understand cost considerations.

Transferring the weights from your original flywheel to the new flywheel will only work if your original flywheel (without the weight) matches your replacement flywheel (without a weight) as closely as possible. It will also only work if your factory pressure plate matches your replacement pressure plate, both by themselves. Not likely.

This is all easy to "test" if you really wanted to dig into it, since you have your stock pieces. Knock out any weights you find in the flywheel and see what your flywheel and pressure plate balance out to individually. If they are ANYTHING different that as close to zero as possible, then zeroing the new pieces alone and then transferring the weights will NOT get you a replacement assy that matches your factory assy.

I know that can be confusing, but think about carefully. Think about it critically. Think about the steps that were involved in the factory hot balance procedure and hopefully it makes sense. GM did not balance the flywheel and pressure plate individually before assembling to the engine for the hot balance. They put them on in their "as delivered" state. And they were delivered "zero balanced" to within certain tolerances. SO, the hot balance accounts for engine imbalances along with the flywheel and pressure plate imbalances.

not trying to make this even more confusing.

Just make your replacement setup match the setup you are removing. It's as simple as that.

 

scoggin dickey deal is barely more money and you get to keep the weight the same as the stock ls6

https://sdparts.com/details/scoggin-...enter/sdls7ack

as for the balancing

as it's being hinted at. the only 100% sure fire way to do it, if yours has weights is to take the old combo off, make sure you mark it, then have it checked for balance and make the new combo the exact same number out of balance and install it in the exact same position

or, you could have the new flywheel/plate zero balanced and hope for the best, should work in most cars. but, if you have one of the few that's off a bit more and needed that hot balance at the factory, you have to do the exact match if you want a vibration free car

 

Its definitely a fun job lol. But completely doable. Just get it this high lol.

 

yes to this ^^^^

boil it down to it's simplest terms. The LS engines for MANUAL TRANSMISSION VETTES are externally balanced. Ask any prominent engine builder or competent machine shop how they would go about replacing a clutch assembly for an externally balanced engine. When the ENTIRE clutch assembly is used in the external balancing procedure.

It all comes down to that.

People don't have to BELIEVE that they aren't externally balanced, but that doesn't change the fact that THEY ARE.

and hopefully I wasn't "hinting", but trying to be fairly clear

 

i don't think all of them are. from what i understand if the damper, engine, clutch was over .5 oz then they were ext balanced, but, if they were under that gm sent them through just on the engines internal balance. this is why so many people can just buy a clutch, install it, and be good. i don't know percentages but more than a few people have had issues not matching the balance. if a shop is doing the work and there isn't time to have the machine shop match balance it seems to me that a zero balance of the flywheel/plate would be the next best thing. the last thing a guy needs is an aftermarket clutch that's off, say, 6g, being bolted into the car 180 off from where his factory clutch was out of balance.

 

The balance issue was one of the reasons I hired out my clutch job. I had purchased the car with clutch problems, giving me a good discount , but didn't have a lift or a burning desire to screw up my new purchase through lack of understanding.

Having now owned the car for a while, this site has helped my ownership understanding greatly, but I still have no clue how one would balance a twin disk clutch set up like the McLeod I selected.

In researching balancing the assembly, I got conflicting advice. Not a good situation , as I was counting on others to set me straight. I paid for a balance, even though it was not needed with the quality of my parts, according to a couple of sellers.

McLeod offers a balance service when you order the part, so someone must think it a good idea. It was backlogged, so they gave me the name of the shop doing their work and was able to get in the walk in customer schedule, bypassing the backlog of "offical McLeod " customers. A good option, because the car was already apart at J and D corvettes.

I think what the sellers were getting at was that some buyers just take out the old weights , put them in the same location on the new part , button it up and let it happen. I felt the power available with this car made that path risky, although I have changed clutches without a thought to balancing the assembly , it wasn't mentioned in the instructions, so that was that.

One thing I miss about Florida, is that I could rent a car lift for 11 bucks an hour at big A auto parts. sigh, I miss that.

 

my act twin disc came balanced from them... I didn't see any weights added to my flywheel or any clutch parts and I had already replaced the balancer (which didn't have any weights either) and had no vibration issues so I installed the clutch as it came from act... after the install I still have no vibration issues and all is well