Clutch Replacement - Dave's 720 4x4 Clutch

[DaveZilla]

I knew it was going to happen eventually but was hoping it coulda waited til I could do it when I planed to do it instead of while getting onto an on ramp and trying to blend into the 75 mph rush hour traffick on the way to work... So much for spending my "put a turbo in your truck" fund on the final pieces for that project, but this would have needed to be done either way so I'm not really at a loss here... just wanted to get all the other parts together sooner...

 

Anyway, Here's how I did it without taking the transmission out, I doubt anyone could get away with this without a 3" body lift, but that's what let me get away with disconnecting the driveshaft, pulling the shifter out, removing the trans mount, removing the trans bolts and the starter, then sliding it back about 8 inches. No need to support it with a jack either, the front differential and it's cross member prevents it from falling out of the truck while the back of the trans is sitting on the rear cross member. This saved me a LOT of time since I currently don't have an engine lift here at the house. I also found out the hard way that the slave cylinder that was installed on the truck was the wrong one for this truck and one of the flange ears was broken off by the previous owner trying to wrench down on it when it wasn't the right part to begin with... I'll get a new one tomorrow and then start driving this thing again.

 

All of these new parts are meant for a 280zx so if anyone needs a stronger clutch setup for the 720, the 280zx parts is the way to go since they all charge a ton more just because the box says it's for the 720. I checked Everything side by side with the old parts one last time before I started bolting everything up just to be sure it would all fit and work the same as before... just a LOT stronger...

 

here's the old flywheel, pressure plate, and disk, the disk was totally trashed, no wonder it went from just fine to I barely made it to work...

 

And here's the new stuff going in... Fidanza aluminum flywheel, and a stage 4 pressure plate and 6 puck ceramic disk... this one shouldn't fail any time soon...

 

Here's the parts removed shot from under the truck, you can see how the trans just slid back and out of the way...

 

New Flywheel installed and torqued...

 

 

And here it is with the new clutch parts installed....

 

 

I was hoping I had some better pics showing how the trans was sitting between the front diff and the front diff cross member, but none of those pics came out.

Putting it back together was just as straight forward, quick and easy.

 

[nismo24096]

Good Job Man.....and thanks again for the info on the clutch replacement parts from the 280zx.. once you get it all back together please be sure to post up how it does.

[DaveZilla]

With lack of time and me not feeling too well the past few days I really haven't had the chance to mess with the truck as much as I planned... I did take it up the street to get it turned around and back into the driveway so I was able to feel the new clutch and it was surprisingly smooth and with an easy pedal so it's hard to tell it's a performance clutch... I'll put that to the test after it breaks in a bit, but for now it's glassy smooth feeling. I was going to drive it to work the other dy but noticed my water pump leaking so I'll fix this before putting it back on the road.