Rob x-7

retarded seems to be a term thrown around quite loosely here, lol



Dont clutches come with a tool anymore?

You can also try a dremel tool to wear a groove or cut into the

pilot bearing, but before you go all the way thru, then just tap it out gently.

Or go the easy and white way and rent the puller.

vosko

he is getting a vosko spec clutch hence no alignment tools

Geoffman72

whumpwhumpwhumpBOOM

RotaryRocket219

Its called not being a retard when you do it. Thats how I got mine out...and nothing was fucked up. People who haven't replaced a pilot bearing might not know this (maybe you got lucky when/if you did yours), but the pullers you rent don't work for **** from what I've experienced. There not sharp enugh to grip the bearing case. You can grind it to make it sharper, but then you risk having them make you buy it and it might not work. The grease, or getting paper towls wet and putting in a dowel, hitting it to make it come out from pressure..******* bull ****, stupidest thing I ever heard. I chissled mine, collapsed the bearing, then grinded it a bit, and worked it out.



-Marc [/quote]

pulled mine out three times now with the same autozone puller i bought over a year ago. Took under 5 mins every time.



I guess I'm just retarded.



I watched a mechanic spend hours getting a pilot bearing out because he didnt have a puller on hand, it involved a grinder like you mentioned. But he was definitely retarded, but I think that because of the approach he took, not becasue it took forever using that approach.



There surely are many ways to do things, always are, but I've had great experiences using the pilot bearing puller, and I've never taken a grinder to it. [/quote]

Well...maybe the tool you got from autozone is a bit different than the one I got form Shcucks...anynow...the more I start to work on cars (in general)...theres alot more than one way to do things, and they can still work effectively. I didn't mean YOU personally were retarded..I was referring more to the "hydraulic pressure" people, but seriously, I wanna see someone remove and p/b from a 17 year old car with some wet paper towels crammed in there, a dowel and hammer..





-Marc

Apex13B

I've grinded out dozens of pilot bearings including my own in less than a minute, only when a puller is not at hand. I cant justify the 110 dollars it costs for a puller, that is ******* stupid. Clutch alignment is very critical, so use an alignment tool. I have a 1x22mm tool that i made out of a input shaft. Plastic alignment tools will be fine for a street application.



Do not line it up by eye

pengaru

well, when I worked at archies we would either do it by eye or use an extra trans input shaft. However, the centering tools have alot of room to pivot when the only thing keeping them centered is the pilot bearing/bushing... so there is still some eyeballing and common sense, I never had a problem doing it by eye. If it doesnt want to go in the car you just have to make sure you don't force it if it's out of alignment, that can happen wether you use a centering tool or not though.



Once it's in, it's a good idea to push in the clutch pedal, so just in case it was off center at all it will settle back to the center on it's own, before you go to start up the motor or anything. I just do this as a rule of thumb whenever dealing with the clutch.





the first time I torqued down the pressure plate on my new motor using the centering tool, the disc was off center because i just shoved the tool in there and assumed it would center the disc. I checked it out though before finalizing things, and saw the splined hole was off center, the plastic centering tool must have been

sagging a bit from the weight of the disc... these types of tools kindof annoy me, for the less experienced hobbyist it can present you with false confidence, the tools name implies that it centers the disc. I personally think it's really just useful for centering the disc, as in, you still have to center it (make sure the tool is parallel to the eccentric shaft when the pressure plate bolts are torqued down) it just makes it easy to locate the disc rather than using a screwdriver or whatever. It also helps with visualizing the location of the disc.



A centering tool which actually used a frame that mounted to the engine using the engine to trans bolt holes rigidly attached to the centering tool, ensuring that the tool stays parallel to the eccentric shaft would be a much more precise centering tool.



just my $.02, this has just been my experience and these are my opinions.

7mech

go to www.rx7.com. I think these guys will rent them out to you. All they do is ship it to you and you use it and ship back. They should also have the allignment tool also.

Cheers!

how the hell did u splot the pilot bearing witha chisel... iw asjust trying to that yestruday.



I broke the edges off my chisesl and then manged to **** up one of my good screw drivers.



I ended up using a slide hammer meant for 1 1/4 nich to 3 inch ID bearings to pull it out... I took out all the teeth except for one. slide the one in to the HOLE!, then i pryed it against the wall and with one huge hit the pilot bearing came alsomt out and whe ni hit it a second time it came out.



That was no fun.



BTW while you are it... go to mazda dealership with 15 bucks and buy a new rear main oil seal. u will thank me later for this.

Cheers!

hrm... i need to go double check my clutch alignment tommororw then.. ui used the tool thinking all was good... good thing the tranny is still sitting next ot the car.

UniqueTII

I borrowed the pilot bearing puller from Auto Zone and first it wouldn't fit inside the bearing, and once I got that to work it wouldn't grab the casing. My Dremel and I had a couple good talks with it, and then it worked like a charm. However, I didn't know that the bearing had a seperate oil seal, so now I'm waiting on that.