Downshift

So earlier this week my clutch went out. Stopped at a light while the car the car was still engaged in 5th gear, heard a spinning/grinding noise then a snap and the car stalled.
There was no clutch pedal feel after that and the clutch is always engaged.
Checked the system and the cable is fine and reacting to the pedal, and the release fork is moving fine also, leading me to believe the issue lies inside the tranny case.
I had a trusted mechanic check it and he seems to think the problem is the clutch itself; most likely a busted spring.
So I go pick up an OEM clutch kit from Nissan and we proceed to swap the clutch.

Everything has gone smoothly; removing tires, axles, mounts, bracing engine and tranny, and removing all engine-tranny bolts.
So now the car is in pieces in the garage, all the bolts are out, there is about an inch separation between the engine and tranny case, and the metal gasket is exposed and hanging down off the drive shaft, yet the tranny will not come off the engine so we can lower it.
We're fairly certain it's because the clutch is still engaged against the flywheel and cannot be released. There is only another inch or two between the tranny case and the driver side wheel well, and we've tried prying on the tranny case from all angles and it will not come off.
We're thinking we need to remove the bell housing or just start removing other parts that are in the way, but there has to be an easier solution we're overlooking.

So has anyone replaced a *broken* clutch who might have an idea of what snag we're hitting or how to release the tranny from the engine?

THX

-Dan

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Sh*t happens. Character is how you react to it.

dxpxe

and your sure there are no bolts left in the engine like the 2 small ones on the bottom above the crossmember or amny out of the rear engine mount.

i cant see anything else causing you a issue unless the input shaft has cracked and gone on a angle which ive never heard of hapening, otherwise something is still connected

if your positive EVERYTHING is disconnected then keep prying, its your only option

94sentraSER

Yep , sounds like the classic case of the " hidden " bolt left. If you can see to the left of the pass. side axle seal there are 2 more bolt holes. i gues you can count the # of bolts that came out & look at the # of bolt holes in the pic. Sam sh!t happened to me, took me about 2 hours of looking but i found it. You'll see it " inside " the rear motor mount housing, take a flashlight and shine it in there.

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94 Sentra SE-R, 10:1 Red Top SR20DE, ! 15.652 @ 87.34 mph....***Dead***

Jaketips42

Maybe the splines on the input shaft sheared? Have someone spin the crank pulley while you pop the trans out.

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Downshift

So you guys don't think it has anything at all to do with the clutch still being engaged?

Thanks, I'll check for those bolts and any left in the rear mount since we didn't really get a good look at it.
I don't think the input shaft is damaged since I was driving this thing back from the shop just fine in 2nd gear at like 40mph.

Thanks again.

94sentraSER

No because the only thing that would be holding the tranny in are the bolts.
The input shaft slides in between the PP and clutch disc.
The clutch si always " engaged " , it's when you put it in neutral when you disengage the gears, but the pressure plate/clutch disc/flwwheel are always spinning.

dxpxe

the center of a clutch disk just rides on splines , no clamping force is applied to those splines

the picture 94sentraser presented is probebly the area in which you forgot a bolt or right below that area there is a small 12 or 14mm (cant remember)bolt at the very bottom aswell as another one in the same area just closer to the radiator but still on the botom.

i know when helping a friend out i missed those bolts as i dont use them with my gti-r swap *** the holes dont line up, an di had a good inch of space up top.

suprised i never broke the bolt, easiest way to tell if thats the issue is check out the space you have all the way around, if in one area you have little to 0 space then there is probebly a bolt there

vdubya63

I always have trouble getting my trannies to release when I do swaps or clutches. I have found that if you rotate the the shaft it tends to free them up. Wait till you gotta put it back and try to line it up thats the fun part.. good luck

Downshift

Yep, that was the bolt we missed. It was just the lower one. I never actually saw it but I just stuck the socket in where it should be and caught something so I started ratcheting.

However [w]e managed to lose the old throwout bearing and the new one from the Nissan clutch kit doesnt have the clips for it, so I gotta wait a few days to order one from Nissan since no parts store carries them.
Ghey.

dxpxe

its good to get new ones once in a while anyway so dont sweat it

94sentraSER

When i replaced my TOB i just sprayed brake clean all over 'em to get 'em nice and clean , then applied hi temp grease to both of them and to the spline....Also don't 4get to grease the spline with hi-temp grease not just any old grease, *** if you do the heat in the tranny case will turn it into a liquid....