Welcome to today’s post Guys and Gals; we’re talking about the installation we did this past weekend of the Mare’s new clutch, flywheel, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and clutch fork. Since we don’t know for sure when the Mare last had a new clutch and flywheel go in, it was safe to assume that the ones we had been beating on over the last 70k miles needed to be changed. We picked up a stage 3 SPEC clutch, Billet Aluminium RAM flywheel and Ford Performance throw out bearing and clutch fork for a smooth install.

We started Friday by getting the Mare in the garage and tearing her apart. We started at roughly 7PM and finished up for the night at 2AM with the new flywheel and pressure plate mounted to the engine, the pilot bearing installed and the new FRPP throwout bearing and clutch fork in. This is exactly where we wanted to be for the night. First thing in the morning we headed to Livermore Ford to FINALLY pick up that ebrake cable. Needless to say getting the old cable remnants out and the new one in was a HUGE pain. After getting back to the garage we got the clutch in and the flywheel and pressure plate torqued to spec. Next were hours of sweat, pain, obscene amounts of yelling and profanity due to trying to get the transmission in. We had the trans fall on us about 4 different times while under the car, but of course we finally got it in the car and bolted up. We also took this time see what it sounded like to start up the car with open headers. It was super loud…

Since we had installed the MM firewall adjuster and quadrant the last weekend, it made for getting the clutch pedal adjusted just right. Even though the puck style SPEC stage 3 clutch material is Ceramic, it is super easy to use. The effort to engage is maybe 10 or 15% greater than the, possibly 100K mile, stock one in the car.

Like every time we have the Mare in the garage for extended periods of time we always take off the front bumper so we can have more work room and access.

Next was removing the mid pipe and draining the transmission so when we take off the driveline we don’t have trans fluid gushing everywhere.

We also took off the front wheels so that we had more room to work in the front, less weight on the front of the car, and so we could flush the brakes when we were done with the install.

Shortly after that with help from a younger sibling we got the trans off and got to work replacing the clutch fork and TOB.

Next we used our torque wrench and an opposing breaker bar on the crank bolt to get off the clutch and flywheel.

We left the Mare in this state and ready for more work in the AM.

Quick trip to Ford and picked up the 2nd most annoying install part of the day. The first being getting the damn T45 back in.

Roughly 25 miles on the new clutch and about 6 different firewall adjustments later the Mare is all set and ready for the journey to Mississippi for the new power plant, but before that of course a wash and photo shoot with a DSLR was necessary.