'77 Civic 1200 CLUTCH problem - Melbourne

[ByronID19]

Hi

I'm about to put my lovely '77 Civic back on the road again but - though still drivable - the clutch is slipping quite badly. I reckon it will need to be replaced ASAP.

My questions are please:

Does anybody know how much I should budget for that sort of work?

Can anybody recommend a good, reliable and reasonably priced mechanic in or around Melbourne who'll do the job?

Much appreciated.

Byron

[khanguskhan]

ART/Technik Tuning could help you there, but they are booked pretty far ahead.

[ByronID19]

Much appreciated thank you.

[Drifter995]

I'm not entirely sure on the price tbh... but something like $1500 would be a good budget.. afaik you need to rip the engine out to do it..

[ByronID19]

Gosh. OK thanks for your help. But she's worth it!

[Setanta]

About 350-500 if you do it yourself. 700-800 at a clutch specialist.

Unbolt your lower suspension and the brake line retainers (do not uundo the brake lines) and pry the inner CVs out of the gearbox. Disconnect the battery and starter and unbolt the starter. Unbolt the gearbox mount and then gearbox bolts, slide it to clear the input shaft (use a jack so that it doesn't bend the input)and drop it out from under the car (you can actually lift the car over the gearbox if you need but the GB is light in the 1200s).

Unbolt the clutch and flywheel. Take the flywheel away to be machined and head off to the wreckers for a spare input shaft.

Pick up machined flywheel and new clutch. Replace the thrust bearing and bolt up the flywheel to the motor. Loosely bolt up the clutch. Use the input shaft you got from the wreckers to align the new clutch and bolt it all up. Gearbox back in the same way you took it out (it's a good time to drain and refill it or replace it with a 5 speed from an EN1).

It used to take me two days to do it in the shed including machining time - but I'd clean/polish/paint all the bits while I was waiting for the maching to be done. One of my 1200s was 6 hours out and back in no maching working by myself - the gearbox is light.

Otherwise it's about $350-$400 for the clutch/pressure plate/thrust bearing and probably about 3 hours for a mechanic to fit it/machine it - another 300-500 on top of the cost.

PS - don't bend the retaining spring on the thrust bearing :D

[dougie_504]

Ringwood Automatics, Ringwood.

Been there before. Not super cheap, but they don't BS you. They're honest people from my experience and other recommendation.

Expect some change from a grand for clutch, flywheel machining, and full install.

[ByronID19]

Fantastic advice thank you! It's true - the nicest people do drive Hondas! Cheers, Byron.