Will be removing my clutch again after only six years. You gave some nice tips that I will use: Don't lift from the cradle, bottle cap release tool, freeze pilot bearing, and pry bar to lock flywheel.
Hats off to you for covering every nut and bolt! You should've been paid for this video! Do you want to do another one? I just can't imagine paying $3k for it. Give me your labor price and I'll buy all the parts, drive to you and be your wingman. I've done a few clutches before but they were pre 70's.
Im about to remove the engine out of a c5, this is a great video with lots of tips and tricks for diy, video quality is awesome too. Thanks for taking the time document, its hard to find good vidoes on working on c5 driveline!
I want to get one of these things but I can’t bring myself to doing all this just to change a clutch. I’m sure the performance is crazy good in turns ect but I’ll stick to my Turbo G35 Coupe lol
I installed an LS7 clutch in my C5 Z06 this past weekend. You DO NOT have to loosen the bell housing bolts to get the LS7 clutch in. You can hammer in the dowel pins on the flywheel until they bottom out. The pins will go in just enough and will give you just enough clearance to get the disc and PP in.
Dang! Someone on the CorvetteForums just mentioned that. Wish I knew because loosening that bell housing with where those top bolts are was literally the hardest thing I've ever done like ever haha. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely do that instead next time.
$1300 at Henderson Performance is what I was quoted before I decided to do it myself. If you got the money then you should definitely get it done. The worst thing would be something going wrong with the replacement and now you have a half taken apart car in your garage and are trying to take it to the mechanic's...
I shall be replacing my slave cylinder in a month, nice to know this video is here for a reference because Lord knows I'll be watching it a few times lol.
Air rachets are great except on the 8 cradle bolts that connect the body to the powertrain. The nuts on the backside are captured and if they are blownout there is no access.
Great video, lot's of good points! While there, I would have replaced the transmission seal, $30.00-$50.00, piece of mind, plus will save new friction disc material; anyway....... Phil.
Nice but you should have change the rear main seal and rear cover gasket . That’s where all the oil inside the bell housing came from other wise nice 👍 job
I just did this and did not check to see if the green marks were lined up. I'm watching videos cause I now have a grinding noise when clutch pedal isn't pressed. It drives fine and everything but if I press the clutch while driving and downshift, before letting the clutch engage I can hear the noise go faster as it's spinner faster due to my downshift. Noise goes away when sitting idle and press the clutch pedal. Could that be the problem?!
took me two weeks but I was also working and going to school but could have gotten it done in a weekend. I'd say the same time without a lift. We had just as hard of a time pulling it out on the 4 post lift than if we just did it on the floor. You can see some of the sketchy stuff using like 4 jacks and a lot of 2x4 planks of wood... Would have been much easier on a 2 post lift.
I'm doing a clutch replace and torque tube rebuild as we speak. You didn't need to take the old clutch and new clutch to a machine shop to have them match balanced?
This is a good video man thanks. I have a supercharged 2006 ZO6 with a bad shudder under mid throttle acceleration. Could be clutch or torque tube related I don't know yet. I'm really thinking about doing this at home but not sure. I would be on the ground but i do have a hydraulic low rise lift. Did you check your torque tube while you had this all apart? Thanks.
You're welcome, thanks for the kind words. The torque tube was replaced with a factory unit at the dealership 22k miles by the previous owner but I did give it a once over just to be sure cause I know failures are semi-common.
@@diydrake Worked for me, there was no plug on mine, it was solid. Bread trick worked like a charm on my 5.7. I should have got pics of it because a buddy of mine said that was unusual too. Was my first time doing the clutch, rear main seal etc. on an LS1.
How a you drive that with out a Slave cylinder I watched your whole video for some info on how to remove and replace my slave and you did no mention of it
I know I came here for the slave cylinder also, my car has been sitting for almost a year with a bad slave, can not find no one I trust to work on it and I really want to install it myself
The original clutch was effed and locking me out of gear since I first bought the car so I can't really say but what I can say is that I can't imagine there being a better clutch. It's completely quiet and not chattery unlike pretty much every aftermarket clutch I've had in my other cars, it's not stiff at all so driving in traffic is no problem yet you get amazing feedback and can really feel the engagement point but a lot of that is thanks to the Tick Performance master cylinder. Best part is, if I decide to do some mods it should handle another 100-200hp from what I've heard. as far as size, it's almost the exact same size and it looks the same, just a little deeper because of the dowel pins if that makes sense. Getting a stock LS6 clutch would be a waste and getting an aftermarket clutch would be a pain so I definitely recommend the LS7 clutch.
Always apply the threadlocker starting at the first threads so that it gets fully applied to all the female threads that are in contact with the bolt. Any excess will be pushed to the threads closer to the head of the bold. The way you did it is exactly what you do NOT want to do. Most of your thread locker in your example will be on the part of the bolt that will never even contact the female threads
How did you remove the drive shafts so the brake lines could slip through? I am about to rip everything apart and do my own clutch as well so I need to know! Thank You!
You mean the axle shafts? My brother helped me with that part because I wasn't strong enough but what I think he did was get a crow bar and carefully but forcefully pry them off and when he got them out to a certain point he just pulled them off by hand. Hopefully that was the answer you were looking for.
Man I wish you would have told me to watch out for fuel lines because I kinked and bent the fuel line coming off the fuel filter/regulator :( it got caught on the shifter box
Not really a good idea to pull the torque tube in with bolts. It should go in without excessive pressure. That's a good way to damage the clutch and input shaft.
I get it but you have to understand I was doing it myself so it's not like I had someone to push the whole rear assembly and torque tube in while I put the bolts in. Because the rear assembly and torque tube were on jacks and because of the angle it was in from the lift whenever I would push everything in it would slowly slide out by the time I got back under the car to screw in the bolts.
Last owner had the clutch replace at 75xxx miles . I'm at 94xxx miles and about to do a clutch upgrade since I will be taking the transmission to get it rebuild to a synchro failure .
Another question for you, how in the hell did you get the pilot bearing extractor tool to fit inside the pilot bearing? I rented the same exact tools as you from autozone and it physically wont fit inside the bearing. Did you have to take out one of the pins in the extractor tool and put one leg in first then the other to get them both in? Thats what some LS1tech guides said to do.
I actually grinded the tip of the legs down enough till it fit....I didn't mention that in the video because I returned it after I grinded it down and I don't want Autozone to come after me... :P
I didn't even realize pilot bushings existed till after the install but I've heard good and bad things from both and the failure rate seems to be about the same.
I was looking all over for the thread on the LS forums for ya but I couldn't find it so I'll try to tell you what it said from memory. Although the failure rate is about the same between the two, the possible duration of failure is very different. For example, due to the nature of the bushing, the only thing that would cause it to fail would be normal wear by use so it's much more rare to see a bushing wear out prematurely or early on and due to the nature of the bearing, normal wear by use doesn't wear it much at all but rather specific factors and circumstances like excessive heat, moisture, loss of grease, etc. So because of that, the bearing is more likely to fail sooner than the bushing BUT it is also more likely to outlast the bushing depending on the frequency and severity of those specific factors and circumstances that causes the bearing to fail. I hope that made sense. If not then I'll try to reread and rephrase that when it's not 2am...haha.
JDMricist dang thanks for doing some digging for me, I think my torque tube bearings may be very slightly wore but not enough for me to replace them yet, if that’s the case I think I’ll use the bushing until I do all new couplers and bearings
Man i wish you were in northern cali bro def ask you to do the work for me, you make it look easy. My clutch keeps sticking, slave leaking when it does and on oem clutch @ 107kmiles. Thinking about monster clutch or ls7 i have 98 c5 .. going to do cam and few more bolt ons so 400rwhp im guessing. Any advice ?
Unless you are planning on making some big power, nothing beats factory clutches when within around 100hp of stock. Aftermarket clutches don't perform any better or last any longer but they are louder and stiffer so unless that's your thing, a 500hp rated LS7 clutch all you need. I know buying OEM parts is lame and buying aftermarket parts is cool but not when it comes to clutches. I have always regretted buying aftermarket clutches in every single car I've owned but finally learned my lesson with my Z06.
JDMricist well c6z makes like 440rwhp so i guess your right but the reason i say monster or aftermarket is because i want something that can endure some half ass launches. I prob will go with ls7 set up, + new master & slave, trust me im def not wanting to do it because its cool i want longevity honestly. This is oem clutch in my 98 and it still doesnt slip or anything but than sticking pedal and leaving slave have to be fixed so just time to do it all, good $1600-2k then another $2500 getting that extra 80-100whp. Looking into boost but i cannot convince my wife that we can afford that lol
Hello my friend, how are you? I am now working on a Corvette Damen car. I am working on a type. I am an auto mechanic specialized in repairing American cars 🇺🇲👍🏻😊💫
I forgot to go over the slave cylinder installation but didn't add the clip later because it was super easy, just 2 bolts on the torque tube input shaft. But funny you say that because that was the point of failure. Edit: Actually I remember now, I didn't record that part because my hands were covered in clutch fluid when it kept leaking in the clutch and I kept refilling it over and over till it didn't hold fluid anymore. After I cleaned everything up I forgot to record putting the new slave cylinder on and remembered to start recording when I already had the torque tube ready to go back in the engine.
Lol it definitely isn't as hard as you made it on yourself. You don't have to remove the lower control arm bolts. If you drop the rear cradle first, the exhaust comes out really easy. It looked like you pulled the brake caliper bracket bolts? No need for that. I understand it's easy to do things out of order if you've never done it. But I wouldn't do this job for other people until you've done it a few times because you'll be taking a lot longer than the job should take. And a tip for the pilot bearing, put it in your freezer while you're disassembling.
Will be removing my clutch again after only six years. You gave some nice tips that I will use: Don't lift from the cradle, bottle cap release tool, freeze pilot bearing, and pry bar to lock flywheel.
Hats off to you for covering every nut and bolt! You should've been paid for this video! Do you want to do another one? I just can't imagine paying $3k for it. Give me your labor price and I'll buy all the parts, drive to you and be your wingman. I've done a few clutches before but they were pre 70's.
Thanks brother wow that is a job I will not be doing Hats off to you great video
Im about to remove the engine out of a c5, this is a great video with lots of tips and tricks for diy, video quality is awesome too. Thanks for taking the time document, its hard to find good vidoes on working on c5 driveline!
I want to get one of these things but I can’t bring myself to doing all this just to change a clutch. I’m sure the performance is crazy good in turns ect but I’ll stick to my Turbo G35 Coupe lol
I installed an LS7 clutch in my C5 Z06 this past weekend. You DO NOT have to loosen the bell housing bolts to get the LS7 clutch in. You can hammer in the dowel pins on the flywheel until they bottom out. The pins will go in just enough and will give you just enough clearance to get the disc and PP in.
Dang! Someone on the CorvetteForums just mentioned that. Wish I knew because loosening that bell housing with where those top bolts are was literally the hardest thing I've ever done like ever haha. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely do that instead next time.
Shane Broussard how much to have one done?
$1300 at Henderson Performance is what I was quoted before I decided to do it myself. If you got the money then you should definitely get it done. The worst thing would be something going wrong with the replacement and now you have a half taken apart car in your garage and are trying to take it to the mechanic's...
this comment saved me a lot of effort today
I shall be replacing my slave cylinder in a month, nice to know this video is here for a reference because Lord knows I'll be watching it a few times lol.
I have always wanted a C5 and was seriously looking into purchasing one. After seeing this, I will hold off on that.
I was thinking the same thing. This is a ton of work for a clutch replacement.
Imagine being a ferrari or lambo owner- lol....
Same here im even thinking of going with an automatic 😂
Air rachets are great except on the 8 cradle bolts that connect the body to the powertrain. The nuts on the backside are captured and if they are blownout there is no access.
Great video, lot's of good points! While there, I would have replaced the transmission seal, $30.00-$50.00, piece of mind, plus will save new friction disc material; anyway....... Phil.
Nice but you should have change the rear main seal and rear cover gasket . That’s where all the oil inside the bell housing came from other wise nice 👍 job
Thank you had to replace the trans on my c5 and nobody had a good video
Great video. But why in God's name didn't you change the rear main seal while in that mess?
Looks like a lot of work but realistically it's pretty straightforward.
Great video 👍👍
I just did this and did not check to see if the green marks were lined up. I'm watching videos cause I now have a grinding noise when clutch pedal isn't pressed. It drives fine and everything but if I press the clutch while driving and downshift, before letting the clutch engage I can hear the noise go faster as it's spinner faster due to my downshift. Noise goes away when sitting idle and press the clutch pedal. Could that be the problem?!
How long did this take you start to finish? How much harder would it be without a lift?
took me two weeks but I was also working and going to school but could have gotten it done in a weekend. I'd say the same time without a lift. We had just as hard of a time pulling it out on the 4 post lift than if we just did it on the floor. You can see some of the sketchy stuff using like 4 jacks and a lot of 2x4 planks of wood... Would have been much easier on a 2 post lift.
U have bigger nuts to do this job than i do... i have an automatic .. i never beat it just drive normally.
HOW did you loosen your bell housing for the new clutch to fit!?
Thank you for doing this. I know you did this some time ago. But, why did you have to pull the axles from the diff?
Brake line clearance
You can just disconnect the brake lines with a wrench, and drop with the cradle. The disconnects are above the Trans on the driver side
You're the Best Dude, Thank you
Did you get the new fly wheel match balanced to the old flywheel?
I'm doing a clutch replace and torque tube rebuild as we speak. You didn't need to take the old clutch and new clutch to a machine shop to have them match balanced?
Cant you drop the engine down and get to the clutch?
How do I fit the torque tube back in after it’s out my shifter box keeps hitting the fuel and brake lines
Just be careful. The fuel and brakes lines will definitely be in the way, just gotta finesse it though.
Fantastic video
Should have replaced the main seal and seal plate gasket while you were there.
I always wondered if the clutch would be on the engine or the trans side, now I know
Nice. Im about to install a level 7 tr6060 in my z06. Whats your hp in that one?
This is a good video man thanks. I have a supercharged 2006 ZO6 with a bad shudder under mid throttle acceleration. Could be clutch or torque tube related I don't know yet.
I'm really thinking about doing this at home but not sure. I would be on the ground but i do have a hydraulic low rise lift.
Did you check your torque tube while you had this all apart?
Thanks.
You're welcome, thanks for the kind words. The torque tube was replaced with a factory unit at the dealership 22k miles by the previous owner but I did give it a once over just to be sure cause I know failures are semi-common.
Surprised that nobody mentioned the bread trick to get the pilot bearing out
That’s because it does not work on an LS motor. There is a freeze plug in the crank that you will knock out if you use the bread trick.
@@diydrake Worked for me, there was no plug on mine, it was solid. Bread trick worked like a charm on my 5.7. I should have got pics of it because a buddy of mine said that was unusual too. Was my first time doing the clutch, rear main seal etc. on an LS1.
How a you drive that with out a Slave cylinder I watched your whole video for some info on how to remove and replace my slave and you did no mention of it
I know I came here for the slave cylinder also, my car has been sitting for almost a year with a bad slave, can not find no one I trust to work on it and I really want to install it myself
This video is sweeeeeeeet. Thanks!
Great job!
How do you like the ls7 clutch? Do you feel a difference? Also was there a significant difference in size from your factory clutch?
The original clutch was effed and locking me out of gear since I first bought the car so I can't really say but what I can say is that I can't imagine there being a better clutch. It's completely quiet and not chattery unlike pretty much every aftermarket clutch I've had in my other cars, it's not stiff at all so driving in traffic is no problem yet you get amazing feedback and can really feel the engagement point but a lot of that is thanks to the Tick Performance master cylinder. Best part is, if I decide to do some mods it should handle another 100-200hp from what I've heard. as far as size, it's almost the exact same size and it looks the same, just a little deeper because of the dowel pins if that makes sense. Getting a stock LS6 clutch would be a waste and getting an aftermarket clutch would be a pain so I definitely recommend the LS7 clutch.
What flywheel did you use?
what model Benpak 4 post lift are you useing, and what is the hight of the 4 corners?
Always apply the threadlocker starting at the first threads so that it gets fully applied to all the female threads that are in contact with the bolt. Any excess will be pushed to the threads closer to the head of the bold. The way you did it is exactly what you do NOT want to do. Most of your thread locker in your example will be on the part of the bolt that will never even contact the female threads
how did you bleed the clutch ? did you just connect it to master cylinder and it worked ?
Great job man
How did you remove the drive shafts so the brake lines could slip through? I am about to rip everything apart and do my own clutch as well so I need to know! Thank You!
You mean the axle shafts? My brother helped me with that part because I wasn't strong enough but what I think he did was get a crow bar and carefully but forcefully pry them off and when he got them out to a certain point he just pulled them off by hand. Hopefully that was the answer you were looking for.
got it thank you!
So how did you out them back in?
I have a question, why can't you use the factory slave cylinder? Or can you?
I'd recommend a factory slave cylinder so you don't have to worry about shims. I didn't use a factory one because it wasn't in the kit I ordered.
Man I wish you would have told me to watch out for fuel lines because I kinked and bent the fuel line coming off the fuel filter/regulator :( it got caught on the shifter box
My bad man, I didn't have that problem but I'm really sorry it happened to you :/
didnt see any checking of the slave to p/p measurement. since this is a different clutch than oem you need to check that for proper slave engagement
No you don't, LS7 clutch is a direct replacement for all LS1, LS6, LS3, and LS2 clutch setups with OEM slave cylinders.
Not really a good idea to pull the torque tube in with bolts. It should go in without excessive pressure. That's a good way to damage the clutch and input shaft.
I get it but you have to understand I was doing it myself so it's not like I had someone to push the whole rear assembly and torque tube in while I put the bolts in. Because the rear assembly and torque tube were on jacks and because of the angle it was in from the lift whenever I would push everything in it would slowly slide out by the time I got back under the car to screw in the bolts.
How many miles will a clutch last on a C5? Obviously it depends on the driver. But is the C5 prone to early clutch failure?
Last owner had the clutch replace at 75xxx miles . I'm at 94xxx miles and about to do a clutch upgrade since I will be taking the transmission to get it rebuild to a synchro failure .
Another question for you, how in the hell did you get the pilot bearing extractor tool to fit inside the pilot bearing? I rented the same exact tools as you from autozone and it physically wont fit inside the bearing. Did you have to take out one of the pins in the extractor tool and put one leg in first then the other to get them both in? Thats what some LS1tech guides said to do.
I actually grinded the tip of the legs down enough till it fit....I didn't mention that in the video because I returned it after I grinded it down and I don't want Autozone to come after me... :P
any reason you used a pilot bearing instead of bushing
I didn't even realize pilot bushings existed till after the install but I've heard good and bad things from both and the failure rate seems to be about the same.
JDMricist pretty much about what I’ve heard, I can’t decide what to go with
I was looking all over for the thread on the LS forums for ya but I couldn't find it so I'll try to tell you what it said from memory.
Although the failure rate is about the same between the two, the possible duration of failure is very different. For example, due to the nature of the bushing, the only thing that would cause it to fail would be normal wear by use so it's much more rare to see a bushing wear out prematurely or early on and due to the nature of the bearing, normal wear by use doesn't wear it much at all but rather specific factors and circumstances like excessive heat, moisture, loss of grease, etc. So because of that, the bearing is more likely to fail sooner than the bushing BUT it is also more likely to outlast the bushing depending on the frequency and severity of those specific factors and circumstances that causes the bearing to fail.
I hope that made sense. If not then I'll try to reread and rephrase that when it's not 2am...haha.
JDMricist dang thanks for doing some digging for me, I think my torque tube bearings may be very slightly wore but not enough for me to replace them yet, if that’s the case I think I’ll use the bushing until I do all new couplers and bearings
This was a nice video where are you located
Man i wish you were in northern cali bro def ask you to do the work for me, you make it look easy. My clutch keeps sticking, slave leaking when it does and on oem clutch @ 107kmiles. Thinking about monster clutch or ls7 i have 98 c5 .. going to do cam and few more bolt ons so 400rwhp im guessing. Any advice ?
Unless you are planning on making some big power, nothing beats factory clutches when within around 100hp of stock. Aftermarket clutches don't perform any better or last any longer but they are louder and stiffer so unless that's your thing, a 500hp rated LS7 clutch all you need. I know buying OEM parts is lame and buying aftermarket parts is cool but not when it comes to clutches. I have always regretted buying aftermarket clutches in every single car I've owned but finally learned my lesson with my Z06.
JDMricist well c6z makes like 440rwhp so i guess your right but the reason i say monster or aftermarket is because i want something that can endure some half ass launches. I prob will go with ls7 set up, + new master & slave, trust me im def not wanting to do it because its cool i want longevity honestly. This is oem clutch in my 98 and it still doesnt slip or anything but than sticking pedal and leaving slave have to be fixed so just time to do it all, good $1600-2k then another $2500 getting that extra 80-100whp. Looking into boost but i cannot convince my wife that we can afford that lol
Dude, just boost that shit mayne! Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Hello my friend, how are you? I am now working on a Corvette Damen car. I am working on a type. I am an auto mechanic specialized in repairing American cars 🇺🇲👍🏻😊💫
Where are you located? and how much would you charge to do mine?
San Antonio, TX
Now that I have a job, I honestly wouldn't take on that project again haha.
get rid of that fram filter
Did you replace the slave cylinder?
It's just 2 bolts on the transmission shaft. Like literally remove them, slide the old one off, slide new one on, put the 2 bolts back on. Done.
I highly recommend replacing slave cyl, as it is a typical point of failure. My clutch is fine, but the slave cylinder is leaking.
I forgot to go over the slave cylinder installation but didn't add the clip later because it was super easy, just 2 bolts on the torque tube input shaft. But funny you say that because that was the point of failure.
Edit: Actually I remember now, I didn't record that part because my hands were covered in clutch fluid when it kept leaking in the clutch and I kept refilling it over and over till it didn't hold fluid anymore. After I cleaned everything up I forgot to record putting the new slave cylinder on and remembered to start recording when I already had the torque tube ready to go back in the engine.
Should have fixed that leaking rear main...
the main reason im about to take this job on is because i have a nasty rear main leak, this guy was staring directly at it and just left it😂
Don’t smash your chin on the fenders 😂😂😂
There has to be an easier way 😮
Fram oil filter... really?
OH , BOY THIS LOOKS LIKE A BAD IDEA
I can tell you've never done this before your taking things off that don't even need to be messed with
I would love to know what I wasn't supposed to take off for next time. Since you've obviously done this before.
Lol it definitely isn't as hard as you made it on yourself. You don't have to remove the lower control arm bolts. If you drop the rear cradle first, the exhaust comes out really easy. It looked like you pulled the brake caliper bracket bolts? No need for that. I understand it's easy to do things out of order if you've never done it. But I wouldn't do this job for other people until you've done it a few times because you'll be taking a lot longer than the job should take. And a tip for the pilot bearing, put it in your freezer while you're disassembling.
Lame lighting lol