Clutch query

I was wondering if someone could advise me if its possible to change the clutch on my GTA without removing the engine. Can it be done by just dropping the engine down and back a bit?

No .It's got to come up and out .No real shortcuts apart from not lifting it very high

Engine back and up, or drop the whole rear out of the car. Ive done it both ways and if you have limited facilities and only want to change the clutch without doing anything else (lke clean up the rear subframe) then the former is easier IMO.

Given the difficulty of changing the clutch, the flywheel should also be ground to give a good surface. It is difficult to turn the clutch face on a lathe as there will be hard spots that the tool will tend to bounce over.

You may well get shudder if you don't machine the face, and anyway the new clutch plate would take some time to wear into the grooves on the old flywheel.

Thanks for the advice just waiting on the clutch arriving. Not touching the sub frame so i think i'll just try and lift it up and back a bit.

Cheers

It is very tight.......try and remove everything you can from the engine before doing it (crank pulley off makes a worthwhile difference).

Ended up taking the engine right out in the end as the flywheel did indeed need skimmed. This made the clutch change fairly easy but i think it would probably have been possible by just removing the exhaust and moving the engine back, had the flywheel been ok.

I now have a master cylinder problem which appears to be leaking badly and i thought a replacement would be required at about £120 or so. However it turns out a repair kit is still availabe from Renault for £5 + vat. Just thought i'd let you know in case anyone has the same problem and is about to fork out for new parts. of course you probably all already know this.

just 3 weeks ago the 'king robbers quoted me £19 +vat for p/n 77 01 203 327.
Let me know what arrives in the kit and if the parts are branded at all.

Hi Simon, not sure if it makes a difference but i drive a 1989 GTA atmo and the master cylinder looks a bit different from the turbo one on the parts list diagram. Also is the part number you mention not for the slave cylinder (I'm not very mechanically minded though so probably talking rubbish here)

Anyhow the repair kit is coming from France, by slowboat apparently as its taking 5-7 days , so i'll let you know what arrives.

sorry, i did not realise you had an atmo.
the 'feed' to the master does look different, on my car the feed is at an angle like the picture in the parts manual for the D501. Does your feed go up at an angle, or vertically like it does in the atmo diagram?
However, I notice that the clutch master cylinder part number for the turbo and atmo are the same, just like the repair kit. Yup, I think that p/n i mentioned is for the slave repair kit, which is no good for the master ( i guess).

So you have a dealer that can source repair kits for something that is not in the parts manual? ......... you lucky man, my dealer can only do 2 things, order parts by part number and charge me. Lets wait see what turns up next week and let us know the part number too.

Carefull with repair kits though, if the piston is scored and leaking, putting a new seal in will most likely leak again...

Got the kit from Renault but it was just the rubber seal and connector on top of the cylinder which wasn't what i needed. Bought a new master cylinder in the end but after fitting it found out the bloody seals were gone on the slave.

All fitted now along with a new expansion tank as it was leaking under pressure and a set of plugs, alls good for the time being..... bigger i've probably just jinxed it.