When i replaced my clutch assembly, i was out of work with a broken back (search my old threads for "Dropped the engine-n-trans today")..so i was short on cash att. I ended up buying a oem clutch kit from idiotzone, it has been in the car for 2+ years/40,000 miles with lots of hard driving, with no sign of dying yet. So go ahead and grab the cheapy kit..

 

instead of cutting it can you put some washers where it bolts to the fire wall? might want to check and see if there is a extra piece on the 89 for supporting the MC

 

yep, already got that spacer. but i did a little 'trick' and it's not slipping now. I undid the bleeder on the slave cylinder and pushed on it with the tip of the release fork, which displaced a little bit of fluid, then i closed the bleeder and there was a small gap now between the slave cylinder pushrod and the little indention in the fork where the pushrod goes... basically that gap made sure it was un-preloaded. then i pushed the clutch pedal a few times to push the pushrod back flush with the fork, and suck down a mL or so of fluid to compensate, and i then went and drove about 30 miles. didn't slip once. even stayed true on a quick 5-4 at 50+% throttle, passing a semi from 60 to 75. launching was a teensy bit easier too, but not much. the clutch is on its way out, no doubt about it, but at least my timetable seems to have grown a little bit from what it was 6 hours ago. now i can actually save up for a good clutch instead of an emergency "crap" replacement, and then getting the good stuff in another 2 months.

 

cool, so was the whine just gears and tires?

 

dunno, i haven't gotten the car back up on jacks yet. but i'm still thinking that if i had my dashboard in and the radio on i wouldn't hear the whine at all. I can change the way the whine hits my ears by how i cup my hand over the shifter ****... it's all a matter of acoustics. when i pulled the black plastic cover off from around my a/t shifter i could hear my broken studs more clearly. similarly, i've pulled a LOT MORE than just a plastic cover away from the firewall where the tranny is. the only sound barrier is the top rubber boot on the shifter assembly. the leather boot is tucked in the door pocket. if i remove the rubber boot i can drop small rocks and coins down and they'll hit the pavement below. but i don't have any other 5spd 3rd gen to compare to, so i really don't know just what the sound is. greeny would know the sound for sure but he's, oh, 7 hours each way. maybe i'll put my camera on top of my ECU in video mode and just drive haha.put it in a bag so it won't clack clack against the hard surface. but tires and wind certainly are noisy on my car. i always have to push UP on the window switches b/c i think i left one down but it is just that wind-noisy. and i don't even have a sunroof. still got to clean the shifter ball tho... and get a better center spring. but that was SO hard to install and i can't drop my exhaust so i will wait on that. it only really affects the 5-3 downshift. pretty much all other gear-pickups after rounding corners are pretty simple and i usually downshift 1 gear if i know i'm about to signal for a turn soon. it's just that the shifter stays in the left gate even when i let go of it, so it can be potentially confused for being in 3/4 even when it's in 1/2. the internal reverse-interlock spring provides good tension when moving the shifter into the 5/R gate though. and the reverse lockout mechanism works properly which means 5-4s are impossible to mis-shift. my god, am i rambling or what? also if the clutch chatters a bit on a gentle launch is that a sign of wear, cheap parts, or both?

 

Could be several things.

They'll chatter if they get worn down.

They'll chatter if you've slipped your clutch too much and put hot spots on your flywheel.

They'll chatter if the takeup springs aren't strong enough.

They'll chatter if you have the wrong type of friction material for the type of driving you do.

Most of the "cheap" sets of clutches I've installed felt mushy. They didn't chatter, well until they worn down.

 

ow-my-head-but-at-least-i-got-my-tools-replaced update:

well the clutch still slips but i not until it gets a lot of heat buildup (for example, getting lost in a huge parking deck while looking for the sears entrance with about 20 billion stop signs). Once i left the deck and got onto the backstreet, which was unsigned so i assumed 35mph, and i slipped most of 3rd up the hill. Once I got off the backstreets i made a b-line for the highway, so i could give my clutch a rest. Once i got onto Wade Ave (55mph freeway that isn't actually a highway at all... it's kinda weird b/c you're on an interstate-like freeway and all the sudden there's a stoplight. and houses.) and just stuck it in 5th the clutch cooled down and i didn't slip the rest of the way home. so as long as i stick to main roads it'll last me long enough to get financially situated, i believe, at which point i'll put in a good quality clutch and redo a few things i couldn't afford this time around. Like the striking rod oil seal and boot, and a rust-free stock cat-back that can actually be REMOVED (omg!) if need be. Then i can dismantle the shifter assembly and clean/lube the ball and put a new centerspring in. I may go ahead and cook it and chop it then too.

Greeny how did you re-thread your shifter when you cut it?

 

did you install the clutch cooling hose thing?

 

cooling hose?

you mean the trans vent hose?

 

yep that piece, the one that goes from behind the radiator to right by the TO shaft.

 

The vent hose i am speaking of is a small hose that mounts to the top of the trans casing..This hose has nothing to do with the clutch, it's only purpose is to vent out gaseous buildup inside the casing of the transmission.

 

eh? I don't remember any such hose coming off the tranny when i dropped it... there's a little nub with a cap that looks like a vent port but there was no hose on or around it that i recall.

 

This one..



your automatic should have had one also..

 

nope not that there is a hose that goes to the side of the tranny that looks like a radiator hose, that goes from right behind the radiator to right next to the the tranny, so that it blows incoming air into the bell housing

 

never seen one of these on any 3rd gen..Got a pic of it?

 

Pic taken from Big_E-Dog

 

Like i said..I personally have never seen one of these hoses on any 3rd gen maxima

 

my VG has no such hose... the a/t had one that vented openly to the atmosphere. but nothing that actually hooks to the intake.

 

It doesn't attach to the intake dude..

Your vg5 hose may have been removed by some other owner.

 

I'm sure it was on the 89. it would be up under the intake.

 

yea there is a vent but it just has a cap on it that pops up to vent. iirc.

 

the vent

 

there was no hose for mine when i did the swap on my 3rd gen.

 

... oops. yeah my head was killing me earlier so i was kinda groggy. ic now. a/t had it, VG5, as vernk pointed out, just has a pop-up cap. Unless anyone with a factory VG5 has something different in theirs?

 

Greeny do you have a RS5F50V or a RS5F50A tranny that could be one of the differences.

and well the vent doesn't pop up there is a plastic disk with a spring that holds the cap up and you should be able to push it down a little and it pop back up.

 

eh, as long as it works.

 

It popped into my memory what the whine sounds like. It sounds like what my idler pulley sounded like before i removed the a/c belt. Which means bearing of some sort? I can't do much to the car this week... I have to spend my after-work hours going to the JY and trying to get an engine ready to pull for us to put in his car this weekend... I don't know if saturday alone is enough time to pull the thing, run 60 miles down the road to the guy's place that's helping with it, and finish by sunday evening. But I plan to put in a new clutch by the 1st week of april so i'll do all necessary touch-up work then.

 

My moonroof is aftermarket and still works. Doesnt leak at all. It cost the owner nearly $1500 back in 1994. The slide-shade has a nice vent in it to allow air to pass through if you only have the moonroof angled and not open. Works great.

 

+1 My parts car has the aftermarket sunroof and it is a bit smaller than mine, but it doesn't leak and sits very flush. Could be better than OEM.

 

yay-for-beefaroni-with-cheese update:

in an unexpected twist of fate... my cruise control functions 90% as it would if it'd been built stock 5spd. and i didn't do anything special to make it work. i wired the clutch switch in-series with the brake switch... that's it. and they both work as they should. go figure. only problem is that since my n/r switch is broken, it'll try to engage cruise control even if i'm in neutral, unless the car will look at the speed and rpm and say "no way he's doing 700rpm at 55mph", and block it that way

 

if i can, i plan to cut out the whole roof, 4 inches on all sides of the sunroof, and cut out the corresponding section of my GXE's roof, then weld the parts car's roof section into place in my car. The car's getting painted eventually anyways, so i'll do it just before i get it painted.

 

hah, large aspirations for that car huh?

 

Heh, I'd kinda like to see this happen..

 

any particular reason? just to know it can be done? or b/c you think i'm going to ruin my car in the process? or so you can do it to one of your cars if they don't both already have it (was it standard on the 2nd series?)

 

I just want to see pics dammit! pics!

 

nopix4u

besides it ain't happening for... a while yet. I'm not painting my car until i get all the 'needs' out of the way, like the suspension and steering, brakes, and the clutch.

and i gotta buy another GXE trunklid (as well as either installing gas-struts, which would be uber-hot, or the SE trunklid springs) before i paint it, and have that painted with the car. reason being i'm going to get a brand-new spoiler to replace my glued-on mess of a spoiler (and it's lame-o pinstripes) before i sent the car off to get painted. but i may be getting a stillen one, or a wingswest one, which probably have different bolt patterns, which means i'd have gaping holes if i tried to put it on my current trunk lid.

 

swapping a complete roof used to be done for people who wanted factory t-tops but didn't have any.

I'm actually planning on welding a filler over the sunroof hole my current car has.

 

i-should-really-be-in-bed-now update:
http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u...%20swap/sound/
that's the best i could do to record my "supercharger" sound. mostly in 1st and 2nd. pulling back on the shifter when already in 4th also makes some noise, as does 0% throttle in 4th, but speed-maintainence throttle doesn't make any noise. it's weird. the screaming sound you hear in the middle of clip#1 is me feathering the throttle in 4th down a slight grade.

basically i stuffed the camera, facing rearward, between the ECU/TCU harness bundle and the firewall carpeting. And yes i almost stalled up a steep steep hill near the very end after i am cruising around a roughly-paved parking lot at 10mph. and yes i got caught at a red light behind a civic. and yes i owned him, because i knew you guys would want me to (not like you have to TRY to own a civic, but yaknow). and yes i over-throttled a 1-2 and a 2-3 right in a row after slowing down for a red light-turned-green and picking up 2nd a little too eagerly

 

Does it make the noise in neutral while rollling?

If yes, then you probably have something bound up in the driveline..

If the noise is only in a gear while accelerating/decelerating, then you probably have a bad input shaft bearing.

 

Well ding... may cause the roof to buckle - first maxima (?) with looks like russian locomotives straight from factory

My sparecar has the sunroof - I guess the only safe way to move it to my dailydrive is via pohotoshop?