My "Detailed" Clutch Replacement DIY (2005 Aveo)

[meiermat]

About two months ago I happened across this forum while looking for some information on swapping the clutch on my '05 hatchback. I have just shy of 400k miles on this thing, and the clutch had been slipping since about 250k-300k. My wife and I were about to go to the Smoky Mountains for vacation, so I figured it was about time to get the job done so I didn't get stuck on a hill somewhere. Anyway, I found some good information, but I didn't see much in the way of a compiled "This is how I did it" anywhere on the internet. So, this is my contribution.

Edit: Incidentally, I have the D16 manual transaxle. The manual also shows that there's a cable-shift Y4M transaxle as well.

I'll split this into several consecutive posts, each representing what I thought was a significant step. It'll probably take a few days to get all this organized and stuff, but I'll try not to dawdle. Everything I say is, of course, just how I did it. I'd do some things differently, and I'll definitely mention these things when I get there. If someone else wants to recommend things, please do. I've read that one of you guys can do this in a few hours without pulling the driveshafts. That's incredible, and I'd pay money to see that happen, but I'm definitely not that good. This took me four evenings, about 2-3 hours each night. It shouldn't have taken nearly so long, but it was dark, and I get distracted easily. Oh, look! A squirrel!

I don't think this is something unreasonable to do in your driveway. It was a PITA here and there, but I've dealt with a lot worse. I'm a pretty avid driveway mechanic, but I've never done a transaxle. I have done large transmissions on large vehicles, but this was a new adventure. I did the entire job myself minus about 10 minutes of lifting and moral support from my wife.

Here are some thoughts before you start.

First, you'll have to get a clutch. I got mine from NAPA. It was the NAPA branded kit, which is actually the LUK kit that you can find on the internet. It came with a throwout bearing, clutch plate, pressure plate, some grease, and an alignment tool. It was about $50 more than I could have gotten it for online, but I made the decision to make the plunge about one week before my trip, and I couldn't wait for shipping. Plus, I really like the guys at my local NAPA. One REALLY significant issue was that the alignment tool wasn't the right one. They apologized and promised to take care of it, but I was on a time crunch and couldn't afford to wait. More on that later. So far, the LUK kit is working fine.

Second, I found the GM service manual to be quite helpful. I'm not sure I would have known exactly how many, and which, bolts to pull if I didn't have it. Plus I've heard that torque specs are kind of important when it comes to stuff like this. I wouldn't want a pressure plate retaining bolt coming undone 20k miles after doing all this work. It's definitely not necessary, but it was definitely helpful. I'm sure a Chilton's or Haynes would be similarly helpful, but I don't know if those exist for Aveos.

Third, if you're doing this work, consider replacing some other parts. Number one for me was the rear crankshaft seal. I bought it in advance, and as it turns out mine wasn't hardly leaking at all. It's leaking everywhere else, as you'll soon see, but it was a barely-noticeable leak at the rear main seal. I replaced it anyway; it's definitely not going to be getting any better, and you have to pull the transmission to get at it. It's something like $15.

You'll also have VERY easy access to the seals around the driveshafts when you have the transmission removed, and you'll also have the shift linkage removed. Both of those parts wear out. I knew my shift linkage was sloppy, but I was dumb and forgot to order parts to rebuild it (not even sure that's possible) or replace it. I just left the axle seals alone because I'm going to have to pull the driveshafts next spring to do some suspension work.

One other consideration: It was really hard for me to find two quarts of whatever the manual gear lube was. I don't remember offhand exactly what the stuff was, but it's definitely something you'll want to source and order ahead of time. Regular parts stores around here don't carry it. It's a good thing I had my truck; one local dealer had one quart, and the other had none. I had to drive into the next town to get the second quart to finish the job.

EDIT: It was SAE75W-85 GL-4 manual transaxle fluid. The bottles I got from GM weren't labeled as such, but they were what came up in the parts counter computer. I just had to trust them.

If you want larger copies of the images, let me know. I saved the originals.

[meiermat]

First-off, I pulled the hood. I didn't give two monkey's uncles about it, because I've been in a handful of accidents and a friend tried to close the hood once with the prop bar improperly stowed. It's pretty nasty. If you're worried about the alignment, mark it. The holes on mine were actually close fits, so I didn't have much slop when I put it back on.

Second, I pulled the battery and the tray, and then completely detached the fuse box, and pulled as much wiring out of the way as I could. I detached the three front sensors from the harness so I could move that aside. I tied the fuse box up to the coolant reservoir, because it wasn't possible to completely detach it from the wiring harness. I also disconnected the sensors from the housing of the transmission. Here's what was left:





As soon as that was done, I pulled the slave cylinder from the transmission body. Mine was a sealed unit, so I didn't take a lot of care in holding it all in place. I don't know whether that's universal or not, but it was definitely nice to not have to worry about draining the system.

[meiermat]

With that done, I moved on to the driveshafts. I know the manual transaxle fluid is not a service item. I also know that they never thought an Aveo would hit 400,000 miles, so I decided to do a full fluid change. So, before I pulled the driveshafts I cracked open the bottom cover to drain the fluid. If you aren't changing your fluid, you'd better put a pan underneath the driveshaft holes in the transaxle case, because it's likely some fluid will spill once you remove the driveshafts.

The manual says you have to pull the whole steering knuckle. This is NOT necessary. I admit I had to put some stress on the ball joints and tie rod ends, but it wasn't all that much. You DO have to undo the axle nut, so definitely do that before you lift the car. Pull the dust cap (if you have one), undo the cotter pin, and loosen the nut. Then I pulled the tire, finished pulling out the axle nut and washers, pulled the calipers and mounts, and then detached the bottom of the strut (two bolts). Once the strut is separated, the steering knuckle can pivot around the ball joint and tie rod. The image below is from the passenger side. I was able to pull the brake disc out just enough to push the front axle out the back side of the hub. The front axle popped loose from the transaxle with a gentle prod from a pry bar. The two sides are just about the same.

Here's an image of the front suspension with the driveshaft removed. Notice the caliper seemingly floating in space. Steel wire works nicely to tie that up to the coil spring.

[meiermat]

After that, I removed the shift linkage. To be honest, I had started this before the drive shafts, but found that pulling the passenger side shaft actually freed up some space behind/under the transmission so I could access the connection point to the shaft coming out of the firewall.

Anyway, the shift linkage is several different parts. All in all, it's held in place at three different points. There is a hollow shaft that comes through the firewall and clamps onto a solid rod on the linkage (A). There is a solid bracket just above the rear transmission mount, which connects to a bushing on the linkage with a clip-on pin (B). Then there is the attachment point at the gearshift housing, which is another bracket that connects to a bushing on the linkage, again with a pin and snap clip (C). I took a photo of each point, and labeled each one in the photo of the removed linkage assembly. It would have been a lot easier to get this out if I had removed the connecting rod (D) from the linkage before doing this, but I didn't know how it was attached, as I couldn't see very well. It's just a couple of plastic ball joints, which come undone quite easily as it turns out. Taking that off would have made the assembly a lot easier to maneuver.

[MetroMPG]

miermat - this is a fantastic DIY thread! It's going to help a lot of people in the future.

I have just shy of 400k miles on this thing

HOly cow. You should comment in this thread:

Thread: Highest Mileage Aveo (how many miles / km on yours now?)

[meiermat]

At this point there shouldn't be anything still attached to the transmission except for the rear mounting bracket, the driver's side mount, and the engine itself. My Aveo has only three total drivetrain mounts (one more attached to the engine )on the passenger side). In addition, the rear mounting bracket isn't load-bearing. It just keeps the drivetrain from rotating, so you can't rely on it to hold anything up.

So, you'll have to support the engine. There's a special tool to do this. I don't have it, and I couldn't find any pictures to replicate it. I always wanted an engine hoist, and I need one to pull the engine on my Jeep anyway, and I was saving $700 worth of labor, so I figured it was time to buy one and use that to support the engine. This isn't the greatest idea. It doesn't give you much ability to hold the engine in alignment (the engine will rock when you try to re-mate the transmission), and it's a hydraulic system, so if it leaks the engine is going to sink. I put a bunch of support blocks under the engine when I went inside for the night, just in case, and I did my best not to put anything under the engine while it was supported. I like having both my legs.

Because I wasn't going to lock the engine in place, I had to loosen all the bolts first before starting to remove the mounts. Loosening the bolts was easy on the bottom half, but absolutely awful for one of the top ones. Go figure. There were a total of 10 bolts that had to come undone. 5 were screwed in from the engine side, while 5 were screwed in from the transmission side. I cracked them all loose, but left them in place for the time being. I identified the bolts in neon green in the following images.

Then, I chained the engine, using the lifting points, to my hoist and put a support under the transmission. I strapped it to my floor jack (the purple strap), and ran another strap (the orange one) from the strut tower, underneath the transmission, to the engine chain to help hold it up while I pulled the mounting brackets.

The first bracket to remove is the rear mounting bracket. There are actually two parts to this one. One part, the bumper part, bolts to the firewall, and the big bracket bolts to the transmission itself. You can see it in the picture of the shift linkage mounting brackets; the big curvy thing with the four bolts is the mounting bracket, and the part coming out to the left at the bottom is the bumper. When you detach the bracket, the drivetrain will try to rock, so be careful. I made sure I placed my floor jack toward the front of the transmission initially, to hold it from swaying. Then I let it slowly rock into its equilibrium place. The engine support would certainly have prevented this.

Once that was done I removed all the underside bolts (the ones labeled 1-6), and the one real PITA of a bolt that was on top (#9). There's a coolant hose and rigid tube that pass immediately in front of this bolt, blocking socket access, and you can't get a box-end wrench on it. There is actually just enough room for a standard socket, but then there isn't room for an extension before you run into other stuff. So, I cursed a bunch, cobbled together some adapters, dove in, pulled really hard on the coolant tube, cursed some more, and about 10 minutes later the bolt was out. The downside was that I couldn't get my ratchet free, but I had a spare so I didn't care. The bolt is about 2.5" long, so be ready to turn for a while. I made sure the other three top-side "easy" access bolts were snug and left them installed.

I made sure the engine hoist and jack were still securely in place, and then removed the driver side transmission mount. It's also two parts, but I didn't bother trying to separate them. I just removed all the bolts and nuts and took the whole thing off. At this point, the transmission was only held in place by the remaining mounting bolts and the jack underneath.

The next step was my first gamble. In my experience, there are always dowel pins or guide tubes to align the bellhousing to the engine block. I didn't know whether there would be anything like this on such a small transmission (there are alignment tubes), and I didn't want to put too much radial stress on the pilot bearing, but I didn't have many options. So, I took out the remaining three bolts while holding onto the transmission, and luckily it didn't start to move.

The last part was to grab ahold of the transmission, wiggle it back away from the engine, and then lower it to the floor. NOT! If only. I didn't think ahead to detaching the jack that was underneath, and my wife was gone, and here I was holding on to this transmission while leaning over the engine bay. So, I swore a bunch more, pulled the jack sideways with my foot, slowly rotated the transmission that was still strapped to the floor jack, pulled the jack sideways a little more, rotated the transmission some more, etc. until finally I was able to tip the jack over and place the transmission on the ground. It took me 10 minutes to get the stupid thing down to the ground. It wasn't that it was heavy. It's that it was strapped to the floor jack and I couldn't move it. If I had removed the floor jack first, or at least unstrapped it, it would have been easy to just pull the transmission away from the engine, kick the jack aside, and then put the transmission on the ground. Or, if I had a transmission jack that would properly hold onto the loose transmission. I don't. This thing is pretty small, so stupid me thought "Oh, I'll just do it by hand." Doh!

Anyway, the transmission was out, and I took a deep breath and a deep swig of my beer and thanked God that I didn't do worse.

[meiermat]

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Lots of room, nothing in the way, and easy access to parts from all sides. If you're replacing the axle seals, do it while the transmission is out on your table.

I don't know why anyone would replace a clutch and not the throwout bearing, but I've never raced and destroyed a clutch before. Mine was awfully grindy, so of course that got swapped. It's pretty self-explanatory. Just makes sure the fork isn't bent, and make sure it's in the proper position. While the transmission is out, there's nothing keeping the bearing and shift fork in place, so it would be a good idea to put a small bungee cord or rubber band on the lever that moves the shift fork, where the slave cylinder attaches. That way you won't bump it and knock the release bearing loose while installing the transmission. I didn't do that, but I should have.

I removed the inspection covers and cleaned up those surfaces while they were on the table. Plus, with as many miles as I have, I wanted a good look at the gears and also any sediment on the inside of the bottom cover. I couldn't believe how good everything looked. I let the unit sit in a pan on a rack overnight to let everything drain completely.

Removing the pressure plate and old clutch disc from the flywheel are pretty self-explanatory. There are inspection criteria for determining whether you should replace the pressure plate. I completely ignored them and replaced it, given my mileage.

As I was replacing the rear main oil seal, I also had to remove the flywheel. I didn't know whether its rotational position relative to the crankshaft was important to retain proper balance, so I took some grease pencils and marked its position as well as the locations of the individual bolts in the flywheel (I know it's anal, but it's only 10 seconds of work).

The old seal came out with a screwdriver, but the new one takes some majic to get back in. The driveshaft doesn't protrude hardly at all, so I made up a sleeve from an old laminated map of Ohio, greased it up good, and use that as a sort of cone-shaped "shoehorn", so I could slide the seal up the cone and onto the driveshaft. I luckily had a perfectly-sized tube from who-knows-where that I used to tap the seal into place. If you just smack it around the edges unevenly you risk bending the metal parts and creating a leak. Another thing you could do is drill a hole in a piece of plywood and tap on that.

Anyway, flywheel back on (I can't find the engine half of the manual, so I don't have that torque spec) and then time for the pressure plate and clutch disc. Put the clutch disc against the flywheel, insert the alignment tool, and...OH SNAP! The alignment tool wasn't much use. In my experience they're piloted to the pilot bearing on the driveshaft, and hold the plate in place. This one definitely didn't. Oh, well. It will center on the bottom. Or not. It pretty much just floated loose in the hole. It seems the pilot doesn't bottom in a consistent cone, and the alignment tool just bottomed out axially with no radial location. For a minute I thought maybe the pilot bearing was completely blown out, but I brought an inside micrometer home from work and it was just about perfect. EDIT: Just about perfect was my assessment of a slip fit; there wasn't a spec in the manual. I called NAPA, and they said it sounded like the wrong tool was included in the kit, but I didn't have time to mess around waiting for a new one. So, I just held the clutch plate in place with my hand while finger-tightening the pressure plate bolts until the clutch disc was just barely held steady between the pressure plate and the flywheel. I put the tool back in to align the clutch the best I could using a mirror in the engine bay. Then I took a little bar that I turned to fit the pilot bearing and put that into the pilot, and eyeballed the clearance to the clutch disc splines. If you don't get it really close you'll have a real bear of a time getting the transmission to mate back to the engine, but I've eyeballed more than one clutch in the past without any special tool. I've read, after the fact, about people using their fingers to check the alignment through the outside of the pressure plate. GENIUS!

At any rate, tighten the pressure plate bolts to 11 ft-lbs (I know, right? I couldn't believe that was all). I re-cleaned the mating surfaces, re-installed the two inspection covers, and then it was time for the hard part.

[meiermat]

Mating the transmission to the engine is easy when they're not inside the vehicle. Or when they're underneath a 40-year-old flatbed. Or anywhere else but inside of a subcompact engine bay.

It's really good to have some help with this part. Help can be an awesome transmission jack, a friend, two friends, a wife who used to row and can dead lift the transmission by herself, or whatever. Someone who can hand you things, take them away, and grab the transmission and wiggle, lift a little bit, or push.

Be ready for some frustration. It should be obvious that the ease of installation is directly related to the alignment of the clutch disc, so if you're not sure it's good enough, take the time to make sure it's good enough. Even if it WAS good enough, you're better safe than sorry. What's that woodworker's saying...Measure once, cut twice, then go buy yourself a board stretcher?

Anyway, I plopped the transmission underneath the vehicle and got some "alignment rods" ready. I used a couple old hex keys, but drill rods or center punches could work nicely also. You want something that's pretty close to the inner diameter of the threaded bolt holes. I liked the fact that the hex keys had an angled handle to grab onto. The idea is to lift up the transmission, get it close, align the input shaft, and then start to slide the transmission toward the engine. I started by hand-lifting the transmission. Then we attached a couple ratchet straps to the engine hoist and attached the other ends to a couple holes on the transmission, one of which is actually I think a designed lifting point. Then my special lady put the floor jack under the tail of the transmission. I basically fiddled with the strap and jack until the transmission was aligned as well as I could get it. Then I grabbed the transmission and started sliding it toward the engine.

At first, the input shaft will slide into the center hole in the clutch disc. If this part hangs up, just wiggle the transmission a little bit, or have someone rotate the engine or crankshaft. As it gets closer to the engine block, you can insert the "alignment rods" into one or two holes to keep the holes lined up kind of close, and then when the transmission is about to go together, it's going to get stuck on the dowel sleeves, because they won't be lined up right. Then you're going to wish the clutch plate was aligned better. At this point, if you can get one or two bolts started, do it. You don't want to start prodding the transmission and have it bump completely loose and start to pivot or spin.

When you're at this point, you're fighting two things. The input shaft is lined up in the clutch plate, and the dowel sleeves won't be perfectly aligned with their holes. The ARE slightly tapered at the ends, so they're not completely unforgiving, but you need to be within about 1/8" of the proper alignment.

Odds are good that if you got some bolts started, even just a few threads, that you're good enough to start cinching the two parts together with the rest of the bolts. If not, then you're going to have to use the "alignment rods" to gently pry the housing until it's aligned well enough to get a screw into one of the adjacent holes. Another thing that may help is to have your helper grab the tail end of the transaxle and try to wiggle it or rotate it appropriately.

Don't fight it too hard, though, and try to keep the crankshaft coaxial with the transmission input shaft. You don't want your clutch disc, which is aligned with the transmission input shaft now, to get screwed up. It can take a lot of force (obviously), but it's not designed to take load outside the plane of the disc (like by tilting the transmission).

Be persistent. It shouldn't take too much force to draw the halves together. If it does, and you're cranking on the bolts, slow down, back up, and try again.

Once it's together, everything else should be downhill, so breathe deeply and be happy.

[xintersecty]

Fantastic work there with all the pictures. It's like reading a crime drama and can't wait for the outcome.

[MetroMPG]

Mating the transmission to the engine is easy when they're not inside the vehicle. Or when they're underneath a 40-year-old flatbed. Or anywhere else but inside of a subcompact engine bay.

Agreed. I've only pulled a FWD trans off a Geo Metro (my Firefly) leaving the engine in place. It only weighs ~65 lbs, so not difficult to manhandle, like the Aveo's. But MAN I had some choice words for that thing trying to mate them up again when it was time to go back together.

Thanks a ton for this DIY. Tim (Daox) has added it to the home page "selected threads" list.