EDITED:
It's not the clutch this time, it's the throw out bearing that came with it.
i don't actually know what it is, even after doing the job, but the sound came from the bell housing, along with other squeaks when pressing the pedal

I can hear it chirping away when I'm not on the clutch pedal.. it's pretty light and. I don't want it to get loud.

I'm going with an Exedy clutch again, and ordered a TOB that's allegedly OEM from rockauto. Pilot bearing from honda (i can post the P/N if wanted)
NTN pilot bearing comes with Exedy clutch kit from rockauto

Not anticipating doing the flywheel this time, and honestly the clutch in it still feels good *but*.. I hate this job. so. i'm throwing a new one in there.
Supposed to replace flywheel too, and I found some irregular wear, so I should have but didn't

Not looking forward to:
Cv shaft seals. always hate driving them.
See below for bullion jar that works as seal driver

Mating the engine to trans (requires going around all the bolts and tightening progressively -- they don't just clunk together when you get em "just so").
Untrue -- I put some grease on the two guide pins (more accurately, on the holes which receive them) and got it mostly on, then just turned the crank pulley with my hand a smidge and it all slipped together easily. However, manipulating the transmission is absolutely awful. You have to rotate it in hand to get around the subframe.. But on the other hand, you get to rest the rear of the trans on the subframe when removing/installing and hyperventilating

Sliding the trans out (I can't get it high enough on stands to use a trans jack, so it'll come out on thighs again)
I got a new 2 ton low profile, extra long floor jack that can lift over 2ft., so... I got about 24" of clearance this time, and could have gotten plenty more.

And then I'm sure there's loads of stuff I'm forgetting..

Anyways. if you've got questions about the job, post 'em up and I'll read 'em if its. within the next few days or so.. I'll try n keep em in mind as I work

 

Sounds like you might have a clutch alignment issue? Use an alignment tool, and then get the alignment tool perfectly centered in the pressure plate fingers as you install the pressure plate bolts. The transmission should slide on, at least until it hits a dowel pin (last centimeter or less).

 

Engine rear main seal, if you didn't do it last time?

 

@bobski I'm not sure exactly what was up with the transmission's not sliding all the way together against the engine last time. Maybe it was just a cm's gap remaining -- I did use an alignment tool and, per my ever-foggy recollection, wound up separating and reattempting joining the transmission multiple times out of concern over this imperfect mating issue. It was either a video I'd followed, or actual text in the service manual which instructed that the two relied upon fasteners to mate completely. I'll be printing out the procedure once again and will take note of this detail.

@zcargo I can't recall for the life of me whether I'd tended to it last time. The car had only 70k miles on it then, and I may have determined that the difficulty of dealing with those dreadful drive-in seals wasn't worth it. Perhaps it'll show in my old posts here.
Conceptually, a very sound idea. I do hit rather high RPMs at times. I just loathe those seals..

Edited to eliminate repetitive use of "I can't recall".

 

subscribed.

 

Happy to see you again, my friend. Wish me luck with this one -- I really haven't been messing with cars of late, and it's going to show. Feel free to reach out directly if it suits your fancy!

 

Good luck, señor. I'm subscribed because I've never done a clutch and I need to learn.

 

An update -- my own goofiness saw the job begin without records/pictures.
Well.. I'll start snapping and do a mix of disassembly and reassembly pics to compensate for what I've skipped. I'll write out the work, then come back to insert images.
Thus far, things have been rather uneventful


Something that will make your life easier

• Metric "nut grabber" (ball detent) socket rail *OR* a strong little neodymium magnet to stick on your socket/extension.

The hood hinge covers, wiper arms, plastic upper cowl, the wiper motor and the metal cowl (upon which the wiper motor resides) came off. I already have replacement clips for the plastic cowl when it goes back on ~

I set towels along the top of the fit to store parts up and out of the way. I'm quite pleased with this strategy.

All bolts, as I've gone, have been rethreaded into their respective holes -- a necessity when so many things are removed.

The car battery came out, along with its tray (the battery goes on the ground. My roof doesn't need another dent!) and so too did the entire airbox, along with its mounting bracket.
(this necessitated some wire harness unclipping and asiding -- access wasn't always a verb! remember that ☝️)
* Before disconnecting the battery, be sure to locate or recall where your radio code is for the security system, else you'll be tune-less when the job is done!

Another few bits have to be partly disconnected: the clutch slave cylinder (unbolted and gently moved aside) and the shift linkage on the transmission gets its troublesome linchpins removed (the firewall/cabin-side link's pin was the hardest part yet since it's hidden from view and has to be pried in a specific manner due to shape.)

Keep pushing that spaghetti out of the way! Go to tractor supply and get some tie wire, dammit!

Next up was a sensor, a transmission-mounted grounding wire, and the driver's side transmission mount...! He stood hunched, with hot, heaving breath. He reached back and dragged his long fingernails across the blackboard conveniently behind him.

Last time I did this, I used my engine hoist. And then had to fight with having its legs under the car while I jack *and* crawl under to work. Not this time!

I modified my engine support/traverse bar. Honda calls for it to be shaped like an "H" (four point) to sit on the structured points in the engine bay, but mine was "I" shaped (two point/two footies). If you don't have an engine support brace of any letter shape and are average dad-level crafty, you can build one. I'll post up my recipe later.

You can also try a very affordable 3 point brace from amazon (fours seem to be expensive ($300+), while threes can be like, $70). The manual said 4 point, so I have a 4 point. I've fitted wooden bits to convert my two-point into both a three and a four point brace now..




It does obstruct the hood prop stick, so some scrap was shimmed beneath the hood hinges to compensate


I'll post up measurements.. this was a fun side-project.

With that hooked up, the trans mount was removed and I started working the cv shafts out of the wheel hubs.

*You will need replacement spindle nuts/stake nuts for the cv shafts!

Somewhere within these doings I was paid a visit by my ex-wife, who dropped off a car she wants me to diagnose... this was followed by a strong drink and a shower. Will pick up again this afternoon or tomorrow.

 

@Pyts Good update. Quite daunting to me. Maybe I'll read up in the Service Manual to fully appreciate what you're doing.

Onward, my friend.

 

So far he's gotten some accessory stuff out of the way and set up a support bar across the top of the engine bay. Several of the engine mounts attach to the transmission, so the bar setup supports the weight of the engine while the transmission is out. Most people just use a jack and a block of wood across the oil pan, but this is safer. It might also be used to support the weight of the transmission while maneuvering it into the replacement clutch disk.

 

That's what I figured although it never occurred to me to use a crossbar set up. I certainly would not use the oil pan as a jack point. There are crane-like things to hang an engine from, aren't there?

 

"Engine crane", "shop crane", "engine hoist", yes. @Pyts explained he didn't want to use it because its base has legs that extend forward under the car. Those legs get in the way when trying to separate the transmission from the engine and move it out from under the car, which pretty much requires crawling under the transmission and pulling it off into your lap.

Not to jack the whole car up, no. The engine alone weighs maybe 190lbs - the oil pan can support that just fine, so long as it's spread out across the pan. Salvage yards routinely pull engines and set them down on their oil pans, even storing them that way. Just avoid setting it on anything that would focus the weight on a small area, like a rock or the points of a jack cradle. That's what the wood block is for - it spreads out the jack's lifting force and protects the pan from the (typically notched) cradle.

 

@bobski Thanks.

 

@bobski Has a better handle on this than I do! Everything they said is correct.

We (Northern GA) had a cold snap that stole some of my already lackluster momentum, BUT I'm remembering to take some pictures.
I got the CV shafts removed today, and saw that the passenger side shaft had a zip-ty failure on the inner (inboard side) boot

The color of grease that you're seeing here is the result of contamination. The grease I'd used was Redline CV2, which is *for* this kind of application. Said grease is RED. No longer!


Yeah.. I did zip-tys when I last serviced the CV shafts.. I'd pulled too hard on the shaft and dislodged it from its... Cup? Weird bearing race?. and thus had to remove and substitute the metal boot band. In my defense, I used good zips. This time though? PREMIUM ZIPS. Oh yes. Thomas & Betts Ty-Rap...

But anyways, you remove the spindle nuts (big guys that hold the CV shaft in the wheel hub), and free up the brake line and abs wire at said hub by removing their fasteners to create some slack. Then, IGNORING THE SERVICE MANUAL, you remove the two lower strut nut/bolt combos instead of the ball joint, whose boot would unquestionably rip if you try removing it.

From there, use some tie wire or, in my case scrap Romex 12/2 residential electrical NM wire.. to hang the wheel hub sloppily from the coil spring.

All this to say: Make room for the CV shaft to be worked out!


Then remove the passenger side shaft's heatshield. Which has a trio of bolts with one being very unpleasantly placed.


A better picture of the "Jerk Bolt". When you try and fit a ratchet on it, you'll understand (lack of clearance)


here's the pry point for the Passenger side CV shaft


And here's where you pry on the driver's side



Done with relative ease using my extra beautiful swiss screwdriver bought for an upholsterer friend and then returned to me because she got the impression I wanted to bed her. I don't understand how such fine swiss craftsmanship could fail to compensate for my lack of social grace, but.. No take-backs.


Oh, here's a shot of the heat shield further demonstrating WHY that one bolt is such a f*cker! See how it's surrounded by flange?! Terrible.

Anyways. That's all the progress I've made since last post, but I plan to pull the transmission out tomorrow, and potentially do:

• The clutch
• Throw out bearing
• Pilot Bearing
• Rear crankshaft seal (as recommended!)
• Possibly clean and repack the passenger side CV
• Get cut on something
• Not drink enough water

 

I've done a few engine swaps, engine rebuilds, and transmission rebuilds (bearings, synchros, 5th gear swaps) for my CRX. I haven't had the chance to jump in that far on a Fit. That said, the D-series engines from the '88-'05 Civic lineup (including the CRXs) are definitely the predecessors of the L-series engines found in Fits. The GD transmission is just a '01-'05 Civic trans mirrored left to right, with continued tweaks for the following generations. My latest CRX transmission rebuild got a countershaft bearing labeled for a GK fit - the CRX part was supposedly discontinued, but the GK part is identical. Many of the odds and ends (like bearing shims) still have the '88-91 Civic/CRX part numbers (PL3 in the middle of the part number) on the GK parts diagrams. Some things have changed though - the shifter is drastically different with cables rather than a bar-linkage setup, and the clutch is hydraulic rather than cable-operated. Though an all-wheel-drive Civic wagon (arguably the proto-Fit/CR-V) was available - the manual transmission had a cable shifter and a super-low gear, making it technically a 6-speed... Blah blah old man rambling.

You know they sell those metal bands and banding tools for not-crazy prices, right? Just sayin.

If you aren't bruised or bleeding, you probably missed something.

 

@Pyts Good photos and good report. So far, I'm thinking that there's no way I could do a job like this, but I will continue to follow. Maybe I will figure out some way not to be a dummy all the time.

 

Do you think you'll have to get an alignment once it's all put back together?

 

I also have this question every time I see someone unbolt the knuckle from the strut. Some cars use that joint for camber adjustment - I'm not sure if the Fit is one of them. If there's no adjustability there (bolts are the same diameter as all the holes), there shouldn't be any need for an alignment.

 

Hey yall!

Regarding those lower strut bolts, I think it's suggested to consider an alignment but I may have fabricated that. There are no spark-plug-gap-looking coin washers with degree markers on them, just holes and bolts and nuts. So! I go that route every time. Of note though, you do have to pre-load suspension when torquing those bolts during assembly. That means a floor jack under the lower control arm, over by the ball joint but not quite on it, and jacking that all the way up 'til it just starts to lift the car off the nearest jack stand. Then torque.


Ahem! I got through near None of my list, but the transmission is out, pictures were taken, specific fasteners were given the bird, and the transmission hopped on a bathroom scale with me for your viewing pleasure.

Let me go ahead and insert some images into this little text block.


Day goals achieved..

flywheel inspection plate (which you open when verifying that your crankshaft seal is leaking, or if your starter isn't engaging your flywheel properly and is chewing up teeth)

Boop

Rear transmission mount/torque strut. Gotta come out



Bottom nut comes off easy *but*... see next image



The f*ckin bolt here has a tab on it that prevents you from just pressing it up through.. You have to align it with a slot you can't see in order to remove it. Don't just... bang it with your rusty little demolition hammer.... thankfully i was pretty gentle

 

I took so many pictures...


Next up is the bracket that joined in holy matrimony, the torque strut to the transmission

Here it is again from a better angle (that's less revealing of its location)

And it's off!

And here you see that I DO need to service my crankshaft seal. or much worse, the input shaft bushing for my transmission. (Note the wetness on site, and distinct *lack* of wetness elsewhere.)



This bolt... Is one of the six that holds the transmission on. And it is the worst. I hate it. So. This is number 2. Number 1 was pulled from up top, before i took pictures..

Bolt 3 or 4, your choice

Also bolt 3 or 4.

Bolt 5

And bolt 6

And here's how I had to remove that horrible second bolt. Impact, impact extension ~10", deep well impact socket, impact wobble adapter... compact impact.. There are likely other ways.

That's where it fit in my fancy bolt-tracker device.. which was later foiled by my forgetting which way I was facing when removing fasteners... This one, at least, I have this picture record of. But many, if not all, are unequal lengths so..

More impact!

Impact failure

Impact success

"Impact" substitution