Clutching, cursing, crying and cruising. 3 days to forget.

"sloPro" (IvanD) 12/22/2013 at 19:06 • Filed to: mazdaspeed, mazda, protege, msp, exedy, fidanza

0

4

So with school over, and finally having a day off from work and school, made concrete plans to finally do the clutch in the MSP.

show up to work in the morning on the day off i'm supposed to have, and they tell me to clock in to do 2 jobs, that supposedly shouldve came in next day, which is bull, since i wanted as much time as possible to work on the car, and not rush it at the end of the dam day. Anywho, 2.5 hours later i do front struts and alignments on a beige-mobile avalon, and a front bearing on a CRV.

finally put the msp on the lift and start dropping the trans. everything is going according to plan so far. lots of goodies were waiting for about a month to be put in. It's been 50K on that stock clutch, with a good portion at 75% higher boost that stock, and it actually still isnt that bad. just starts slipping when rolling on full boost. other than that still just fine to daily it. The throwout bearing and the pilot bearings were definitely grumbly!

Parts list tho: exedy stage 2 sprung 3 puck, fidanza lightened flywheel, medieval rear mount, and new oil pump.

While the tranny was out, i did the final rear motor mount, just had to drill out 2 holes a tiny bit to ease the install. yeah the filled in silicone mount was trash.

and while the mount was out, took the egr out, since its on the bottom of the intake and a lot easier to get to with the mount out of the way. wasnt really that dirty, but the pintle was definitely sticking, so soaked that bitch in brake cleaner and cleaned it.

at this point i figured i'd do the oil pump after i put everything back together and make sure it runs and drives. put everything together, go to start and WTF. turns over/cranks but nothing. also cant hear fuel pump prime. disconnected the fuel line, crank and no fuel coming out. take the caps off the fuel pump relay and main relay, and close them by hand, still nothing.

notice that with key on, the water temp gauge goes thru the roof, even tho its dead cold. decide to hook up the scanner. FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE. RUH-ROH. at this point im like, what in the world is going on. all i did was disconnect 1 ground and unplug a bunch of stuff, but even before that i unplugged the battery as one of the first things.

took the back seat out, test for power at the fuel pump, fuel relay and main relay. nothing anywhere. start testing fuses, all them check out. WTF.

oh and by the way, at this point i already stole an ecu from a buddies msp, stole a bunch of main and fuel pump relays from the junkyard (did get a new dipstick tho, my handle was broken), finally decide to throw in the towel and called our work techline support service people. they convince me to start checking fuses again! i reluctantly proceed only to find a 10A "engine" fuse blown. ERMAHGERD, how did i miss that last time. started unplugging harnesses, turned out to be the dam Neutral switch was blowing the fuse. checked the wires thoroughly and didnt see any spots that would've rubbed thru. said fuck it, and ziptied that bitch to the shift stabilizer rod. plugged everything back in, cycle key on, hear pump prime, and vroom!

then notice, the aftermarket oil pressure gauge isnt showing anything! oh what now? i havent touched the pump yet. turned out i bumped the sender with the air ratchet when it kicked back and snapped the senders guts out.

after that whole clusterfu@&, finally put my OPPO on.

also plastidipped the ADP black

and had some fun, yeah i know its running a bit rich.

P.S.: never got to doing the oil pump. was too tired of yet another dam thing to do on the car.

TL;DR: did clutch, rear motor mount, car wouldnt start, neutral switch kept frying the ecu fuse. unplugged it and everything was fine.

6cyl > sloPro 12/22/2013 at 19:45

0

how do you like the feel of the new clutch? heavy?

sloPro > 6cyl 12/23/2013 at 00:16

0

actually not really.

but here is the thing. on the stock msp one, it would basically get progressively harder the more you pressed down, which i actually liked, cause it was a progressive linear feel.

now tho, there is a very small "window" where its hard and it disengages, which is sort of in the middle of the pedal travel. I guess it's just getting hard to get used to after driving on the stock one for 2.5 years.

Luken10 > sloPro 12/23/2013 at 05:33

0

Would you attempt the rear mount without a lift? I have an AWR mount for mine, but have been putting off the install because of the difficulty involved.

sloPro > Luken10 12/23/2013 at 09:02

0

people have done them on jackstands before, but i wouldnt recommend it.