Clutch change for 1998 Suzuki Grand Vitara.

[dooroy]

A friend has a 1998 Suzuki Grand Vitara , 2L with 4WD.
The clutch has begun to slip and he asked if I would fit a new one .
Have had the gearbox out of a Discovery 2 Td5 and a Hilux - but never had any dealings with a Grand Vitara.
Are they fairly straightforward to do on a 4 post ramp - any unusual things to watch out for ?
Any advice etc much appreciated .

[valhalla]

Absolute cinch to do, no trouble at all.

The only thing you will need to bear in mind is a decent, flexible, breaker-bar to just crack the top two bellhousing fixings off. I had to do these through the engine bay, down the back of the engine, so access is OK but the Japanese fixings can gall in the alloy housings.

The centre console has to be removed to get to the gear-lever grommets and fixings that secure the levers to the selector stubs. This is quite straightforward, but worth doing first before getting oily underneath.......especially if the interior is grey cloth.....

The boxes are fairly light, and with a few bits of timber slung across the ramp-plates, there's little chance of an accident (like a Discovery2 might cause you!). You will need a trans-jack or jacking beam under the boxes, but they balance fairly well. If you go the jacking-beam route, bear in mind that the boxes ahve to go backwards a fair bit before they can tip forward and down, so a trans-jack is the preferred route.

[dooroy]

Thanks for reply and helpful info - just what I wanted to hear .
Owner is a farmer and interior marks wouldn't bother him too much .

[valhalla]

I forgot to mention that you can get away without draining the boxes; the seal-journals stay with the boxes for the driveshafts. Unlike the front output flange for the Mitsushiti's that are part of the driveshaft and pour oil out when you extract them forwards....

As is the norm, the clutch slave cylinder should stay with the pipework. If memory serves me correctly, some of the pipework is rigid, so there's a bit of unclipping / unbolting of P-clips to perform on the righthandside of the engine. Doing the car on proper ramps is definitely a good idea, because there is a bit of dismantling around the righthandside generally (starter? mind is a blank at the moment) that is much easier from underneath, due to a bracket being in the way from above.

[dooroy]

Got the gearbox out of the Vitara today.
Owner told me that the clutch began to slip after someone tried to weld the clutch fork through the opening on the side of the box.
However they didn't touch the fork - what they were trying to do was weld the clutch pivot in place without any success; but they did manage to weld part of the fork retaining clip to the pivot and also get some weld between the pivot and its base.
The pivot is threaded into a small piece of flat metal which is in turn bolted to the gearbox.
The threads are completely worn away on both pivot and the short bar it attaches to.
The main dealer can supply a new pivot - but there is no sign of the piece of metal in any diagram ; I presume this mean it is not available..
The only dealer near me (20mls) have only got the Suzuki dlrship a few months and know very little about them they told me.
I was hoping the dlr would have come across this problem before - but as they are so new couldn't help.
Considering now that maybe this piece could be made by an engineering works using the old one as a template.

[sorted]

Difficult to visualise in my head but is it not possible to tap it out bigger or helicoil perhaps?

Or if room bodge it by welding a nut on?

[valhalla]

Sounds a right old mess, and probably something you couldn't have predicted. It's funny how these "mates jobs" always seem to go pear-shaped, isn't it?

I'm trying to visualise back to when I last had the box off my local Vitara - I think that the clutch pivot was a bit under-engineered, but can't understand what on earth anyone thought they were doing with the welding torch......

I find getting hold of Suzuki bits very, very difficult....

[remmington]

Apr 12, 2016 0:26:38 GMT 1 dooroy said:

Got the gearbox out of the Vitara today.
Owner told me that the clutch began to slip after someone tried to weld the clutch fork through the opening on the side of the box.
However they didn't touch the fork - what they were trying to do was weld the clutch pivot in place without any success; but they did manage to weld part of the fork retaining clip to the pivot and also get some weld between the pivot and its base.
The pivot is threaded into a small piece of flat metal which is in turn bolted to the gearbox.
The threads are completely worn away on both pivot and the short bar it attaches to.
The main dealer can supply a new pivot - but there is no sign of the piece of metal in any diagram ; I presume this mean it is not available..
The only dealer near me (20mls) have only got the Suzuki dlrship a few months and know very little about them they told me.
I was hoping the dlr would have come across this problem before - but as they are so new couldn't help.
Considering now that maybe this piece could be made by an engineering works using the old one as a template.

Have a good look at the flywheel, for high spots!

You may need to get the flywheel skimmed?

Or do the job twice!

[dooroy]

When I examined the damaged piece carefully ( looking for a number etc ) I realized that it was a piece of flat iron with a nut welded onto it to attach the pivot and a hole at the other end for a bolt.
I called to a local breaker who I knew had broken one or two Vitaras - and he had a complete gearbox already out. We examined this and discovered that the pivot was screwed directly into a part of the bellhousing .
This piece of the bellhousing had obviously broken off in the one I was working on - and someone had come up with a 'solution' to the problem.
He gave me the bellhousing and I now have the gearbox back in.
When I compared the position of the pivot it was plain that the 'old' one was not very accurately positioned .
This guy has owned the Vitara for about 3 yrs and he said the clutch was always very stiff - so much so that the pin attaching pedal to master cylinder bent and he replaced it with an old head bolt .
So no wonder the 'part' couldn't be found on the diagram .
The 'welder' I think was trying to reattach the pivot to the piece of flat iron - but only made a bad situation worse.
DMF seems in good condition - and owner reckons its costing more than enough already.
These kind of jobs , as you say , can turn out very messy to put it mildly.