I knew my TOB was making some noise but driving home tonight, it began making the unholiest, howliest noises I've ever heard from it.  Each and every time I push the clutch in, 95% of the time, my car howls excruciatingly loud....and I can't stand it.  Not to mention some audiible chatter even when the clutch wasn't even being pressed.

Besides that, my clutch seemed kinda limp as well tonight and I was praying it wouldn't go out on my before I got home.

So....looks like since I definitely need to replace my TOB, I want to replace the clutch, flywheel, and the other needed parts.

How hard are we talking here?  I've never even attempted to even drop my tranny so I'm an absolute noob at this stuff.  Is this a job that is actually kinda easy or am I in for an ass raping?  If attainable, I'd definitely want to this by myself so I can save some major cash and at the same time, gain experience from it.

So any hints, tips, tricks, guides regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Life is going to suck f***ing balls for me for the next couple of weeks.  I'm pissed as s***. 

Tranny?

I've done a T-56 a couple times by myself, and that is a LOT bigger than a T-5.  T-5 is teeny weeny, you'll have no problem.

The most difficult thing for me was to get the tranny separated from the bellhousing, that sumb**** was practically GLUED to the alignment dowels.  Don't pry.  Shake and wiggle.  Not sure of any tech threads in particular but I'm sure a quick clutch title search would show net you a how-to thread.

I just crawled under there and basically bench-pressed it.  It's light enough that it's not even worth d***ing around with a jack.

I don't think anything really is too big of a pain, it's a pretty straight-forward job.  Clutch will come with a clutch alignment tool, make sure everything is straight and lined up.  If you have trouble getting the trans in the last 1/2" or so you might need to hook up the cable and have some step on the clutch pedal a little to let it slip in.

Want to get a drip pan under the tailshaft when you remove the driveshaft.  For that, you need a 12mm 12pt wrench, and then a larger wrench and you basically double them up, if you need a pic of what I mean I can take one.  Use one wrench to extend the 12mm.

Get some brake cleaner and thoroughly spray down the flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate before installing.  Careful not to get greasy hands on anything.

Replace your pilot bushing/bearing while you are in there.

Its easy with jackstands and a floor jack.

Oh yea, a pry bar and a big f***ing hammer help too.

Piece of cake man!  With all the parts ordered, and at your place, it could be done in a couple hours.  First time doing it, start a little before noon, and you should be able to go get some drive thru later before they close.

Need me to come over and give a hand?

A piece of pipe over a wrench works pretty well, but sometimes you just have to go for the wrench on wrench russian roulette.

Oh yeah forgot about that.  f***ing H-Pipe!  First time taking my H-pipe off took FOREVER because my nuts and studs were in such horrible shape.

You should be able to pay someone $300-$400 to do it. 

Pay them to do it.  It's not worth the trouble.  Not to mention the fact that if you screw it up, all these guys telling you how easy it is aren't going to drive you back and forth to work, or pay for the clutch and flywheel you f***ed up. 

f*** $300-$400.  There is nothing complicated about it.  You can get it done.  He's biased since he works in a shop and tries to keep them all in business with minor projects like this.   Just like he told Cara that she couldn't build her engine.  I she can build an engine (not a knock on her by any means), you can replace a clutch foo!

Yes it is a money vs time aspect, but I really don't think he makes $300 a night.  If the project was started on a saturday morning, and he doesn't work saturday night, I really can't see anything that could prevent the car from being driveable that night. unless the wrong parts were ordered.  Tampa's no small town, so picking up the correct clutch, flywheel, or T?O bearing wouldn't be a problem.  In fact, a good friend in tampa just finished some automotive school, and it a big mustang guy.  He's been f***ed six ways till sunday when it comes to trans in his blown mustang.  He can swap tremecs in a parking lot in about an hour.  He replaced the shift lugs in a friends car in my garage in about 2 hours.

It would be cheaper to fix it yourself and rent a car for a week than it would be to pay some shop and hope they don't take any shortcuts.

Thanks for the replies.

I don't necessarily NEED my car right now because when my car is down,  I usually take my mothers.  The b**** part I was talking about is how I have to wake up, drive her to work, come home, rest for like an hour or two, then go to school/work/whatever.  If I would be doing this for only like a week or so, I guess that would be worth it to save $300-$400 no?

Think I'm gonna make a thread in the corral about this as well.  The more opinoins I can get, the better I'll feel.  Besides, someone might of just recently done it and can tell me the low down on it.

Kevin, thanks for the offer man I appreciate it.  If it's cool, I'd like to attempt this myself at first and then if I'm having some major trouble, I'll let you know so you can come down if you want.  Don't want to drag you out here if I'm flying through it, ha.

Thanks again everyone.  Any other replies would still be appreciated.

Correction. It would be cheaper for you because you've done it plenty of times and have a lot more tools and mechanical know-how than him. It took him what, 3 months on the schrader valve issue?