engineer

I spent the weekend replacing the clutch in my girlfriend's HHR. Here are some notes other might find helpful on how to do this in a garage without a fancy shmancy lift or special transmission jack. This task is not for the faint of heart but if you have a little determination, some good music and a friend it's quite tractable. I was honestly expecting it to be more difficult that it was. Not a single bendy socket or custom tool other than some wooden blocks was needed. You certainly do not need a lift like some state as long as you can jack the car reasonably high. You need some way to support then engine after you remove the cradle and transmission. I used a support bar from harbor freight item 96524. We had to install it kinda diagonal to where part of it was sitting on the firewall but it worked great once in place.

What tool are needed

• Engine support bar
• You will need a decent set of metric sockets and wrenches in sizes from 7mm to 21mm as well as other basic hand tools.
• A torque wrench and a protractor (the flywheel bolts are torque+angle)
• Two jacks are helpful for things like lowering and installing the subframe
• 4 jackstands or 2 jackstands + 2 ramps
• Ratchet straps,bungie cords, rope, etc - something for supporting the radiator and axles. this is easy.
• prybar or large screwdriver for removing axles.
• soft hammer for banging thing into place
• oil catch bucket.

What consumables are needed

• DOT 3 brake fluid - you will need to bleed the clutch.
• Transmission fluid - you will loose some when removing the axles. Might as well just change it all.
• Blue loctite. the flywheel bolt holes in the crankshaft are through holes that go into to oily bits of the motor. From the factory there is some thread locker goop on them to help them seal and not leak oil.

Useful stuff to know

• The radiator will try fall out if not supported when you remove the sub-frame
• There is a hard to find tranny to engine bolt right above the starter motor.
• Though you are removing most of the motor/tranny mounts, there is one motor mount that stays in place and keeps the engine more or less where it is supposed to be in the horizontal plane.
• It might be worth replacing the rear main seal and slave cylinder while you have everything apart. There seems to be a great number of seal options available with varying quality and price.
• I bought A LUK clutch, flywheel and pressure plate. They were cheap. The clutch disk seems much less beefy than the OEM one. Time will tell how long it lasts. Maybie the OEM one is overbuilt. Maybie the LUK will not be very lucky.

Basic Procedure - taking things apart
Install engine support. If using harbor freight one, its gonna need to be installed crooked as shown in pic.
Loosen lugnuts
Put car on jackstands
Support radiator using a strap
Disconnect battery (in trunk)
drain tranny fluid from hex plug.
Remove wheels
Remove swaybar endlinks at one end
Remove a-arm ball joint. Pull the bolt out first.
Remove outer steering tie rod outer ball joints
Remove axles from transmission side. Use a screwdriver or pry-bar to pop them out.
Remove Steering shaft bolt - 14mm
Remove plastic shielding to reveal 2x sub-frame bolts (there are 4 big ones total) - 7mm and plastic fasteners
Remove steering rack bolts -18
REMOVE FWD TRANSMISSION mount bolt - 18
Remove triad of rear transmission mount bolts 15mm
Support sub-frame with something (2 jacks)
Remove 4x sub-frame bolts 2111.)

Lower and remove sub-frame with jacks
Remove ecm (3 connectors. Slide red tab, then push down while rotating lever)
Remove fuse panel
Remove fuse panel. Remove screws inside fuse panel. This disengages connectors beneath it. Then unsnap snaps on sides. Connectors can then be removed from back. Remove ring terminals. Cutting zip ties required. Removing the fuse panel is probably not strictly necessary, but it made accessing things easier.
Disconnect shifter cables. Pry out of balljoints. To remove them from the bracket pull back the cylindrical shaped plastic shaped things and slide them to the side, away from the bracket. A small screwdriver might help.
Disconnect slave cyl hydraulic line. It will leak. Restrain it above the level of the fluid and it will stop leaking.
Remove starter motor. Wires 8,13mm. 2x bolts 15mm
Support tranny with jack.
Remove tranny bolts 18mm
Remove pressure plate bolts
Remove flywheel (if replacing)
Remove rear main seal (if replacing)

Putting if back together
Putting everything together is pretty straight forward though getting the transmission re-mated to the engine requires a few curse words and fumbling before it decides you have put in enough effort and graciously slips into place. I ratchet strapped a few pieces of wood onto the jack to make things more stable.

I found torque specs here Torque Specs, Fluid Capacities - Chevy Cobalt Forum / Cobalt Reviews / Cobalt SS / Cobalt Parts. Be sure to use clutch alignment tool. Lube the splines of the tranny with grease that should be included with clutch kit. Use blue loctite for flywheel bolts.


Flywheel 39ft*lb +25 deg
Clutch cover 22ft*lb

Bleeding clutch - It is full of air and needs to be full of brake fluid instead to act as it should. Brake fluid is less squishy than air
This requires two people a tube to stick on the bleeder screw and a catch can of some sort. First make sure clutch/brake fluid reservoir is topped off and keep an eye on it throughout this procedure.
Alternate Between Cycle A and B a few time until no more bubbles come out and the clutch feels as it should
Cycle A - Depress clutch pedal. Open bleeder screw. Stuff comes out. Close bleeder screw. Release pedal.
Cycle B - Just pump pedal a few times with bleeder screw closed. This helps coax bubbles out of the slave cylinder into the line where they are easy to bleed.

refull gearbox with 2l of transmission fluid.

Oldblue

Welcome to the site!
Nice instructional guide!!
Thanks for taking the time and effort .

whopper

x2 - WELCOME - and a great first post!!!!!

Lucky

Welcome to the site

Your post has great timing.

I am about replace the clutch in my 08. My clutch don't seem to like the cold weather. I believe the pressure plate is failing.

number47

I have to change the clutch in my '07 LT. Where are the photos to go with this thread?

Thanks...

whopper

There aren't any pictures. Just the description on the procedure.

number47

Ah, okay, thanks! In one part he says "Install engine support. If using harbor freight one, its gonna need to be installed crooked as shown in pic", so I was looking for pics....

I'll figure it out. Not looking forward to the task!

whopper

Not sure what he was mentioning about that crooked one - maybe it is something in the manual for the lift.

yeah clutches on FWDs - I've done several on RWD's and actually enjoyed them. Never done a FWD clutch though (I just didn't break them like I did RWDs LOL)

If you can take pics of some of the good stuff, that would be great, but if not, understandable. Sometimes one just wants to get it rolling rather than taking pics.

Oldblue

Depending on the method of supporting the engine to split the transmission from it to get to the clutch and pressure plate.
I don’t recommend this set up!




When you can use this much more sturdy!

https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-l...bar-96524.html

donbrew

What he meant was the Harbor Freight thing does no fit right on the HHR wheel wells, so you have to be a bit inventive. I think it is the feet that are not adjustable and they should be pigeon toed to fit.

Or maybe the legs don't come in narrow enough so you have to place it on a diagonal.