So I was reading the forum and I saw somebody eles was replacing the clutch in their car, I thought Funny I'm trying the same thing tonight.........I went the route of pulling the engine....everthing went fine untill I went to seperate the motor and tranny, and they won't budge from each other. We jacked the motor mounts up outta the cross member and tuged and tuged but nothing....is there a spot to pry the two against each other, should I put a jack under the tranny aswell.....Also I asked the guy if my clutch kit came with the clips for the throw out bearing, he said yes and when i got it no clips, then he told me it was a dealer item. grrrrrrr is there a part store the carries just the clips? Well it looks like Murphy found me again.

Jack under the tranny yes, to my way of thinking always, so as not to put weight on the input shaft when lifting the motor. I haven't found a magic way to seperate the motor/tranny. I have used a small flat bar and VERY CAREFULLY hammered the edge between the cases enabling a big stronger bar to be inserted. You can crack one of the cases this way but somtimes it's the only way, be careful if you go that route.

The ones that have been a pain in my rear before have been due to corrosion inside the holes, joining the studs on the bottom with the aluminum case. It would be good practice a few days before hand to spray the snot out of the bolts with pb blast, or your prefered lubricant spray.

first - make SURE you got all the bolts/nuts off. what vehicle and what bellhousing do you have? it changed right around 98/99 - 4 bolts and 8 bolt varieties exist.

 

after that i use heavy duty screw drivers and then work up to a chisel to pry it apart. start in one spot then work you're way around as much as you can.

It's a 98 I only pulled 4 bolts\nuts off the thing 2 in the starter and two on the lower part of the motor..... those were a pain, I'm heading out to yank on her again hopefully I can get it done today...

It's a 98 I only pulled 4 bolts\nuts off the thing 2 in the starter and two on the lower part of the motor..... those were a pain, I'm heading out to yank on her again hopefully I can get it done today...

 

i don't think both of the starter bolts attach the engine to the trans, one does one doesen't . there is a 4th bolt / nut on the top right on the passenger side.

I just did my 96, 4 bolts, two on the drivers side, two on the pass side. The lower starter bolt is in the trans housing only, only the top starter bolt needs to be removed.

 

I used the hoist to lift the engine out of the mount, put a jack under the trans to hold it in position, and then removed the bolts and engine.

 

I used a tie rod puller that had rounded edges to pry the trans and engine apart. There are two studs or pins that help align the two housings and those where very tight. In fact putting it back together the last 1/4" had to tighten the bolts down evenly since I couldn't get it by simply pushing it together.

 

To separate the motor and transmission, use a putty knife blade on each side at the top. It's so thin it will easily go in without doing any damage. Once the two cases have begun to separate the rest is easy. When i did this I then used a second blade I slided against the first one and then hammered a big flat blade screwdriver between the two putty knife blades.

HIH

It took a two days of prying but we got them apart......then the rest was easy.....untill The pilot bearing. It would not budge, So we broke it. then the outer housing wouldn't come out, while I was at work my girlfriends dad and brother pulled the motor and cut the rest of the bearing out with a die grinder. When I got back we put it all back together in a few hours. No more sliping, I also took the pilot bearing and hung it from the rear view mirror too remind me that it can be done......Thanx for the help.

Pilot removal trick: Fill the hole with grease. Insert something the same size as the hole and whack it with a hammer. Bearing will almost always pop out.

old trick John associated with phosphor bronze bushings

 

the Subaru models I have seen are ball bearing affairs

and I doubt that would work.

We thought about that but we didn't have a grease gun, so we thought it would just break, well hind site is 20\20 I suppose.