Saturday started out like any other day: Get up at 11, knock the yucky old grounds out of the coffee maker, grumble until coffee is produced.

Around 1:30, realizing that the day's a-wasting, we headed over to FCP, where they did in fact have a 740 M47 clutch kit in stock. $175 or so later, and oh yeah, the heater fan's been making this SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH, so yeah, ok, another $80 or so, and we head over to the shop. Now it's 2:00PM.

Wife's 745GL up on the lift. Locate the tranny jack. Get some decent drop lights and flashlights to look at exactly what we're up against. No one in the shop remembers specifics of M47 in 740 applications. So few and far between.

Pull the driveshaft/yoke/rubber coupler bolts. This thing's got a looooong shaft inside it... and dropping the center bearing plate doesn't get you enough travel... and there's a welded crossmember back by the torque rods... so we have to pull the yoke at the rear axle and slide it all back.

Worry about trouble at the slave cylinder seems unwarranted. It spins freely in it's socket. We're lucky. One annoying circlip and it comes out. That's all that holds the slave cylinder in? Amazing considering the force it must be under. The rod is rather firmly stuck to the clutch arm. Pulls free of the slave, rust under the slave cylinder boot but no damage. Wire brush and lube that thing. Slave tucks up into the front strut rods out of the way.

Lower bracket bolts come right out. Exhaust bracket bolts were just out so no problem there- a new / used complete exhaust earlier in the month had all that stuff replaced. Starter bolts come right out with impact wrench and impact swivel sockets. Access wouldn't have been bad with regular socket, wrench, extensions etc.

Support the trans now, remove 4x 13mm bolts to frame, one 15mm trans mount nut. Crossmember falls free, send it to the parts washer because it's disgusting. Remove 4mm socket set screw, a little PB Blaster, slide out the shifter pin. Remove 4 LONG bolts on rear of trans case, push the shifter frame up. I hate messing with the boot inside the car; it never goes back right. Unplug the reverse light wiring.

Only one top bellhousing bolt is in. Long extensions get it. The trans is free! Or not... it takes a lot of beating, wiggling, jack work and prying to get the trans and engine to separate. Nothing at all good to pry against. Finally one side comes free and the alignment pins on the other side gradually work apart. Pull back, rotate to left side of car, clear the starter and crank sensor, now it drops out.

Discoveries: bad crank sensor. Replaced that while we're looking at it. Rear main isn't leaking a drop. Decide to let it go. Oil leaks are from distributor. Gonna need to replace that pretty soon I guess- oil all down the back of the engine onto the exhaust. Throwout bearing is trashed. GRinding and chunky. New one in kit. Pilot bearing doesn't feel much better. NOT in the kit. FCP is now closed. No one else has the right one. Grease it!

Getting the pressure plate apart is easier said than done. We do notice comparing the parts that the clutch failure is a collapsed pressure plate, not a burnt disc. Second one I've seen lately. What's going on with these?

The pressure plate is held on by 6mm socket head bolts. NOT going to come out with a regular allen wrench. We didn't have that size impact allen socket so we made one cutting off a 6mm wrench, and fitting it to a different socket. 3/8 drive cordless impact driver gets them out. Break them loose all the way around then remove in a star pattern. Plenty of clutch dust packed into flywheel, but disc looks ok. Volvo disc in the car, Sachs PP. New parts are all Sachs. Flywheel shows a bit of heat checking in surface but seems very smooth. Looks fine cleaned up.

Interesting find: the trans is not original! It's from an 87 or 88. The crank sensor hole has been hacked out by hand! Looks workable and doesn't hit anything, just kind of a surprise. Anyway... cleaned up the TO bearing sleeve, and a bit inside the bell housing.

Reinstalling the disc and PP is effortless. We did have a pilot tool, so no problems there. Reinstalled and torqued the socket head PP bolts. Trans back on jack, about 4:30 pm. Up in, on left side, line up input shaft to PP, clear crank sensor, turn into place and slide forward. Wrench on crank bolt helps adjust engine to get splines engaged- perfect, slides in and forward. Shifter frame drops right back into place. Watch where the jack is to clear the crossmember. Get the starter bolts back in. Exhaust bracket bolts too. Top bolt (one still missing) is no fun but we get it. Crossmember back on, needs alignment help to get bolts started. Shifter bolts, pin, set screw no problem. Probably need to go back in there and replace the o-rings that keep the teflon bushings tight. I got a good look at the shift linkage to see what gets loose in the pin/coupler thing. Simple solid pins, retained by a full-circle spring clip over the whole thing. Weird arrangement.

Plug in reverse light harness. Mate up driveshaft. Which way did those yoke bolts go? Take a picture next time! They're 19mm bolts and nuts by the way. Bolts for one side go through from trans side- otherwise nuts will hit the shift linkage. Reinstall center bearing bracket and rear yoke, no issues.

Slave cylinder rod goes together with a little never-seize, then push cylinder into bell housing. Requires quite a bit of tension while fiddling with the circlip. Both sides must be totally clean. More never-seize here too, don't want a stuck one. Bottom bell housing bracket reinstalled after cleanup.

Are we done? There's NO adjustment on this clutch. Lower the car. Connect crank sensor up top. Old one looks like it was melting against a heater hose clamp. Not very good. Clutch pedal travel feels good. Start it up. Clutch picks up nicely in the center of travel. Feels so much smoother than before. No noises. Cool. Time is 5:50 pm.

We threw the heater fan in there because dinner wasn't till 7PM. This required dropping the computer brackets, but after that it pretty much fell right out. The instructions with the kit show all sorts of mods to the airbox. Everything bolts in without issues and you plug in the adapter wiring harness and away it goes. I dunno what they're talking about. Rolled out the door at about 6:35. Need beer.

PS: Beer was good (Sam Adams). Wife liked the heater fan. She didn't notice the clutch. Oh well. The tacos were delicious. Don't care much for the beans and rice. Hope this helps the next guy out....


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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244-M47-208K ::: Bilsteins, Turbo swaybars, Virgos, Lowered, Group A wing, Tach, 6-Disc, Satellite Radio, Keyless Entry ::: Coming Soon: B-Cam!