Work on the Boxster continued this past weekend. Time to replace the IMS bearing as it was an unknown and no risks will be taken. Pulled the muffler out and 1/2 of the bolts broke off as well as a shower of dirt and road stuff fell from all around. Wear safety glasses when working on the ultra HEAVY muffler!! Got out my hex bit and removed the CV joint bolts with a 12" extension and my wonderful 3/8" cordless Milwaukee impact gun. Zip, Zip,Zip and they were out. No sweat.
Tried to drain the trans oil before dropping it but it has a stupid security triple square drain plug!!! Who thought this was a good idea?? Triple square is rare enough in that size but a security tool is needed too?? Really? Have kids been stealing boxster trans plugs?? Do folks just take them out for fun like the do restroom stalls? This genius idea had me putting quarters in the swear jar and caused a trip to the store to buy one.
I found what I needed with about 1 inch of dust on it, hanging on a peg board over where the store cat sleeps. Got home, drained oil, made a mess, put more quarters in the swear jar, took apart the shift linkage. Shift linkage was sloppy due to the pivot pin at the back being loose in the bracket. 122K of shifting had caused the staking of crimp they out on the part to wiggle and allow lots of movement. I re-staked it and it was once again nice and tight. I lubed up the pins and got it back together.
I like to fix this stuff as I go so It doesn't get left to the last minute or skipped altogether. Bad memory and all that :-)
Time to drop the trans but first had to make a support for the engine. I was not going to use a jack stand to hold the engine up. I wanted to use the lift to drop the car, pull the trans on a cart and then lift the car to remove. I had some stuff laying around that worked perfectly.
Unbolt the trans mounts and begin pulling the trans bolts, except for the easy to reach 2 on each side. I once again run into the same genius that designed the drain plug as he has used a single triple square bolt to hold 1 position on the trans too!!! At least it wasn't a security style bolt head. I happen to have this smaller size in the tool box BUT it's so tight that it won't fit. My bit needs to be cut down to fit, so grab the grinder with a thin disc and get blacksmithing. Once out, I call my better 7/8ths to come and run the lift as I will be struggling under the car to get the trans disengaged. Cart in position, lift dropping, trans sitting on piece of plywood and we run right into Herr bolt doofus again!! One position has a stud thru a hole in the engine. This limits the amount of shaking and pushing you can do, which makes the trans much harder to get loose and pull back. After a few more deposits into the swear jar, the trans pops loose and the car is lifted away. Trans is sitting on "Ike" may favorite tool cart :-)
Ike is a great helper. He can hold a light just where I want it, can take up to 300 lbs. on his back and not get tired, he doesn't take breaks, get tired or drink my beer. The only downside is he's a mute and does not contribute to the swear jar which is my beer money.
Trans out of the way, pull the pressure plate and get a look at the clutch. Clutch looks just OK, has a manufacturing date of 2009 but when measured it about 0.045 thou thinner than a new disc. I'm not doing all of this work to put a more the 50% worn clutch back in. I'm a cheep yank but value my time more than that. We had a new clutch in already so it was no loss or added expense. I got to looking at the flywheel and it has more movement than I wanted to see and I'm not super familiar with the dual mass flywheels. I went to the google and found that 15mm is the wear limit at the outer edge. I made some marks and measure it to be about 25mm movement total.
Now this wasn't in the budget! These bugger are expensive, so I found a slightly used one on fleabay for $50 and it was one state away, so it could get here quick. made the buy and it should be here tomorrow. On to the bearing part of the story.