After replacing my clutch in my "03 996tt, I have a situation that I haven't seen addressed. Somehow, the motor has seized and I'm at a loss why.

A little background. My brother and I replaced the clutch a few years ago and had the same problem. The issue was we tried to use aftermarket bolts on the pressure plate an the heads were about a 16th of an inch taller and they were contacting the bellhousing. He was able to replace each bolt through the starter hole, rotating the pressure plate to the next bolt until they were replaced with the stock bolts. But the clutch was horribly touchy after that, and even though it did relax slightly, I decided I'd had enough and replaced the clutch and flywheel after about 20K miles.Yes, the flywheel was warped and that was why it would grab so quickly. I'm just a backyard mechanic, but I've done a lot of work on cars over the years so I'm not totally green.

On the latest replacement, there are a couple items I wasn't sure about and may have led to the issue I'm experiencing now. There was a great DIY write up on 6speed for the clutch replacement and it was mentioned to tape the pivot fork to the pressure plate to help align the fork to the bell housing holes to install the pivot shaft. I used a camera and ended up having to pull the fork towards the front of the car to get the shaft in. Also, getting the slave on took a couple strategically placed 2 x 4's to pry it forward enough to bolt it to the tranny.

The second item was that the pressure plate bolts were to be torqued to 17 lbs. this seemed awfully light. I wondering if the bolts are just not in far enough and they could be hanging up on the bellhousing.

I do have a lift, but taking out the tranny multiple times during this procedure, I'm about ready to give up. I didn't think the pivot shaft was going in right until I bought a camera and confirmed it was okay.

If anyone has any suggestions for me please, please let me know. I am so close to throwing it on a flatbed and eating the repair costs, but Id hate to do that after the long days in a sweltering garage on all the work I've already done. And I'd really rather keep my man card.

 

What do you mean by seized? Do you mean stuck in gear?

If I recall, it's best to do the job in neutral anyway.

I have been all up in there and I cant visualize the pressure plate bolts hitting the bell housing.

Getting the slave shaft seated into the cup of the fork is pretty tricky. Are you SURE you got that right? Maybe you're not actually depressing the fork when you use the pedal bc it's not aligned properly... ask me how I know. Lol.

I have done 3 slave jobs on my car and never used 2x4s to align anything. It's a major pain to do with the trans mounted to the motor and both in the vehicle, but I've done it the last two times. On my back, in my garage. Beats the heck out of removing the motor! It's completely blind work that requires two coordinated hands and some contortion. I can do it easily now that I have the feel for it, but it's very tricky. I did a write up on it, on this forum not too terribly long ago describing it to Vogz. Approx June 28, 2018.

 

I don't think the bolts could have backed off since the problem started immediately after assembling the tranny. I'll get under the car and checking that slave shaft is seated well into the fork cup. At least it will be cooler today.

Quick question, would it hurt to crank the pressure plate bolts down a bit more, say to 30 lbs?

Thank so much for the replies, guys. I really appreciate it.

 

Could it be a starter issue? Maybe you can turn the motor at the pulley, see what that does.

 

Okay. Checked the slave shaft and its seated nicely on the pivot fork. depressing the clutch pedal moves the shaft about a half an inch. Is that normal?

I already put a wrench on the crank pully and it takes a whole lot of torque to barely rotate it. I can rotate the pressure plat about a half an inch in each direction. I should have been more specific, but when I earlier said the motor had seized, I meant that it locked along with the clutch. Tried it in neutral and when depressing the clutch, but everything is locked tight.

The starter is off the car.

When installing the slave, the mounting bolt holes started at about 2 inches from the slave and I used the 2 x 4's to pry it forward to match them up and get the mounting bolts in. The pivot fork was all the way towards the front of the car and there was a lot of pressure there.

Man, I really don't want to deal with that pivot shaft again.....

 

The pivot shaft is a fn nightmare, almost impossible with engine in. I suggest dropping the motor and trans, esp if you have a lift. I would also suggest going with all OEM stuff, for my FW bolts I used 928-102-151-01-OEM, PP bolts 999-510-015-02-INT. The clutch fork does require some leverage but I didn't need any 2x4's. Otherwise I can't help much, sorry and best of luck.

 

Best advise I can provide is to start over....Remove everything and pay close attention to how everything is assembled.
You might find something is not in the right place....it has happened to me before.
I'd research assembly carefully before doing what you are doing.

 

Problem solved. I was finally able to get back to the project today. Yes, I started over. As soon an I cracked the tranny away from the motor I checked the crank pulley and I was able to turn it. Sure enough, once the tranny was on the floor I could see the pressure plate bolts were contacting the bellhousing. I also noticed that turning the bolts in further also greatly loosened the throughout bearing so it spins freely. I was wondering about that after the original install when it turned, but not as easily as I thought it should. Everywhere I looked stated 17 lbs of torque for the pressure plate bolts. Looks like I had to go to 30 to make it work. I did the tranny removal with the motor in and lowered a bit.

And the slave was much easier to remove after removing the accumulator first. With the motor/tranny lowered it was easy to turn off. Installing the slave will be a piece of cake with the accumulator out.

I started putting everything back together, but after opening my new starter, I saw that it was the wrong part. This one had a shroud over the gear and the body was about a half an inch longer. Hopefully the replacement with come in next week and I can finish up.

When I'm finally able to drive my baby again, I'm going directly to the nearest sports bar and getting 2 punches on my man card.

Thanks everyone for all your advice. I just hope I can contribute soon as well.

 

Something is not right if you needed 30 ft/lb on the M8 pressure plate bolts. That's a lot of torque for those size bolts especially considering they are continually worked with the stresses of the PP. 23NM/17ft.lb is the correct spec and I have never had to use more. It's a clear indication of an underlying problem you have.

 

I tend to agree. I’m not aware of the bolt material but you’ve increased initial P/A stress 80% to about 24ksi (ignoring friction) with operating loads on top of that.