Well, then just keep throwing money at your mechanic. If I can spend an afternoon working on my car, and save myself more than the clutch kit costs by installing it myself, I will.

So what makes it so difficult? There's a motor mount or three to remove. ~5 bolts holding it to the engine block. A couple bolts for the inspection plate. A couple pins for the shifter cables. The clutch slave cylinder, and the driveshafts. Then drop.

 

If you have a lift no mounts need to come out. You need access from above and below to reach all the bolts however. You will need to drop the sub frame, and disconnect the driver's side A-arm (I guess that's what it's called...my suspension tech knowledge leaves much to be desired) for room to work and space to pull back the tranny. Have a catch pan handy too. Other than that it's really just having the right tools and being able to see what else needs to be connected. Mine was done about a year ago now, but this is what I remember from it. I paid to have mine done simply because it's a royal PITA w/o a lift, and I wasn't as confident of my ability back then. I know I could do it myself if I wanted now.

I wouldn't say it's easy. I'd put a weekend aside for it and have help (for when you separate the tranny from the block) and a spare car available (in case you need more tools), but if you're savvy enough it can be a driveway install. It's certainly easier than a teardown, but I'd rate it pretty high on the difficulty scale.

 

no hijacking the thread

 

hobieKopek which year of mirage should I look for?
I'm on ACT website

 

97-01 1.8L. ...At least I believe it starts in '97. My Mirage memory is fairly limited as well. It's the 5th generation Mirages so it should be in that model year grouping roughly.

If you want to replace your throwout bearing you should call your parts department ahead of time or order one in advance. I know you had problems with your transmission, so if that's the possible cause then it may be a good preemptive purchase if it's not to expensive. The Mirage throw out bearing WILL NOT FIT as I've stated many times before, so either keep your existing one if it's low miles/low abuse, or replace it with another Mitsubishi throw out bearing (or maybe someone like Road Race could help you out finding one that would work with a kit...I dunno). Mine was so low miles at the time (16k, never abused) that I just kept the original one in. So if you're at all suspicious and can afford to, replace this part and avoid having to perform this operation twice. Good luck.

 

thx a lot

 

Installing the clutch was way harder then installing the intake manifold or the Turbo.

The tranny is somewhat heavy and very awkward.

 

This is what I did

Remove battery and battery tray.

Loosen front sway bar

remove 32mm Nut from axle

Remove Front A-arms from front suspension

pull out axle(s)

remove turbo piping

remove starter

support trany with tran jack

Support engine with engine cradle

remove Drivers side motor mount

remove sub frame

remove assorted bolts from top, front back and bottom of tranny (12 I think)

Try and remove trany, end up taking rear motor mount out.

install new clutch and TO bearing

Sleep for the night.

Sunday:

Put everythign back together, The rear motor mount is a PITA