On top of that, we discovered how bad much my clutch and flywheel were. Apparently the last person to replace the clutch decided that instead of taking that heavy flywheel off the engine and resurfacing it with the right equipment, he'd just do a quick de-glaze with a rotary air buffer. Needless to say, he did not do it very evenly. The actual clutch plate looked almost new after over two years of relatively rough driving. Which made sense, as the flywheel wasn't flat enough to wear very much of it.
Anyway, the clutch pressure plate's center retaining ring had a death grip on the throwout bearing -- because once we got everything out of the way and got the tranny loose, we couldn't get that sumbitch off the engine no matter how hard we pulled and wiggled it! It had a hell of a gap and it just wouldn't fall... we actually had to take the 6 clutch bolts out of the flywheel from the topside, turning the engine to access each, and finally we were able to get the tranny to the floor and examine the clutch and snap that damn ring off the bearing. Finally we could install the new parts after an entire day of removing old ones!
Everything was going fine until the time came to install the slave cylinder. My clutch system was still full of fluid, we just hung the removed components with bungee so we didn't have to drain that too. This meant that the slave cylinder could not be bolted into place with the clutch fork in the engaged position. So, instead of bleeding some clutch fluid out and compressing the slave cylinder to fit it behind the fork, we got an adjustable wrench on it and pulled it towards the front of the engine. It didn't move too readily, and kinda hurt to pull on that hard, so we put a 2' cheater pipe on it for leverage and I pulled it while my friend installed the slave cylinder. About halfway through the second bolt, it snapped! I picked up the wrench, still holding the top of my clutch fork from the divet up, and stared at it in disbelief.
We were mid-Sunday by this point, so any hope of acquiring a replacement fork was lost. Eventually, we decided to try and weld the top back on to the fork right there in the car. We didn't have enough time to remove and reinstall the transmission again (nor did we want to) in order to remove the clutch fork and weld it on a workbench.
So, the fork came upward, as far as possible. Out of the throwout bearing, and vice-gripped to suspend it there. Flame-resistant material was bent and slipped behind the fork to protect the engine compartment. The fork was cast iron, so we turned the heat all the way up. It was as clean a break as I'd ever seen, it went back on perfectly. Got welded on the three un-diveted sides, then reinforced with some scrap steel on the two sides we could get to.
Bled some clutch fluid out and compressed the slave cylinder, installed it, finished everything up and bled the clutch system to get the air out. Clutch felt a bit tougher to press, but that was to be expected from the heavy duty pressure plate. It engaged and disengaged without snapping, and seemed fine through an estimated 20-30 shifts so far.
I hope it holds. We've sort of deduced that it it holds up to my standard driving patterns for about a week or so, then it'll probably hold up fine. There is a possibility that it is as strong as it used to be. There is also a possibility that the welds won't hold and it'll break the fork at some point, and I'll have no clutch until my friend's got another entire free weekend to help me install a new fork. Man. I hope it holds.
On another note, the WRX flywheel and clutch seem to be identical to the OEM models, which I believed to be on my '94 SS. Perhaps someone before me decided to replace them with a WRX flywheel/clutch combo? Or perhaps did the '94 Legacy SS have the same size as the WRX? There was no 3mm diameter difference as far as I could tell. Matched perfectly, tooth for tooth, with the 13.9 lb ACT StreetLite WRX flywheel. Although thicker... man that thing was heavy!!
I also replaced my controlled-leak TurboXS MBC with a Dawes Devices cheapest ball-and-spring MBC (think it was like $15-$20 with shipping). It seems to spike much less than the old one, but I still have boost spread. 12-13psi in 1st, 16-17psi in 5th. I've got to get back to work on the LegaCU and try and get the factory boost control up and running so I can get a damn solid boost level in all gears. I'm not dropping the money for an EBC, I'd rather spend that kind of money on a bigger turbo.
Did I mention I also got the Walbro 255lph pump in? Works great... WOT high boost EGTs are down. Guess I might have been starving the #4 injector a bit at times before, as that's the cylinder the gauge is reading (since #4 is last in line for fuel).
If my fork stays together, you can bet I'll be back to work on the LegaCU sometime very soon... I want stable boost, I want digital cab-adjustable boost, and I want more boost.
