I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel - still a ways to go though

Tme to get out the soldering gun. The STi trans has a six pin connector - 2 pins each for neutral, reverse and DCCD. The connector on the car has only 4 pins. So I spliced the 4 pin connector to the corresponding wires - I understand that in earlier cars this is a simple swapout, but the intermediate connectors are different on my car and the 05 STi trans. the colors are the same though - green and green/white for one and green and black for the other.

5 speed intermediate connectors.



6 speed intermediare connectors.



Spliced in 4 pin connector.



For the other two wires I used the leftover connectors from the 4 pin to intermediate connector harness. One is male and the other female, but one is right handed and the other left handed. I just filed off the offending ridge:



And I have a free factory look waterproof connector.



Time to remove the clutch.



The stock components are on the bottom. OEM factory Subaru STi pressure plate, throwout bearing, clutch disc, flywheel bolts, clutch bolts and pilot bearing at the top with ACT street flywheel. Note that the stock "Saab" flywheel has "EXEDY" stamped on it. Note that the STi clutch is a pull style and the throwout bearing appears to be sunk into the pressure plate. When tightened to the flywheel, it moves out. Note that the pressure plate mounting surface on the flywheel is raised from the surface and there are 9 bolts instead of six. Weight fot the stock flywheel - 23.5 lbs, assembly - 36lbs. Weight of the ACT flywheel - 15 lbs, assembly - 31 lbs. The STi clutch is larger diameter and heavier.



There is a cross shaft that is supposed to be removed to allow later positioning of the clutch arm into the pull-style throwout bearing.



New flywheel in place. Note the old faithful VW flywheel lock at the lower right - kind of useless for the stock flywheel, but the STi unit has the raised bosses for the pressure plate - makes torquing to 53 ft-lbs easy (with a dab of locktight).



On wth the clutch - 140 inch-lbs



On to the trans jack - real men or those with friends don't need the hoist.



Up, up and away...



Comparison of 5 speed and STi crossmembers and mounts.



Installation is typical jack, wiggle, adjust, jack, wiggle, adjust......  I removed the pitch stop bracket at the top front of the tranaxle and the slave cylinder to gain extra clearance and I used to floor jack to raise the front of the engine. No issue with the turbo on install - the six speed seems to have a little more clearance in this area. So now the 6 speed is actually in the car.



So much left to do...

And thank you to Spiider for answering Sunday morning E-mails - excellent customer service.

Last edited by LC (2007-12-10 12:39:54)

eurospek wrote:

QFT.

damn! holy sh*t! thats going to be sweet as hell!  *will this be the FIRST 6-spd aero?
and... its given but...

this happened to a friend of mine when he did a clutch in his older wrx. his problem was that he forgot to put in the little "dowels?" <-sp? for the flywheel. im sure you did put those in but just thought i might let you know? good luck troubleshooting!

I have been out of town for the past four days. I have two suspicions. One: The spring preloading the clutch arm is stretched very tight. If there was a missing spacer between the crank and flywheel it could account for this, and the flywheel would be rubbing on the engine - but I did not feel or hear any rubbing of the flywheel when I was installing it, but then again, I did not rotate it after it was torqued. Two: I may have dropped a nut and possibly a socket into the starter hole while disconnecting the pitch stop bracket from the transaxle. I did this with the transaxle halfway in, late at night. I am missing one of my two 14mm 3/8' drive sockets.

Research necessary for the first. Clean up the garage for the second. Then take the transaxle out.

I was really trying hard to complete things by last Friday - I had to drive my no-heat pickup to Tennessee this past weekend - it was 24 degrees when I left Pigeon Forge on Monday morning.

Yes, I put the dowels in - you can see them in the clutch/flywheel comparison picture. The other dowels on the engine never came out - I had to remove the ones from the 6-speed.

Update ; I have not touched the car in about a month - I have had a respiratory infection. Hope to get back to this in the next week or so. I have found no mention in the literature of a flywheel spacer on the STi so I am hoping to find a socket in the bellhousing with my magnet.

What ever happened to this project?    I want update!

bummer on this - good luck finding the socket!

I would just pull the trans again.

Are you sure you didn't install the clutch backwards? I had a friend do that in his wrx wagon.

I am pretty sure I got the clutch in correctly, but if there is no socket in the bellhousing, that would be a place to check. As I recall, the side of the clutch disc cushioning springs hit the flywheel on the STi style clutch if you put the disc in backwards.

i am... so.. jealous!!! great work.

Pics are working for me... They are photobucket so try installing the firefox plugin that fixes the bullshit blocking photobucket turned on.  And what did you want out of this thread?  Should the OP have continued to post updates on how well the 6MT was working 11 years after installing it?!
If your first post is to bitch about the site then maybe Nasioc's offtopic subforum is more your speed?