[Waylander]

Thats my little site, glad you found something useful

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[Uber968]

In the end, the torque tube was pretty straight forward.  The schematic was most useful for disassembly.  Once the clamping screw, tube bolts, clutch housing bolts, and starter ring bolts were removed, everything was free and easy to work with.  I should mention that removing the starter and the hose & wire clips on the clutch housing made things easier.  The top bolts on the clutch housing are annoying, but not impossible.  I used a small socket to spin them out after using a breaker bar to crack them.  

 

Then, I slid everything to the rear to gain access to the clutch housing and removed the circlip that holds the spacer & flex damper on the tube splines.  It helped to use a pry bar to gently loosen things up. The damper came right out...in 2 pieces.

 

I'm amazed that the car was still driving. Other than an intermittent rattle, I never would have guessed the damper had completely failed.  Less the rattle, it drove just as it always had.  I had read in someone's post that there is supposedly a metal piece embedded in the rubber that will get you home or to the shop when the rubber fails, but I see no evidence of that in mine.  It would appear that the jagged tear was the only part of my damper transferring power and preventing the remainder of the rubber portion from spinning freely.  As the pictures show, the remaining 3/4 of the rubber had separated at the outer edge.

 

Once my Sunset order with new nuts, bolts, o-rings and assorted giblets arrives, I'll just have to get it all back together. :blink:

 

Thanks to those that helped out!

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[J.Elenbaas]

The link i sended is just of of many that exist on the web, at that site there are also a lot of other manuals.

 

I'm glad we (also Waylander) could help you out

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[Waylander]

I would also buy some new rear cv joint bolts, they are not stretch bolts but reused ones seem to have a habit of coming loose

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[ds968]

Looking at the photos Im also shocked the car drove at all ! By comparison, my plate had a hairline crack ( by comparison that is, it was actually a tear, but far smaller and no way near the overall deterioration of yours ) and although there was no rattle, I felt a moderate thump and a clank with most shifts , taking off from a stand still , and IIRC, when coming to a stop.


But with the supercharger in an automatic 968 I was informed I should not expect the flex dampener ( any new one ) to last much more than about 3 years .,


p.s. apologies for using highly technical terminology like thump and clank

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[Uber968]

Waylander - Every nut, bolt, and thing-a-ma-jig, including the cv joint bolts, is getting replaced.  I don't like used hardware.  I find it's prone to stripping/failing the next time you try to remove it.  This was also a good opportunity to freshen up everything I can access on the transmission, such as hoses, seals, etc.  The hardware bill was about $250.  I ended up ordering from Sonnen Porsche, who's prices couldn't be beat. 

 

ds968 - Your speaking my language! I'm well versed with those descriptors as well. I can't help but think that the damper failed due to age alone, as opposed to hard wear.  I suspect the bond between the rubber and metal failed with time, with only 1/4 of the outer rubber damper remaining fixed to the metal.  The damper likely tore itself apart after all the power was being transferred through the remaining 1/4 of attached rubber, resulting in the ugly tear.

 

I noticed my new damper's part number has been revised.  Hopefully the part was improved as well.  I sure wouldn't want to do this job every three years.  I'm hoping for another 27 years. 

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[Waylander]

Should have the manufacture date on the part or the bag


Im pretty sure they have not made any new ones in the last 15-20 years

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[ds968]

This is just hearsay, but I recall a few posts suggesting that the flex plates in 968s have a fairly decent lifespan ( at least 10 years and often a lot longer ) with normal driving . Normal as in not using the manual / tip mode to put it in first gear when you floor it off the line ( the auto mode starts off the line in second gear, designed that way solely for the preservation of the flex plate ) or also flooring it at certain points in 4th gear auto where it downshifts two gears ...not too frequently anyway, because thatll quickly erode the longevity of that plate .

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[Uber968]

The only date I can find is on the box: January 23, 2017.

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[Uber968]

ds968 - I suspect you are right about the longevity of the damper. I have service records back to 1995 and I dont see a replacement damper in any of them. This car has lived an easy life so I suspect the one I pulled may be original.

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[Waylander]

Hi

 

I was asking simply because quite a few of the companies that made parts have gone down the tubes in the 2010 recession,

 

the company that pressed out the brake disk stone guards is one I know off

 

the company that made the rear suspension mounts another

 

the company that made the front suspension top mounts

 

I'm not suggesting it might be old and inferior, its just nice to know that some of the really important parts are still getting made.

 

Also I believe I read somewhere that the two big lugs on the centre of the drive plate hook on the inside of the flywheel to provide drive even if the rubber in plate is completely destroyed, they would not touch with all the rubber inplace.

 

Found this picture, you can see the lugs that the drive damper should hook on if it fails completely, bet it makes a bit of noise

 

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[Uber968]

Hi Waylander,

 

I took no offence to your manufacturing date question. I hadn’t checked myself. I agree, it’s good to see Porsche is having these parts produced from time to time.

<p style="font-size:12px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';"> 

<p style="font-size:12px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';">Now that you point it out with a photo of the flywheel, it’s painfully obvious where my rattle was coming from.  You’re correct, the damper would catch on the flywheel as you’ve described, creating a fail-safe.  Perhaps the fail-safe is fairly durable, given the condition of the damper I removed.  I’ve been chasing that intermittent rattle for a while, which would suggest mine has seen some use.  Thanks for the explanation. 

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[oppositelock]

Yes, that is the fail safe to get you home. Two of your four catch lugs have been machined off by the wings on your old damper.

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[jsheiry]

There are some threads around where some shops have deleted the rubber damper plate and put in the manual flywheel, clutch, pressure plate instead.  I would think this approach would be overkill for the standard 968 but for someone with a super charger may just be the ticket to never doing this job again and feel safe about dropping the hammer.

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[ds968]

There is only one 968 Tip car left with a supercharger in the world ( as far as I know .. at least a D1R SC , no idea if anyone else installed SFR or other SC’s on their tip 968s ) after I sold mine , whose engine will be transplanted to a six speed 968.

But as I understand it , putting in a manual flywheel in a tip, although effective form a greater longevity standpoint, would make the tip horrible car to drive unless you like rattles, shaking and vibrations along the way ..

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[Uber968]

My parts arrived from Sonnen Porsche this week so I got back to work.  Today, I installed the new flex damper, clutch housing, front end of the torque tube, and the starter.  I took my time, cleaning anything that had accumulated dirt or oil along the way.  It was nice to be working with new hardware.  I was liberal with my application of blue loctite on all the bolts, given how these beasts rumble.  

 

After seeing the damage to the lugs on the flywheel that Waylander previously posted, I had a closer look at mine.  Fortunately, it was in good condition, without any damage to the lugs.

 

The starter ring was a very tight fit on the new damper.  I applied some all purpose grease to the inside of the starter ring and the outside edge of the damper.  After supporting the damper on the outer edges with some scrap wood, I tapped the starter ring onto the damper.  Without that support, the force of any hammering on the starter ring would have been transferred to the rubber damper.

 

I've also attached a picture of the circlip that holds the spacer and the damper to the torque tube, inside the clutch cover.  In that photo, I have not yet seated the circlip in the groove towards the spacer and damper.  During disassembly, this was difficult to see until things loosened up a bit.  If the the next poor soul that does this job is a visual learner like me, hopefully this photo gives them a better idea of how this all fits together.   

 

The last photo is a new flywheel bolt.  Although I've replaced all the hardware I can while doing this job, the old flywheel bolts were particularly bad.  I had to punch a 1/4" hex (6.35mm) into a few of the 6mm bolt heads to take them out without stripping them.  These should definitely be replaced if this job is to be performed.  Also, there is a second access port on the upper portion of the clutch housing that allows you to insert/remove 2 flywheel bolts at once, before having to rotate the damper/flywheel.  Half the work!

 

It's also worth cleaning the starter cable connectors and checking the condition of the cable insulation while you're putting this back together.  I found a nick in one of my starter cables that was remedied with some fresh shrink tubing.  Fortunately, the cable hadn't corroded at all.  Lastly, I was unable to find the torque specs for the 2 large starter bolts.  If anyone has that spec, I'd appreciate it.

 

That's it for today.

 

Best,

 

Trent

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[unknown4u]

Why did you not heat up the starterring? The make it yourselves a bit easier?

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[Uber968]

A little grease and a few taps with a rubber mallet did the job for me.

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[Uber968]

Note to anyone that undertakes this; Don’t forget to order new bolts for the transmission mount.  Of the 3 original bolts that attach the transmission to the mount, one failed when I torqued it to spec on installation.  One of the bolts is special order from Germany, so now I’m waiting for 3 more bolts to finish the job.  

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[Uber968]

My 3 German bolts for the transmission mount finally showed up last week, so I decided to button up the 968 today.  Thankfully, the broken bolt came out easily and everything else went back together as per the book.  

 

I also added 2 more bolts to the clutch housing protective plate.  PET calls for 2, which is what I had, but there are 4 threaded holes.  I figured the less chance of vibration, the better.

 

All that's left to do is add some ATF in the morning, hope the rain stops, and go for a drive.

 

 

 

 

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