Clutch replacement

[Bhoesl]

All the advice you have gotten here is good. Follow it. If you try and shortcut anything you will have experience on how to do it again next week. Have the flywheel surfaced by a machine shop. I've seen tons of flywheels that look beautiful except for the warp. Don't cheap out on the parts or you'll be gaining even more experience. Stay away from the Chinese junk. Using a pallet jack is asking for trouble. You need to support the back of the engine to maintain the angle to EASILY slip the tranny/ transfer case in and out without dumping the throw out into the bell housing. It's not a hard job but it's a big job that will take you the better part of a day plus machine shop time to surface the flywheel. Working off the ground is a pain in the ass.

After some more phone calls I did find a place to rent a transmission jack.

 

[Redmt]

Very generous of you, I wish I was closer, lol!

I didn't say I would do it. I would stand back and tell you everything you're doing wrong.
They probably sent a wooden double ended stick for alignment tool? Make double sure that you have no side friction. The clutch disc must be dead nuts to the pilot shaft bearing. Is the pilot bearing a roller bearing or sintered iron/ brass/ bronze?

 

[Caseknife]

The worst I ever got injured was having a creeper squirt out from under me trying to get up. It twisted my back and I was out for a couple weeks.

Almost mentioned that exactly!

 

[Bhoesl]

Thanks everyone for the advice thus far. Its going pretty well, all things considered. Working on it a few hours after work each evening and I now have everything removed: t-case, trans, clutch, flywheel….
Looks like the root of my problem was a chunk broke off the lip of the throw out bearing, allowing the fork to kind of twist and bind on there. Pressure washed the outside of both the trans and transfer case. Now just working on replacing some seals while waiting for the flywheel to get machined.

 

[Redmt]

Check the plastic inserts on the shift rails for wear. It would tighten up any sloppy shifting it might have had.