Clutch spring removal? Am I the only one that it's not easy for?

So a few weeks ago I tried installing the steeda clutch spring and spent 45 minutes before giving up and taking it to a shop. Took them 20-25 minutes to get it out. Now I'm wanting to go back to the stock clutch spring and I can't even take the steeda one out.

I notice on most videos that people are using needle nose vise grips to take out the stock one, but even those seem to be too big to fit between in the spring for the Steeda one, so I can't find a way to grip them and pull it out. I can't find any that are more skinnier than that at any nearby auto part stores, unless I'm just completely doing it wrong.

Any tips? This is pretty frustrating as I know everyone says it takes them 10 secs.

No, I agree - it was an extremely frustrating pain in the butt for me even with needle nose vise grips I bought just to do that job. I finally got it done, but also wonder how others said it was so easy.

You had someone - or you used your other hand - to depress the clutch?

Did it once it was tough but not super tough for me to do on a buddies car, but i guess everyone is different.

GJarrett said:

No, I agree - it was an extremely frustrating pain in the butt for me even with needle nose vise grips I bought just to do that job. I finally got it done, but also wonder how others said it was so easy.

Click to expand...

How did you get it out? Did you squeeze the spring and then pull out directly towards you? I've tried almost every angle and cannot get this thing out for the life of me.

Paul@PKAUTODESIGN said:

Did it once it was tough but not super tough for me to do on a buddies car, but i guess everyone is different.

Click to expand...

Yeah it's a pain in the ass. I've been twisted up on the ground/car for the last hour trying to get that shit out and it's even more frustrating that others take it out in just seconds according to videos, etc.

MaskedRacerX said:

You had someone - or you used your other hand - to depress the clutch?

Click to expand...

I'm the only person, so I used one hand to depress the clutch and the other to try gripping and pulling the spring.

Relook at the video again it may help.

altjx said:

How did you get it out? Did you squeeze the spring and then pull out directly towards you? I've tried almost every angle and cannot get this thing out for the life of me.

Click to expand...

One of my problems was that after clamping the vise grip down it would try to pop off, twisting on the spring and releasing. But even after getting it to hold it at complete squeeze the spring would not come out, even holding the clutch down.

I did notice that the vice grip compressed only one side of the spring - when i looked I noticed that the far side away from the clamped portion was still spread apart and preventing removal. My solution was to clamp the spring together completely with the vice grip, then zip tie the spring in place together by the vice grip clamp, then release the vice grip, rotate the spring around to the other side, then repeat to zip tie the spring together on both sides. Once the spring was compressed on both sides, I was able to get the spring out.

Finally figured it out using another method. Those videos just show people gripping the spring and pulling out. I just simply pushed the bottom part of the clutch spring over to the right and the thing came out easily. Didn't even need pliers for it. Not sure why this isn't shown anywhere lol

altjx said:

Finally figured it out using another method. Those videos just show people gripping the spring and pulling out. I just simply pushed the bottom part of the clutch spring over to the right and the thing came out easily. Didn't even need pliers for it. Not sure why this isn't shown anywhere lol

Click to expand...

Tell me how u like it [MENTION=17459]altjx[/MENTION] i may just do it on my car after ur review.

Paul@PKAUTODESIGN said:

Tell me how u like it [MENTION=17459]altjx[/MENTION] i may just do it on my car after ur review.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I had the steeda clutch spring at first and found it to be a little stuff over some time. Now I just realized after talking to a friend that GT350s have an additional spring that GTs don't have, and Steeda's instructions don't even tell you to remove the second spring. This could very well be why mine felt more stiff.

I'm back to the stock spring now but may go back to Steeda's in a few minutes. Having to look around on forums for install instructions on GT350 since their website doesn't specify what to do with this second spring.

NVM OP got it.

So guys I just figured out the "5 second method" that no one ever mentions anywhere. I just literally removed the stock clutch spring with my hands and no tools at all.

The bottom of the clutch spring slides straight to the right. Just pushed it to the right until it came off, and the whole thing just falls off -- didn't pop off or anything.

So now I'm wondering why the GT350s have this extra small clutch spring (there's 2 springs altogether). I see people saying replace BOTH springs with the Steeda spring, but I don't see that clarification anywhere on Steeda's site. I've been driving around for an entire month with the Steeda clutch spring + the factory small GT350 spring underneath.

altjx said:

So a few weeks ago I tried installing the steeda clutch spring and spent 45 minutes before giving up and taking it to a shop. Took them 20-25 minutes to get it out. Now I'm wanting to go back to the stock clutch spring and I can't even take the steeda one out.

I notice on most videos that people are using needle nose vise grips to take out the stock one, but even those seem to be too big to fit between in the spring for the Steeda one, so I can't find a way to grip them and pull it out. I can't find any that are more skinnier than that at any nearby auto part stores, unless I'm just completely doing it wrong.

Any tips? This is pretty frustrating as I know everyone says it takes them 10 secs.

Click to expand...

I was having trouble with the vise grips until I got frustrated and just tried to pull out the spring with my hand. It came out with no problem.

Just use your hand for both install and removal. You don't need a vise grip or anything like that.

My needle nose grips slipped off and I broke the mount. I haven't missed having a spring at all..lol

PJR202 said:

My needle nose grips slipped off and I broke the mount. I haven't missed having a spring at all..lol

Click to expand...

Lol yeah before I figured out that I could just slide everything off, my needle nose grips kept sliding off too. I spent a good while trying to get this to work at first.