SEBRING CLUTCH WOES

To anyone who is faced with the ordeal of clutch repair/replacement on a Sebring, here are a few photos to show you what you are up against. Owner was headed home from Monterey and clutch stopped functioning. To remove the transmission and clutch on this car, the entire dash has to be removed which is no small feat. Turns out the clutch throw out graphite bushing had exploded. As you can see in the photos, the graphite puck is in pieces and is laying in the bell housing. Also, the clutch release mechanism started to disintegrate but I notice that the graphite puck had been turning in that housing for some period of time before it failed. We decided to put a fresh clutch in it while I was at it and install a modern bearing style clutch release mechanism, as per photos. Car uses a 9 and 1/2 inch clutch (Borg/Beck). If you have this failure, my advice is to use the modern bearing clutch release mechanism if you can find it.
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I like you suggestion to upgrade the bearing. Where did you find the modern clutch release bearing? The graphite bearing is generally reliable but I have seen this type of failure before.

I wonder if on a Sebring it would have not been easier to pull the engine and gearbox out as one unit instead of removing the gearbox out though the interior.

Ivan

 

Hi Ivan, Joe over at AW in New Jersey supplied it, and at a good price. I thought about pulling the engine but this car had a few electrical problems so i'll take care of them at the same time by taking out the dash. Not a lot of fun either way you go, if it was my car i think i would have cut the cross member and spent the time to make that cross member removable in the future, then you could just drop the trans in a couple of hours.

 

Was this a Sebring II? I had a Sebring I and had no problem replacing the clutch without removing the dash. Both seats and the driveshaft have to be removed but the transmission came out with out any interference.