Vaughanabe13

Alright guys, I finished installing my new spring last night. I thought I would share my experience and some tips that helped me.

First of all, it's AMAZING with the lighter spring. It literally feels like a different car. As a noob manual driver I can finally get the feel of the clutch and it makes hitting the engagement point extremely easy. I can't even tell you how much BETTER the car is without that awful stock spring in there, it's unbelievable. Everyone MUST do this mod, IMO.

That being said, I haven't seen a definitive DIY tutorial on here, just bits and pieces of how to do it. There were a few things that were unclear to me when I started removing the spring, and I have gotten several PMs from people asking me how I did it, which tells me there are other people out there confused like I was. So this is what I did.

1. Leave the clutch engaged for now. Simply remove the E clip on the bottom pin (pin closest to the floor). I ended up using an angled needle nose pliers and I spun the clip around so the opening was facing away from me, and then I used the angled pliers to grip both edges of the opening in the clip and then I pulled toward me to release it. It does take a little bit of force. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you use both hands to do this. I ended up flinging the E clip back into the car somewhere, and even after tearing up the carpet and some panels I couldn't find the stupid thing. For now I don't have a clip on there anymore but I'm going to measure and buy a replacement E clip.
2. After the clip is off, you need to depress the clutch pedal almost all the way down. At first I tried doing this with one hand while I worked with the other hand and that did NOT work very well. Because the space is so cramped, it really helps to have someone/something hold the pedal down for you. I ended up asking my girlfriend to sit in the driver seat and hold the clutch down while looking pretty. This made everything 1000x easier.
3. With the clutch pedal down, use the angled pliers to tap the bottom pin from right to left and it should start to come out. If it doesn't budge you might need some more lube. White lithium grease should do just fine. If it's still stuck, you probably need to adjust the amount you're pushing the clutch in so the holes around the pin don't "grip" the pin into place. Tap the pin until you can't make it move any further, and then use the angled pliers to grip just below the head of the pin and pull straight out.
4. After the pin comes out, set it aside and try not to rub the grease off if you can help it. Now you need to pivot the clutch spring assembly along the top pin. DO NOT REMOVE THE TOP PIN/CLIP, you don't need to touch it. Just grab the bottom of the spring assembly and swing it towards you until you feel it come off the black clutch piece. At this point, the whole assembly will basically just fly off toward the floor, because there is a secondary spring hidden inside the assembly that will push it off of the bar. This is fine.
5. Now take the spring assembly out, remove the stock spring and replace it with the new spring. Re-assemble everything so you can put it back in. The order goes like this: Small spring, "top hat" piece, so the spring sits "inside" the top hat, then the spring assembly with spring installed.
6. Slide the whole assembly, starting with the small spring, back onto to the rod, which should still have adequate grease on it. At this point you will need your helper to push the clutch back in. Push the assembly up until the bottom pin holes on the assembly meet the holes on the black metal piece.
7. Now you just need to slide the pin back into the bottom of the assembly. It's actually not too hard to do, but I utilized an AWESOME tip by another forum member. You should get some channel locks for this step. Now stick the pin in the outside hole and try to line everything up. Push the pin in as far as you can by hand, which won't be very far. Now put one edge of the channel locks on the outside of the pin, and the other part should go around the outside of the black metal clutch piece that is holding the assembly. Now use one hand to hold the assembly so the pin holes line up with the holes on the black piece, and with the other hand, squeeze the channel locks to push the pin in. You will need to adjust the holes back and forth until they line up perfectly and then pin will shoot right through to the other side.
8. After the pin is all the way in, release the clutch. The last thing to do is to put the E clip back on the bottom pin, which you can do with the needle nose pliers. Be careful not to let the pin go shooting off somewhere! I skipped this step for now because I need to go buy a replacement clip. The clutch assembly won't go anywhere without that clip, the pin is pretty stuck in there while you're driving. But I'm going to replace it just for peace of mind.

You will now notice that there is a little bit of loose play at the top of the clutch travel. You will get used to this really fast and honestly it's no big deal. The clutch is a tiny bit harder to press but as you're letting it out you can really feel in your foot when you get to the engagement point. I guarantee you won't go back to the old spring after you feel the difference.

That's it! You now have a car that feels completely different! Hopefully some of you can benefit from my mini-DIY.

__________________
2009 Nissan 370Z Touring, w/sport, 6MT, chicane yellow/black.