Brian wrote:The most important thing to remember is that you DON"T take the metal strap off that donut until it is in and bolt down tight. After that, pry it off carefully so you don't destroy it. You might need it again if for some reason you need to take if off again
How would you get the metal strap off, if you don't cut it? It would be a real bear to try to slide it all the way down the drive shaft, over the center pillow block, etc. The only practical way is to cut the thing, unless I'm not seeing something.
Here's a few things I do to take the flex disc on and off in short order:
1) Jack up the car from one side, as someone mentioned. This gives you room to get under the car, and allows one rear wheel to spin, which you need to do to spin the drive shaft. Put the tranny in neutral, and release the parking brake. Make sure the wheels on the ground are chocked to keep the car from rolling.
2) When under the car, you'll see a convenient place to insert wrenches on both ends of one of the bolts, somewhere around the 8:00 o'clock position of the donut. Turn the driveshaft a little if you need to, to get your easiest access. I usually use a wrench on one end, and a ratchet on the other end. I let the wrench turn until it bumps against something underneath the car to prevent it from turning any more, and keep turning the ratchet on the other end to loosen the bolt or nut.
3) When the nut is removed, the bolt may not want to come out very easily, because the donut is designed to expand. However it is very easy to take a little pry bar or big screwdriver, and use it as a wedge to nudge the rubber donut back inward towards its center. If you do this gently, you'll feel the sweet spot where the bolt is loose and it will slip right out. As you take the bolt out, note which direction it was pointed and through which yoke the bolt came from. You'll need to put them back the same way you took them out. This is important, since all the ones I've seen have 3 longer bolts and 3 shorter bolts. If the longer bolts are put in from the wrong end, the end sticking out will bump against the tranny, and you don't want that.
4) After you remove a bolt, then rotate the drive shaft to bring the next bolt into the same position for removal. Do this for all 6 bolts. If the drive shaft is hard to turn by hand, reach down and spin the rear wheel, it may be easier to turn.
5) When you get the bolts out, you'll need to push the drive shaft backwards a couple of inches (it will collapse in a sliding spline), so you can get the yoke out of the way for removing the donut. Put the new donut in place just the opposite of pulling the old one out.
6) Put all 6 bolts in the same way that they were removed. This job is made a little easier if the donut still has the metal band around it, but if not, no worries. Just use a prybar to nudge the donut in toward its center to allow the bolts to slip back in. I've put plenty of donuts in and out without the metal strap -- it's really not needed if you use a gentle prying action to compress the donut while sliding the bolt in. Torque each bolt to the manual specs, which I'm too lazy to look up right now. Rotate the driveshaft and check everything out to make sure that it rotates freely.
7) Make sure that you remove the metal strap if you haven't already done so. It will scare the crap out of you, and maybe do some damage when it finallly works its way off when you're driving down the back roads at 75 mph.
