Clutch Change - Use Throwout to hold Flywheel
 

I replaced my clutch last week because the notorious throwout bearing went to junk. There's a couple great threads on all the steps for the job, but they all mention angle iron or wedging something in the flywheel teeth to hold it in place, and none showed how (that I could find). In any clutch job I've done, this has always been a bit of a figure it out in the moment thing, and usually kind of annoying.



Well, for the BRZ, use the old throw out bearing that you just took out of the bell housing. It fits right in at 10 oclock on the flywheel. Just apply a little pressure to it so it doesn't drop out while you loosen the flywheel bolts and when you're torquing them back in. Easy peasy.



https://i.imgur.com/C8p1bsS.png

Was wondering how that starter flange got mis-aligned.

Thanks!

I've seen a hack on the internet that worked very well, which I prefer to lodging or holding with prybar:


Notice that both the flywheel and engine have alignment pins. Just put a combo wrench between them (one pin through each end), kind of like this picture. (In this example, they populate the bolts, but the FA20 has alignment knock pins that are close to the same plane on both the flywheel and engine block)


Use the RH pin to tighten, LH pin to loosen

Ah, cool. That's a neat idea too.

The TOB trick is nice. I did the wrench trick.

I like the TOB trick because it basically requires 1 second of extra work. It’s just the time it takes to place it there. No rotating the flywheel so the wrenches line up perfectly, no making sure the wrenches are the right length, etc. just hold it there with your palm and use your other hand to break the bolts loose.