I would resurface or if you want to replace that's fine too especially if you plan on driving it for a while. A grooved or heat cracked flywheel may cause you some chatter or grab problems and will shorten the life of the clutch disk.
Another note from my previous post is to NOT buy remanufactured. Find a company that sells NEW matched sets. You will be allot happier in the long run.
One other note on flywheels; When you remove it and have it surfaced or replaced, put a dab of lock-tite on each of the bolt threads and torque them to specs.
If you don't, they have a habit of backing off, and that is really bad, and can be really expensive. I have seen flywheels come loose, rattle around, and bust engine blocks and transmission cases.

I did the job for a Samurai, but they are the same, just different parts. I did not want to remove the flywheel and decided to get a 300 sandpaper and sant it with a rubber block in order to remove the crystalization. It worked well and the clutch did grab really well. I think it was Axe, I just think, who I heard talking about a site where I could get the clutch set for a good price. It maight have been Dennis, or Dave, I really can't remember, but someone in the site can tell you where to buy at a better price than the dealer.

I just ordered a sachs clutch today. I have heard a few good things about then so thats the way I went.

well, the tranny is finally out. It took all day to get it done, between that and cooking anyway. It was terrible ...... the starter bolts and the top tranny mount bolts were a huge pita. I have no clue how the heck I'll even get them back in. I honestly cant say I'm sorry I'm doing this on my own because I'm learning another thing. I love to learn how to do this stuff so I keep doing it on my own instead of taking to a garage and having someone else mess up stuff that I can mess up on my own. Ill keep ya's posted on how the clutch replacment goes and all of the reinstall goes.

Props to KP, I called to ask him how he got the starter bolts out when he replaced his and about a half hour later he showed up at my door to help. Without me even asking him to, and on a holiday no less. He saved me alot of pain by helping get the bolts and the tranny and transfer case out. Thank bud!

I'm not looking forward to the day where I have to do the same thing. So far, at 120K miles, the clutch is OK.

Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

But now I know who the experts are. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Got it done yesterday, it took me a day and a half. 1st let me say this ......

I have changed alot of starters in my short life so far on all kinds of vehicles and this is by far the worst I have ever seen. Trying to get to those bolts is just rediculouse and the top four bolts on the tranny housing is just about impossible to get at. Just about.

Ok, it seems that the problem was one of the housings that holds a spring on the clutch disk broke. That allowed the spring to do whatever it wanted to do. I also noticed a crack that allowed a small peice of metal stick out on the throwout bearing, although, it doesn't seem that that had anything to do with the problem, Yet anyway. so I changed the clutch with a new Sachs clutch and it all seems to be working very well so far. I love the way it grabs and I have had no slipping or grabbing. So far it is working perfectly. when I got it all apart I checked out the disk on the flywheels and it looked brand new so I scuffed it up a little bit with a peice of emery paper and checked it again, no spider cracks, scoring, and about 2 or three scuff marks that disapeared with the emery paper. It looks like it is still brand new so I decided to leave it in. so far everything is working perfectly. I did find that I have another problem though .....

It seems that I need a front drive shaft. The slip joint is no longer slipping and I need a new u joint. I guess it's time for a new one. How about some info on that axe, I know you had to replace yours. What was the cost, do you remember?

oh, by the way. for anyone that doesn't have one ...... an air opperated grease gun is the cats a--. I borrowed one from my slumloard along with his garage and that thing is sweet.

That's good news!

It sounds like one of the clutch springs broke before the clutch disk was actually worn out and down to the rivets. That's what saved your flywheel from scoring. So you lucked out there. You should be good to go.

Yea, I had the same problem with the front driveshaft. If you drive around for an extended period of time with the front hubs locked in you'll blow the pinion seal on the front diff. That's what happen to me. But if you unlock the hubs there's no stress on the front drivetrain and you can defer the fix for a while. And you should avoid any serious off roading until it is fixed.

The front driveshaft can only be purchased as a complete assembly. It includes a slip joint and 2 new u-joints. As I recall it was $265 for the complete unit. You can check kiausaparts.com for the latest pricing.

I finally got my pics downloaded on to my pc so I figured I would post a few to show ya's what had happened. It seems pretty odd to me. I can't ever remember hearing this happen to anyone else. I have heard of a few clutch disks breaking but not the housing for the spring. Oh well here they are.
inthis pics you can see the housing for the spring. In the next you can see the way it should look on the left and how it looks now on the right.


Here you can see the peice that broke off from the housing.

New Sachs clutch.

Just a couple more of the throwout bearing. In the first pic you can see that lower section has a crack in it. I dont think it has anything to do with what was wrong but what the heck do I know.