Rebuild a 348 Single Disc Clutch and Bearing

By: Nico
In this article Nico will help you rebuild your 348 clutch and help you save money. Lets take a look at all the parts first.

The clutch is composed of:

A bearing (often damaged on early 348 models and later modified on late models)
A flywheel with its bearing too that I did not change
A disc that can be rebuilt
A pressure plate

(Click photo to see larger size)



To complete this project you will need to remove the clutch. It is not as difficult as it sounds and we will walk you through in this article. To begin, switch off the battery and remove the exhaust (the removal of the exhaust is the most difficult if it is the big original exhaust). If you have a stainless exhaust that is smaller, you will not have to remove the bumper.

After you remove the exhaust remove the ignition starter (reason why you must turn off the battery).

Remove the clutch bell housing (Number 12), which is also not difficult but a bit heavy.



Now you can see the damage right away. We are going to modify the disc to fix it. To accomplish this you have to disassemble the mechanism removing the pressure plate and flywheel.

Now you can control the thickness of the disc that must be 7.7 +/- 0.3 mm

If the disc is not damaged you can clean the parts and it will be ok. If damaged you must know that you can make rebuild it for 210 Euros ($255 USD). I have done this and the disc will be like new. To put the disc well centered you will have to make a special tool, which is not hard to make. (turned) takes the measures of the diameters of clutch shaft (number 11).



Then you can control the TO bearing that cost a lot of money and they no longer sell only seals and bearings separately.



You must know that only the thrust bearing support bush is not possible to repair (hard) but you can rebuild it easily and at very good price changing the seals and the bearing.

Look at the prices of parts you need for it (can be found in any good parts market) the bearing is hidden under a part in iron treated that you must keep



and a round that can be changed or kept.



The bearing is a: SKF ref 6011-2Z/C4 HT22 cost 75 Euros ($85 USD) or better again SNRi 6011zzJ30 cost 35 Euros ($42 USD), which is the one I used.

The seals:
Type JF4 28 A cost 5 euros
Type JF4 32 A cost 5 euros
Type 40/50/5/8 cost 10 euros

Now you are ready for the rebuilding process. Put the new bearing into the "round hide part" with the hard iron treated part round and close it like shown on photo.



Next, put the seals on the support and the bearing too.



Now you have a new clutch bearing! When I did this mine looked new because I cleaned it really well. I also found that a single disc kit can replace a twin plate kit.

You can put all rebuilt parts on car and put fluid in the brake reservoir fluid (the reservoir is the same one for the clutch). Now make the bleeding.

Have fun!