Slide hammer and throw out bearing

[ldstang50]

I know most of us like doing the modifications to our cars ourselves. It gives us a sense of pride and allows us to learn about our cars a little more. One job that most of the do-it-yourselfers send off to a shop is any job requiring you to pull off the tranny. Whether its the tools that are required or the intimidation of pulling it off, I don't know.
The main tool you need for pulling the tranny is a threaded slide hammer. I can teach you how to make one that will work or you can just PM me and use the one I made. Here's the story
I went to Autozone and wanted to rent a slide hammer. It was going to cose me $20. But since I was over an hour away at the time, I asked how much it was to buy, $20 they told me. So instead of renting it, I just filled out the form and purchased it for $20. As I was looking at the threads, I thought the bar looked too large to get into the inner axle. Well two days later when I finally got around to it, I found out I was right. I looked around for spare bolts that I had lying around. I came across my downpipe hangar bolts. These bolts are what bolt onto the rubber hangar down by the car. I threaded the bolt into the inner axle and realized I should be in good shape. I promptly went down to my buddy's shop that he works at and asked if they had any bolts of that specific thread patter laying around. The guy said he just might, so he took my bolt and slide hammer and came back 5min later with an 'extended' thread on the slide hammer. He cut the head off of a another bolt and welded it onto the head of my slide hammer.
I want home and tried it. BINGO!!!!! Worked like a charm. So instead of buyign a Mitsubishi only slide hammer or an expensive one with all the doohickies, I spent $20 and made my own.
I also have figured out the trick with the throw bearing. I was having a tough time with it all day long trying all different types of ideas to get it off. But nothing seemed to work. I was about to give up on it and call it a day, when one sudden wave of inteligence came over me. Next thing I know, I'm pulling the clutch fork off and getting it ready to be sent out.
Keep pressure off the of clutch fork, up through the window with a flat head screw driver and put the tip of it in the space between the pressure plate and throw out bearing. Press the screwdriver tip towards the clutch fork and it will pop out. Once thats off the tranny will slide off with some wiggling.