G'day all 2.8 GU owners and fellow forumites,
I've had a bad weekend. Spent two days flat on my back under the mighty GU just trying to save a few bucks!
Let me explain. When we bought the beast it developed a vibration at about 1500 rpm. I traced this problem (with the help of my local dealer and this great
forum), to the duel mass flywheel. Nissan quoted $1300.00 for a new unit + fitting. Stuff that I thought, and tracked a FW down at a nissan wrecker in S.A for $130.00 + freight from a right off with 60,000 km on the clock. I took a gamble and got it, with the intention of replacing it when the clutch went, as it was too cheap to miss a bargain. Anyway ... the thrust bearing finally gave up the ghost, so it was about time to replace the clutch. Again I went down to my local Nissan dealer and priced up a clutch - and was quoted $890. Saying to myself 'stuff that' again, and being a cheap bastard, there was no way I was going to take it to a dealer.
So I did a search on this site, and have seen that quite a few people have recommended a Daikin clutch, so I rang around a few parts
places, and managed to get a clutch kit for $230 - Bargain! So armed with my trusty manuals, both
gregory's for the GQ and the GU, I set about removing the gear box in the garage.
Should anybody want to do this at
home, I found it much better to split the transfer box from the gear box, and remove it in two sections. The job itself wasn't too bad and could be done by most people at
home, with a little bit more than the basic tools. While I was there, I took the opportunity of regreasing the starter motor, and anything else that looked like it hadn't been done for a while, and rebuilt it up. Anyway, once I'd finished the job, I road tested it, and found that not only the vibration at 1500 had gone, but the car's driving like brand new again. Just want to say thanks to everybody that's posted anything about the 2.8 GU clutches, flywheels and the like, as you've all been a source of valuable information.
In case anybody's interested, the clutch kit part number from Daikin (EXEDY) is NSK-6794. As a side note, the flywheel fitted to the car has got EXEDY stamped into it, and I'm suspecting that the EXEDY Dakin clutch is probably a genuine unit direct from the manufacturer, rather than Nissan.
Thanks again to all, glad to be off my back!
Nino