[Che]

Just curious what sort of labour cost I should expect for a mechanic to get in and check out my Sierra's clutch? I know the price of a clutch, just curious of the potential labour costs.

[joel]

your general suburb mechanic will be around $70 an hour ish (tea in china and such)

and to pop out a sierra box is pretty light and simple, so lets say he has one arm and is hungover, so no more than 2 to 3 hours (out and in) at thee very extreme to take out, inspect, rub good luck charms, than assemble, molest the air freshner and give it back to you.

say no more than $110 to $200, make sure you make it clear what you want done and the time/cash restraints etc
than extra for/if he finds a problem.

[sideways]

I got quoted between about $400-700 iirc. Called about a dozen places. Even Suzistore was around $500.

That's plus clutch.

[bohuler]

If it was labour to remove and inspect a suspect clutch I would definatly be recommending to a customer that if we needed to pull out the gearbox to inspect the clutch you might as well pay to have a new one installed. Even if its only like 1/2 worn you have paid the coin to get the bloody thing out to have a look at so it doesn't make any sense to me that you wouldn't just put a new on in.

My workshop labour rates are $90+ so $99 an hour. I would have to quote 7 hours as a rough guess to get a clutch out and reinstall which includes the initial test drive, post service test drive, writing the invoice and the hassel of having a hoist tied up for a day and a half as the flywheel gets sent off to be machined. All the little bits that add time to a job are ones that people don't count when it comes to quoting in a business. Yes it might be a '5 hour' job but there is atleast another hour or more of fucking around that you need to recover.

The point of the post is that no matter what pay, so long as the job is done properly and is guarenteed proper and you use a good quality clutch (and might look at rear main seal while you are in there...) then its worth paying it know its done right.

Dave

[bohuler]

Having said all that last time I did my sierra clutch it was about 4 hours plus beer drinking time to do it at home with dodgy tools and a slightly drunk mentality. I would be telling the customer that I am quoting 7 hours BUT if it only takes 4 they would only be charged 4 cause its easier to make a quote cheaper then to try and get more coin from a customer when it works out to me more expensive.

Dave

[joel]

sideways wrote:

I got quoted between about $400-700 iirc. Called about a dozen places. Even Suzistore was around $500.

That's plus clutch.

bugger me, thats bloody expensive.
but what bohuler said, just replace the bloody thing anyway.

qoute 7 hours, bohuler, you have any jobs going?
the pricks i work for dont give me that much time to get a truck gearbox out. pricks.
yeah didnt quote labour on the time for the flywheel getting machined, nor the cost of it, or the cost of the new clutch.

so i failed my quoting somewhat. lucky customer. lol

[Che]

What a pain in the tits. The thing is I doubt my clutch will need changing - it's only done 15K since being installed and i'm not hard on it at all - it's the bloody noisy bearings that I want sorted.

[zook_ute]

could swap a clutch in a vitara / sierra in 3.5 hours using a couple of stands and a jack lol.

I had chapman's do the clutch in my vitara, they only charged 2.5 hours labour. $70 for the flywheel and $80 for transfer, gearbox fluid and incidentals. If I was quoted 7 hours to do the job, I would assume the shop doesn't want the work and go else were.

[royce]

joel wrote:

your general suburb mechanic will be around $70 an hour ish (tea in china and such)

and to pop out a sierra box is pretty light and simple, so lets say he has one arm and is hungover, so no more than 2 to 3 hours (out and in) at thee very extreme to take out, inspect, rub good luck charms, than assemble, molest the air freshner and give it back to you.

say no more than $110 to $200, make sure you make it clear what you want done and the time/cash restraints etc
than extra for/if he finds a problem.

Ever done a Sierra box? right pain in the ass, transfer gets in the way (manual says remove transfer as step one) driveshafts get in the way so pull em, exhaust gets in the way so cut that off, then the damn thing wont come out the tunnel and you have to twist it and stuff around and drop it out bellhousing first. I can do a Vit box faster alone that 2 people on a Sierra box.

[Reubs]

Last time SuziAuto did a Sierra clutch for me it cost $800 inclusive a clutch, clutch cable, rear main seal and gearbox input seal. I know they gave me good pricing on that job.

Also I'm pretty sure they grind off a small section of the cast gearbox mounting bracket to make it so they can remove the box easier. Maybe Losfer could elaborate on this 'trick'...

[alien]

Last time i had a clutch done was while Sean was still at suzistore and he had a way of doing it without removing the transfer... buggered if i can recall what he did though - although i believe he loosened all the mounts on the box so it dropped below the tcase? something like that anyway...

Don't forget time taken vs. billable time is a very subjective thing. I charge my design this way - clients who are regulars etc get charged the time it took, clients who aren't so crash hot get charged "what its worth" - and suzuki's manual has those "what its worth" times laid out - which is what most workshops will fall back on. They're businesses after all, and they're there to make money.

[joel]

royce wrote:

joel wrote:

your general suburb mechanic will be around $70 an hour ish (tea in china and such)

and to pop out a sierra box is pretty light and simple, so lets say he has one arm and is hungover, so no more than 2 to 3 hours (out and in) at thee very extreme to take out, inspect, rub good luck charms, than assemble, molest the air freshner and give it back to you.

say no more than $110 to $200, make sure you make it clear what you want done and the time/cash restraints etc
than extra for/if he finds a problem.

Ever done a Sierra box? right pain in the ass, transfer gets in the way (manual says remove transfer as step one) driveshafts get in the way so pull em, exhaust gets in the way so cut that off, then the damn thing wont come out the tunnel and you have to twist it and stuff around and drop it out bellhousing first. I can do a Vit box faster alone that 2 people on a Sierra box.

yeah done a few, they arent the most fun out there thats for sure, ive found undoing an engine mount to help it a bit too.
but compared to a big ass eaton fuller or road ranger, its quite enjoyable. zd30 patrol 5 speed with the dual mass fly wheel is a right pain in the ass also, have to undo the cab mounts and pop the cab up 2 inches to get it out and back in, you can do it without popping the cab mounts, but its so much easier to just undo them.


havent done a vit box yet, though i have seen fellas at work drop them pretty quick.