[Lucky]

Here's the patient. 2000 Boxster S with 104K miles.




Remove axel nuts -- you need the half-shafts out to remove the tranny:




Put the top in "service mode":




Remove storage tray/speakers, carpeted sound pad, and engine cover:




Raise car and begin working under the car -- at first it looks daunting with all of the exhaust parts and underbody bracing:




But once that stuff is out of the way, access to the tranny is excellent:




Here's another view, note the black cross brace that passes under the tranny bell housing. You can leave this in, but it is only 4 bolts (plus the crash tether bolt) and removing it gives even more room to work:




Before removing the tranny, you have to support the engine. Here is my $10 solution -- a 4x4, an eye bolt and a short chain:




Now is a good time to loosen the bell housing bolts 1/2 turn. Then support the tranny and take off the tranny mounts (from both chassis and tranny). Do not attempt to remove the center bolt on the mounts -- doing so will destroy the mount. Instead you take out the two small bolts on each mount to separate the entire mount from the car. Then remove the mounting brackets from tranny.

Right-side mount and bracket:




Left-side mount and bracket:




Disconnect reverse switch (at rear of tranny), shift cables (use a large flathead screwdriver to pop them off), and bell housing bolts. Then the tranny just slides out with plenty of room to spare.




Old pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel.




New flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. While my flywheel was OK, I decided to replace it anyway to ensure many more years of no worry driving.




Replace your throwout bearing, clean & lube the release pivot point, clean & lube splines on tranny input shaft, clean and lube the surface the throwout bearing slides on, then re-install tranny, half-shafts (don't forget to fully torque these after you have the car back on the ground), exhaust, underbody bracing, and go for a drive!

In my case, the new clutch is super smooth and progressive.