clutch chatter in reverse

[epw1949]

Theodore,they are located on the bell housing portion of your 34 engine,which is part of the engine,unless you have a later engine in your 34,like 8ba or something,then there would be no place on the bell housing for them.The chatter rods go from the bell housing back to the frame of the car,to about mid way of your transmission floor cover.Back to you chatter problem,if your chatter rods are there and are tight,in the pass I have found the bolt that holds the U joint at output shaft loose,which shows up more in reverse than forward,do to more torque in reverse.Hope this helps EPW

[rotorwrench]

The torque tube design was primarily to function well in forward motion. When you operate the vehicle in reverse gear, the rear axle tries to pull the cup of the tube away from the ball cover of the transmission. It can't move a lot unless there is wear on the components. The chatter rods weren't designed to help hold anything but the engine & transmission. The chatter might be the tube against the ball cover or as was said, a U-joint used to moving in forward motion may not work as well in reverse motion.

The same may hold true for the clutch plate & cover that are worn more with forward lock up but not so much with reverse motion. Wear patterns on flywheels & clutch plates can be pretty interesting to look at depending on how easy or hard the operator is on them.

[DICK SPADARO]

You can chatter about the steady rods importance but most likely the chatter is due to the incorrect pedal throw or poor clutch pedal adjustment. If you have changed the engine combination , trans combination or made a pedal arrangement that does not use the parts that were designed for the vehicle, the pedal ratio or free play adjustment is incorrect. Second place to look has been brought up and that is poor or loose rear engine mount cushions.