clutch/flywheel chatter

[Vanspeed]

I have some funky clutch chatter going on in my coupe. Drove it around town on Sunday it it appears to be when I try to take off in first or going in reverse. What causes this? The motor and tranny have been rebuilt recently according to the guy I bought it from. It also looks like there are welds on the pressure plate. Is this normal?

[pat in Santa Cruz]

check for loose motor mounts first, as that's easy.

You can also check the pressure plate mounting bolts to see if they're tight or not through the clutch inspection hole.

I have noticed most "rebuilt" pressure plates lately are not well adjusted. You can check the levers through the clutch inspection plate. I check the levers by placing the throwout bearing face against them lightly and checking them with a feeler gauge to see if they're all aligned evenly. I have seen them so far off that you can tell with the naked eye. They can be adjusted in place by breaking the stake on the ones that need adjusting and re- adjusting them. Once they're all even. re-stake the nuts. I like to apply a little bluing to the throwout bearing and lightly contact the levers, rotate the flywheel, then check the lever contacts for blue, indicating even alignment.

Another cause of chatter is oil on the flywheel or disk. If your car is not leaking, that's probably unlikely. But I have sprayed brake cleaner on the clutch before to clean it off with success on a moderately dirty clutch.

One more thing to check is that the throwout bearing is evenly pressed onto the hub. If its not, it will engage the clutch at an angle, causing chatter. The cure for that is to remove it and press it on straight...yucck.

there's a good notebook article on Ahooga regarding pressure plates. It describes the work on a bench, but reading it will give you an idea what to look for in determining if that's the cause:
see:
http://www.ahooga.com/notebook/howto/1/howto1.shtml

[Russ/40]

Adding to the above, the weld you are seeing is (probably) there to balance the pressure plate. Can't think of any other reason.

[Vanspeed]

Hey Pat, after looking through the inspection hole, I can see that the fingers are way off! The throwout bearing hits one side first and actually pushes it to an angle before coming into contact with the other fingers. Maybe this weekend I will try to adjust them evenly to see if that is the problem. Motor mounts are ok and the motor does not leak. Inside the inspection cover looks clean and dry.

[allen]

all good stuff from pat, let me throw one more thing in the pile, check to see if you have the shims behind motor and bellhousing the two on top did your guy face the flywheel, this is done by feeler gauge, you can make your own tool or synders has them for sale,

[pat in Santa Cruz]

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Originally Posted by Vanspeed

The throwout bearing hits one side first and actually pushes it to an angle before coming into contact with the other fingers. .

rotate the flywheel 180 degrees and see if the throwout still hits the same finger first. if it does, its the levers out of alignment. If it strikes the other levers in the original position, the throwout is crooked.