The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Throwout Bearing - T-5

So I have been round and round and round with my T-5 swap... still have a noise. Should the throwout bearing rest on the fingers of the pressure plate at all times? Mine does. There isn't enough movement in the fork to make the throwout bearing move enough to depress the clutch and make it ride off the fingers. Is the clutch fork suppossed to be rounded where the throwout bearing sits? I tacked a couple welds on and flattened it. Any suggestions? I have a constant growling noise... clutch in, clutch out, in gear, out of gear. Using the original pressure plate, throwout fork, and throwout bearing.

My 2 cents- Your clutch disc may be running out of splines on the input shaft, a buddy had to elongate the splines on his swap. I'd assume this is on and old Chevy truck the year doesn't matter; you need to go back and review what you did and compare the NEW trans input shaft/throwout brg components with the original. i.e. check input shaft/spline length etc.

Best of luck, hang in there you'll find the rub.

without seen it i agree with jimerit pull the front bearing retainer ( make sure you put it back the same way) and cut the splines further back. i purchased a used core clutch at a local rebuilder to test it. now i can cut the splines back on ane t5 with the used core.

Already elongated the splines... the clutch functions fine. Prior to reassembling the whole shebang I put in just the clutch disc and the transmission and there is plenty (3/8" to 1/2") of clutch travel. The input shaft and bearing retainer have been shortened too. Also have had the transmission opened up and looked at... everything functions fine... just have a growling noise that I cannot get to go away.

Hy jthuma94 and guys, Your throwout bearing MUST have freeplay, as a clutch wears freeplay decreases, thats one way you can tell when it's time to adjust it. If you have no freeplay now with everything new, then when the clutch wears you will be putting more pressure on the pressure plate fingers and releasing clamping force on the disc, making it slip. You must determine why you can't get freeplay and fix it, hope that helps.

Calling it a day... have Wednesday and Thursday off and will be working on the truck. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

For now the plan is to remove the throwout fork and clean the gunk around the retaining clip and see if that creates more movement. Thinking about shimming the tranny just to make sure there isn't any pre-loading if the noise persists.

jthuma94,

I don't have the answer, but wonder if your throwout bearing is a new one. It should not rest on the release fingers BUT, even if it did and it is brand new, it shouldn't make noise. You might be on the right track searching for some other cause.

Stuart

just take your calipers and measure the clutch disk thickness and compare them. or better yet go down to your local clutch rebuilder and ask to see a brand new stock one and a new one of the one you installed and compare. they may even have the specs so you could just call. i'm getting ready to do one in my 54' burb and would really like to know what is causing the problem. when you pull it back apart take some pic's for future tech reference. sorry to hear swap isn't going smooth let everyone know even if it is just a simple adjustment. 100% correct is key. good luck!

Thanks for all the suggestions... I will give them a shot Wednesday and try to figure this out.

Thanks again for all the suggestions... a little bit of information from troubleshooting a couple days ago: the noise is not present when the wheels are not spinning i.e. the transmission is in neutral with the clutch in or out and when the clutch is pushed in and the wheels have stopped turning. This means that the noise is not in the clutch or the transmission! When the drive shaft was shortened the u-joint at the rear yoke came apart (one of the bearing caps fell off) and I repacked it. Wondering if this is the problem? A piece of floor dry or a missing or misaligned needle would be all it would take right? As you can probably tell I do not have a lot of experience with this stuff... but I am learning.

The u-joint would not cause a noise like that. It could be a rear brg. or something in the rear of the trans. Or it could be in the rear end.

time to invest in a stethescope to listen in on the rearend. in the past a piece of tubing,pipe or screwdriver worked but my hearing isn't as good so i have a stethascope from h.f. and it seems to work fine.

Pushing in the clutch while in motion does not change the noise.

I do not have the speedometer hooked up currently but I have and the noise was the same.

The throwout fork was rounded on the inside where the TO bearing rests... I put a couple welds to square the inside of the throwout fork.

The noise is in the rearend... gonna check out the u-joint and the brakes...