Clutch fork rattle

Good evening all,

I have a question regarding my clutch fork. First I'll give you a little background, I bought the car (03 cobra) back in early January...I live in MN so now chance I was going to drive it than. Fast forward to warmer weather , which felt like a lifetime, I was finally able to get the car out and as it's my first manual so had to relearn how to drive a stick as it's been 12+ years. Anyway, all was good...no odd noises other than a very slightly loose pulley. After driving it a few weeks I started to notice a slight chirp as the clutch was engaged (thinking tob). I contacted the previous owner wondering when the last time he replaced it and he said the spec stage 2 clutch, hydraulic clutch (know it's not common), throw out bearing and such were all new within 600 miles of me purchasing. I'm aware throw out bearings can be crap out of the box and can really fail at any time. The previous owner stated that the rod/nut connected to the fork needed to be adjusted which it was loose. Now I've been fighting the adjustment for a few weeks now, being my first manual car I figured it might be a trial and error deal. The other day I realized that the little ball/spacer at the fork was wore out and became metal on metal, so I threw in a piece that was not metal and chirp was gone! Woo so that eliminates it being the ToB (possibly) lol while I was under the car before taking the metal piece out I video taped what the fork was doing as I was disengaging/engaging as I could hear a slight rattle and almost felt like it was slightly binding on engagement (also is chattery upon take off) and the video shows the clutch fork almost shaking as I'm engaging the clutch which is probably why I feel the chatter. Can someone please help and try to explain this to me? Do I just need to do more adjusting to the clutch rod? Once the car is 1st gear, she shifts beautifully and smooth . I've noticed that when I'm at a stop if I give it a little more gas than usual the chattering isn't as bad. The last thing I want to do right now is take the trans out, I just bought it and want to enjoy it haha. So if anyone has any suggestions what it may be without having to drop the trans, I'm all ears!

Thanks for reading my sporadic novel


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While the shaking does seem excessive to me I've never actually paid attention to a clutch fork moving while engaging and disengaging. It could just be because of the clutch.

Aftermarket clutches tend to take a little more finesse to get moving. They're not as forgiving as stock clutches. When I bought my car it had a fairly fresh install on the RXT. It made me look like I had no idea how to drive a stick. Once the break in finished and I got used to it everything smoothed out. So I would give it a little more time for you to adjust to it.

You may need more miles,,

It's a driving habit.
For me I think this is a easy car to learn on.

Imo,it's the time it takes to fully release pedal during grab .

For my normal driving, my foot is off pedal before the car moves 2 feet.
Best practice for me was using clutch and no throttle to just move car without chatter or stall.

But than after clutch changes it may need more of a brutal bump in rpm to not chatter during grab

My concern is the squeaking you have going on.

Is the TOB spinning at all times even with zero pedal pressure?

Can you hold the fork and stop the squeaking?


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Sounds like tob chirp to me, and the other sound might me clutch chatter. My car last summer started randomly making a noise when releasing clutch in first gear. And mine is random. I keep thinking mine is tob chirp. Who knows, I have less than 2k miles on my setup.

BTW, I live in Minnesota as well! Where are you located?

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01yellercobra said:

While the shaking does seem excessive to me I've never actually paid attention to a clutch fork moving while engaging and disengaging. It could just be because of the clutch.

Aftermarket clutches tend to take a little more finesse to get moving. They're not as forgiving as stock clutches. When I bought my car it had a fairly fresh install on the RXT. It made me look like I had no idea how to drive a stick. Once the break in finished and I got used to it everything smoothed out. So I would give it a little more time for you to adjust to it.

Click to expand...

It seems excessive to me as well, after watching videos on YouTube anyway. I can push the fork slightly up and down, and I'm not sure if that's normal either ha. It may be that it just needs some more break in time, and more practice as a driver. That would be a relief.

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hotcobra03 said:

You may need more miles,,

It's a driving habit.
For me I think this is a easy car to learn on.

Imo,it's the time it takes to fully release pedal during grab .

For my normal driving, my foot is off pedal before the car moves 2 feet.
Best practice for me was using clutch and no throttle to just move car without chatter or stall.

But than after clutch changes it may need more of a brutal bump in rpm to not chatter during grab

Click to expand...

I'm wondering if it's that I need more miles behind the wheel, having adjusted the firewall adjuster and fork it feels like I've driven 8 different cars with where it engages at.

I get what you're saying about releasing the clutch with no throttle,but if I do that it seems to chatter and just slower ha and than the cars rpm drops/stalls out. It could just be my inexperience with stick shift. If you give it more fuel it seems much much smoother I must say

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Bdubbs said:

Sounds like tob chirp to me, and the other sound might me clutch chatter. My car last summer started randomly making a noise when releasing clutch in first gear. And mine is random. I keep thinking mine is tob chirp. Who knows, I have less than 2k miles on my setup.

BTW, I live in Minnesota as well! Where are you located?

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Click to expand...

The chirp I got fixed, wasn't tob chirp but rather the little half ball/spacer down at the fork. It was worn out and was causing a metal on metal contact which in return made a chirp noise .

It seems as if it is chatter, I can't really hear the noise (clutch fork moving) when it's cold but hear it more or less after its warm and can almost feel it in the gas pedal ever so slightly. Hopefully it's not the tob for your case.

Right on, land of the cold air! Ha! I currently reside in St. Michael, north of the cities about 30 miles. How about yourself??

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Bdubbs said:

Sounds like tob chirp to me, and the other sound might me clutch chatter. My car last summer started randomly making a noise when releasing clutch in first gear. And mine is random. I keep thinking mine is tob chirp. Who knows, I have less than 2k miles on my setup.

BTW, I live in Minnesota as well! Where are you located?

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Click to expand...

The little metal piece I was referring to

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with the clutch fork spasming like that you might need more pre-load on the TOB (i.e., tighten the adjustment nut on the cable). You want the TOB making light contact .... it's a fine balance - too much contact and you'll wear it out quickly; not enough contact and the fork wiggles around

make sure you double nut the jam nut ... if not it'll quickly start backing out on you and you'll lose the pre-load on the TOB.

SLO_SHO said:

The chirp I got fixed, wasn't tob chirp but rather the little half ball/spacer down at the fork. It was worn out and was causing a metal on metal contact which in return made a chirp noise .

It seems as if it is chatter, I can't really hear the noise (clutch fork moving) when it's cold but hear it more or less after its warm and can almost feel it in the gas pedal ever so slightly. Hopefully it's not the tob for your case.

Right on, land of the cold air! Ha! I currently reside in St. Michael, north of the cities about 30 miles. How about yourself??

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Click to expand...

Awesome .

I live in New Ulm, which is southern Minnesota.

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