WTF is causing my clutch to "shudder"

[UltimateSVT]

Originally posted by oldnfast
___________________________________________________

I know they're rare :lol: , but they happen.

Rare on these cars? It seems like 1 out of 10 Cobra's has something kirky going on. It reminds me of a story I heard about a Cadillac with a tink sound on right hand turns. One dealer after another couldn't find the problem, so Cadillac bought it back and when they disected it they found a washer in the Left front fender tied to a strind on a bolt so when the car turned right, weight shift would cause the washer hit the fender making the tink noise. Someone on the assembly line must have done it.

 

[UltimateSVT]

Originally posted by oldnfast
Yeah. Drove me crazy for a while. I'd never experienced anything like that before. The Service Manager got tired of looking at the car & took a look himself. He found it.

Sounds like the Service Manager used to be service technician himself, probably a shop foreman for awhile, too. I think when I get my car on my rack to install my rear springs I'll run my air gun on the trans mount and crossmember just to check it, and if it goes away and comes back again, I'll remove all the bolts one at a time and put blue lock-tite on them. Thanks for the info.

 

[oldnfast]

Sorry CobraMaster. Didn't mean to turn your thread into a chat room for UltimateSVT & me. :uh oh:

 

[UltimateSVT]

Originally posted by oldnfast
Sorry CobraMaster. Didn't mean to turn your thread into a chat room for UltimateSVT & me. :uh oh:

I'm sure it will help him out.;-)

 

[Cobra-Master]

Originally posted by oldnfast
By the way CobraMaster, how many miles on the car? 6 other Teminator owners & I get together every so often. All of us had a mild "shudder" when the cars were new. It went away on all 7 cars (mileage was different on all). Mine took about 500 miles, but I babied it for quite a while. We decided it must have been the clutch-plate not being seated in. But, what do we know? Everyone who posts will have a different explanation. :shrug:

I've got 4000 miles on the car... thanks for all the thoughts and input.

 

[Cobra-Master]

Originally posted by UltimateSVT
I'm sure it will help him out.;-)

Yes, it does help. Thanks.

 

[05 Roush]

Sounds like a problem with the flywheel. Could be out of balance. Do you have vibration at other RPM's?

 

[jimh]

It could be an alignment problem. If the inpushaft sleef is bent or worn, if the bellhousing is off, or if the pilot bushing is bad it will cause pretty bad chatter. This used to happen on an old camaro I had when the bellhousing bolts would loosen up.

I'd ask the dealer to check these things.

BTW a new clutch will chatter until it breaks-in/seats. Not normally in second and third but it will chatter some.

jim

 

[Cobra-Master]

It mainly only vibrates when I'm taking off out of 1st gear, but it's started to do it between 2nd and 3rd now.

I'm thinking something is out of alignment since I had a TOB go bad in a mere 3 months.

 

[jimh]

The Ford TOBs suck and many of them go out no matter what. If it doesn't settle down as it seats I would definitely have the pilot bearing checked. I believe they are roller bearings so if there was a misalignment the bearing may be shot already. This would allow the input shaft to move around and give you chatter.

Again drive it normal for about 500 miles and let the clutch break in. See if the chatter goes away.

jim

 

[Cobra-Master]

It's pretty rare for a pilot bearing to go out. But, as you said, if there's misalignment, it could trash one pretty quick. I'm going to give it a few days and see what happens. It doesn't get driven very much, so it would take forever to put 500 miles on it. I really don't want to lose focus that I just picked it up and it has all kinds of chatter.

 

[Cobra-Master]

OK, I took it into the dealer this morning... and they have determined that it needs ANOTHER new clutch and flywheel. Bear in mind, my car was doing this when I picked it up from the dealer on Friday!

I just talked to the service manager, and they think the friction material is gumming on the flywheel. Has anyone else ever heard of this??

 

[jimh]

I didn't think getting glazed would cause a chatter, but I guess it's possible. Ask them to inspect the input shaft for excessive play and ask them to inspect/replace the pilot bearing (it's cheap anyway)

jim

 

[03soniccobra01]

Make them replace the Pilot bearing and inputshaft/ Bearing retainer. If you have went through 3 TOB's you will for sure want these replaced....Also...Make them check to make sure they are in fact replacing these parts with the "UPDATED" parts and not the normal "REPLACEMENT JUNK" parts...Ford has updated quite a bit of its parts for the Cobra and they need to get the latest parts in your car or you will have to continue to bring it back and ultimately they will have to give you a new car!!!

 

[Cobra-Master]

OK, I just got a call from the service manager... and they have finally found the problem!!

The bearing retainer shaft was broken. He said the bearing retainer shaft is a press fit into the transmission and then it's welded into place on a T56 transmission (as opposed to bolting it). The weld broke loose on the shaft letting it spin free when the TOB would try to engage. He said he called SVT and they acknowledged that they have seen this in many Terminators... and they told him the upgraded parts to order to fix it.

They also said this was causing my pressure plate fingers to permanentely bend unevely causing premature clutch failure and TOB failures.

So, if you have a shuddering clutch, you may want to get this checked out.

 

[03soniccobra01]

Check!!