Clutch (??) Rattle

[Sam Buchanan]

This may be one of those posts that is too ambiguous to address but I thought it might trigger some useful info.

 

My '48 P15 has a rattle (I thought it was the hood, a fender liner or other body part at first) as the clutch is released in first gear since it has a little bit of chatter. It only occurs if the clutch pedal is depressed. With the clutch depressed, I can cause the rattle by barely blipping the throttle. I don't hear it when changing to 2nd or 3rd gear.

 

Throw-out bearing? Pressure plate with something loose? Clutch disc wobbling? Faulty damper springs in clutch disc? Pilot bearing? Input shaft bearing worn?

 

Any suggestions from the old hands will be appreciated. The car drives beautifully, just thinking it is trying to tell me something.....

Edited December 2, 2021 by Sam Buchanan

[Booger]

I get a chatter when easing the clutch off in 1st. related?

[Dan Hiebert]

In my experience with manual transmissions with other vehicles, that always turned out to be the throw-out bearing.

[Sam Buchanan]

1 hour ago, Dan Hiebert said:

In my experience with manual transmissions with other vehicles, that always turned out to be the throw-out bearing.

 

That's my guess, too. I would expect a bad throw-out to whine or squeal but I hope that is all it'll need. But since it has a little chatter a clutch refresh is probably in order.

[Dan Hiebert]

I'd double check the free play and such before any major work.  The first one I dealt with started with a squeal, but turned into a chatter like you describe because I didn't fix it in time (early in my shade tree maintenance "career", didn't know what it was at first).  The learning curve there was a bit skewed because the next couple I fixed didn't squeal first at all, just chattered.  They all got new clutches as a matter of course.  My reasoning is that with well used clutches, there are general wear and tear issues that helped lead to the bushing/bearing failure anyway.  None of them had just a bad bushing.  None of them were our D24, either - newer vehicles. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Dan Hiebert