lone73

My C4 is making a weird noise, metal against metal sort of a "jing-jing-jing" in sync with engine revs when I FULLY depress the clutch pedal, goes away just off the floor. I have replaced a few clutches before but never in a C4. I don't really know what could be makin this noise in the clutch assembly. It started about 10,000miles ago and was intermittent. Now it's all the time and getting worse, louder. I am afraid I'm going to have to open it up soon and wondered if someone could give me an idea of what I'm in for. The car just hit 57K miles tonight on the way home.

My questions in a nutshell are:

1. Any clues what the noise might be?
2. How difficult is a clutch job in a '96 C4?
3. Do I have to replace the flywheel with it? If so, any cheap sources for one?

Thanks

David

C4396roadster

the cheapest flywheel stock I believe is gmpartsdirect.com

92corvette

David, I had a similar thing happen, only it got worse quicker than yours apparently. Once mine started making the noise, within a couple days it was unbearable. Sounded like something real bad was about to happen.

In my case, it was the pivot ball backing out of the bell housing. It caused the fork to scrape the pressure plate when fully depressed. Like yours, it would quit as soon as the pedal was lifted slightly.

Your problem could be the same, just sounds like yours isn't rubbing quite as much as mine did. Mine defintely made a grinding noise.

BTW, it really didn't hurt the clutch or operation of it although you could see where the parts were rubbing once I removed the clutch. But since I had quite a few miles, I went ahead and replaced the whole clutch setup.

I dont' know if you have pulled your vette transmission before, but when removed, it reveals the end of the pivot ball that can be tightened using a hex wrench. You know it's been a year and I can't be sure it was a hex wrench.

Oh, and changing the clucth ain't no picknic, but if you got four heavy duty jackstands (or lift) and a couple good floor jacks it can be done at home in a reasonalbe amount of time and effort. I see you have done a few clutches. A few things unique with the vette. Drive line beam bolts hard to get to. Shifter, I left mine connected to the tranny. And that ZF is a heavy *****, have a helper standing by...


[Modified by 92corvette, 11:08 PM 11/22/2001]

RichS

I had the same problem in my GS. My pivot ball also backed out causing the throwout bearing to wear out and grind when the petal was to the floor, but quiet when about 2" off the floor. My clutch was actually still good but I replaced it with a Centerforce Dual friction setup. Cost was about $550, my flywheel was still good, and did the work myself so that's all it cost.

lone73

Dan or Rich or anybody:

Any possibility I might be able to tighten it some w/out pulling the trans. I really need to wait a few months to do the clutch due to other commitments.
Got a few too many irons in the fire right now so to speak.

Thanks
David

92corvette

I hadn't thought about it till you asked, but I don't think so. If the bell housing had an inspection pan at the bottom.....then might be worth a shot trying to get up thought there. But I dont' think there is one.

AquaMetallic94LT1

The hex head screw that holds the pivot ball is under the front of the trans. I think the pivot fits into a hex shaped recessed area in the bell housing to keep it from doing what its doing now.

Your probably going to have to remove the trans to fix it. Consider replacing the clutch to prevent the clutch rivets from cutting into the flywheel surface because the flywheel its self is 700 bucks and cannot be turned. Its too bad the surface of the flywheel isn't replaceable.

RichS

I don't think there is any way to tightin it with out taking at least the tranny off. The lock set screw in mine actually fell out. Since yours is making noise I'm sure your throwout bearing is prolly shot. And since it's apart you should just throw a new clutch kit in.