I have a 1992 corvette with the 6 speed manual. I noticed this morning the car is making popping noise and sounds like metal dragging the ground when I go around turns at low speeds and when I let out of the clutch. At driving speeds the car is fine but I just put the car on jack stands and nothing is loose on the rear end and I out the car in gear and let the clutch out no noise BUT when I held my foot on the brake and let out of the clutch it makes the same popping noises I mentioned earlier. Any idea what that could be? Thanks for any replies

 

I'm about to drop the transmission to see if it's the clutch. The noise is only when I'm getting on it now but as soon as I put my foot in the clutch it goes away leading me to believe that the problem is in there because if it was the rear end I would think that it would be a constant noise when the vehicle is moving. Any opinions?

 

searh teflon washers

 

First you have to find out where it is coming from could be a ujoint or a loose bolt on your fly wheel hard to tell from here.

 

So I got it up on these blocks and got most of the exhaust undone before I called it a day. I'm sure it's comical to anybody else to see the car on blocks like this and believe me it is for me too but it works! Tomorrow I'm gonna work on getting the driveshaft out to check the u joints just to be sure and if those aren't it I guess my next step is removing the trans to check the clutch. This is the first corvette I've owned so I'm kinda learning as I go. By no means a professional

 

I just looked those up thanks for telling me about it I well check those out tomorrow too!

 

I use oak stumps. I would have wiggled the wheel and checked the flywheel bolts first.

 

What's amazing to me is that in that pic? lower left of pic, there is a device already right there...that is engineered, designed and built to do what that contraption you built will do...+, let your work on wheel/brake/suspension to boot! The Jack Stand.

Good luck w/the trans drop.

.

 

Okay I got the trans out tonight. Took me about 4 hours so I don't think I did to bad. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a chance to get the bell housing off to check the clutch. I'm really hoping that's what my problem is because this is a lot of work lol. I can't imagine it's anything else because when I was driving I could hear it but as soon as I hit the clutch it goes away. Any input is greatly appreciated I just figured I'd keep y'all posted!

 

Another thing I should note is this car has 176000 miles on it and to my knowledge is all original. The guy who had it before me only put 5000 miles on it in 6 years and I've put 1500 on it in 2 weeks

 

damn man, 4 hours for a trans drop is pretty impressive in my weekend mechanic books. Best of luck getting to the bottom of this!

 

okay so the other day I got the clutch out and it's pretty bad. The pressure plate is all kinds of different colors from burn marks lol I'm sure all the burnouts and me driving the hell out if it didn't help but live and learn! Now I'm trying to decide on which clutch I should get. Eventually might put a cam in it but no time soon. I'm looking at spec clutches but I don't know if they come with the throw out bearing and that alone is 96 bucks from center force. McLeod has a kit for 550 that comes with one but it's says its for a 5.0 Chevy however the clutch disk is the same size as mine. Any suggestions? It also already has a solid flywheel so I'm just gonna get that resurfaced

 

With different wheel speeds, this sounds more like a rear end problem, unless you're using the clutch in those turns.

 

well that's what I thought at first but it really started happening when I was accelerating but as soon as I hit the clutch it would go away. I think the clicking was the clutch slipping little bits

 

I am coming into this too late, probably. But I still agree with the whalepirot on diagnosis. I can't see any way that a clutch could make sounds during turns. I suspect there is something amiss in the differential.

But...now that you have the clutch out an it has all those miles, you find yourself at a crossroads. The question is what you will replace it with. I've just been through this myself. The problem is that all stock-style replacement parts are now based on Chinese replacement parts. The pressure plate castings and diaphragm springs are not good on these. And the throwout bearings they use are inferior, too. If you can find a NOS Valeo plate and INA bearing, I would go that route. Also, you really need to replace your pilot bearing and you should use a NOS fluted bronze oilite bearing. You may be able to get these from Jim at powertorquesystems.com. The disk you end up using probably depends on your usage. At Jim's suggestion, I went with a Centeforce Dual Friction disk, and so far I am pleased with it. But I have a lot more torque and power than stock, so for a stock LT4 a good fully organic disk might be a good option.

The SPEC kit comes with a throwout bearing. But again, it's Chinese and I suspect it was part of what led to the demise of my SPEC kit. I'm sure all the kits come with bearings. And again, all the OE-style, pull-type, high-performance clutch kits from SPEC, Centerforce, McLeod, etc are all based on the Chinese replacement pressure plates.

Another option is the RAM push-style conversion kit. It is a full conversion and you need to use the flywheel that comes with it. They make a single-disk version with an organic disk that is probably fine for your application. If I ever have to do a clutch job again, this is probably the route I will go (but with a beefier disk for my power level).

 

I like the old school lift. Watching this thread to learn about clutch replacement and drive line issues.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the advice I will be ordering that fluted pilot bearing now that I've looked at it. I also looked at that push style ram conversion which looks like a good idea and I can see why that would a better route but it is pretty pricey for me right now so I'm thinking I'm gonna go with the spec stage 2 kit and hope for the best. I would like to spend the extra money but my other car just lost 5th gear going down the road yesterday. I swear I've had some bad luck with vehicles lately but oh well. I will post some pics of the clutch disk and pressure plate so y'all can see how bad it really is lol

 

You can see the burn marks and it's pitted pretty bad in some spots

 

The pitting is interesting. The burn marks are probably not a big deal, given that they are evenly distributed around the whole surface. It doesn't look like you were down to the rivets on the disk yet. I don't see anything here that would lead to the noises you described, but I hope this does solve the issue for you.

In the meantime, don't throw away that pressure plate! It might be possible to machine it, and you or someone else could use it again. In fact, if I were you I'd do that and keep it on a shelf somewhere in case the SPEC p/p doesn't work out so well. If you get it machined, you need to also machine the legs the same amount to preserve the distance between the legs and the friction surface. Jim at powertorquesystems.com can tell you all about it, but the measure you want to preserve is between 0.195-0.205". The thing that might prevent you from successfully machining it is the pitting, but it's hard to tell from the pics how deep or big they really are.

 

See originally I thought the noise was a rear end issue because it sounded like it was coming from there but the more I paid attention the more it sounded like it was in the clutch. Then it would make the clicking noise when I was accelerating but as soon as I hit the clutch it was gone. That's the main reason I think it's the clutch. I mean I hope that's what it is because I have no idea where to begin on the rear end. Does anybody know common issues that would occur in the rear end?

another thing I did before I tore it all apart was jack the rear of the car off the ground and take the tires off and put it in gear and listen for any noises and I didn't hear anything not even slightly coming from the rear end.. BUT when I put my foot on the brake and started to release the clutch I could hear the same popping/clicking sound clearly coming from the clutch