My B&M Ripper developed a very annoying rattle a few months back (I had it for 4 or 5 months with no rattle at all) and it seems to be getting worse. It went from a resonance rattle to an annoying rattle at all times. In 6th over 100, the shifter has a ton of vibration in it. Usually if I hold on to the shifter it goes away, but at higher speeds it rattles regardless. Also, about a month back, 4th gear started getting a bit stubborn to get into from 3rd or from the 1 to 4 shift at slow cruising speeds, but I never try to force it in. 5th to 4th is hard too unless I double clutch. During more aggresive driving, 4th doesn't seem to be a problem, no grinding, nothing. I also noticed that I have this problem only after the car has warmed up a bit. I had the ZF oil changed Friday with the GM fill and the clutch bled and it's still the same. I was really hoping this would make the shifts much smoother, but no luck. I do know that the clutch is on its way out as it slips during/after a hard takeoff, I'm just too broke to replace it immediately. So, does anyone know if this is just the result of a bad clutch/flywheel/ or hydraulic system, or do I need a rebuild like I am speculating? I wish I could get my hands on that Castrol stuff, but the nearest BMW dealership is 3 hours away! I'm really not looking forward to ripping up my console to take a look at the ripper, but it looks like I might have to. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanx. :nopity

 

From reading other posts it seems the Ripper rattle is quite common... My ripper rattles above 3000rpm.... I changed the rear wheel bearings and that cut the rattle down by 30%.. I have a bad u-joint on the drive shaft and I'm hoping once the new Carbon Fiber drive shaft shows up from vansteel the rattle will be reduced even more.

 

i used elastic hair ties on the links on the bottom of the shifter. stops the rattle :lol: :yesnod: ... where the B&m connects to the tranny... i used elastic bands first but they broke too fast :lol: :lol:

 

My Ripper doesn't rattle or vibrate at all. However, when I installed it I shimmed the swing plate as tight as I could and I filled the rubber boot with synthetic grease. I really like the shifter. I installed it during a single mass conversion and I am very happy with that as well. It actually has less vibration than with the dual mass, but it does make a bit more noise.

 

This happened to one of my buddies a while back, it turned out that the clutch was bad and the whole assembly wasn't balanced. Since you know you need a new clutch, just go ahead and replace it and see what happens.

 

OK, having just gone thru many of the problems you have discribed, I can share what I have learned.

Since you know you have a weak clutch, plan on replacing it as Mr.Mojo suggests. In addition, plan on CLOSELY inspecting/ replacing the master and slave cylinder along with the hydraulic hose connecting the two.

If you are having to "top off" the reservoir, something in the system is comprimised. This is something that a lot of 6sp owners dont understand the importance of. www.zfdoc.com Bill has a lot of information on his site about how a faulty clutch hydraulic system will damage the transmission. I am currently paying lots of $$$ for former owners failure to maintain this system.

I will lay odds that the difficulty with the shifts is the beginnings of a failure in the syncros in those gears. I would try to get it properly diagnosed but I would plan on a rebuild in your future.

The ZF transmission is a brute that can handle alot. In reading up on them I found that the sensitivity to the clutch system is common thru all of the ZF transmissions, including those used in the big Ford trucks.

Sorry I dont have any happier news :nonod:

 

Thanx for all the input guys. Looks like I'm just gonna replace the Clutch, flywheel, master and slave and go from there. I'll just try not to drive it much (very hard to do) and try to stay out of fourth as much as possible. Looks like I'll be lubing up the Ripper and trying some of the tricks as one of you mentioned to keep the annoying rattle down while I have the time before school starts in a few weeks :U . The zfdoc had some great info too. It's just hard for me to tell if more effort than normal is needed to get into other gears because the ripper requires much more to begin with. Another thing I noticed since I got the car was that reverse was hard to get into completely. I was looking at a Mcleod single disc but I'm undecided over getting an aluminum or steel flywheel. Any input on this. Thanx guys.

 

When I converted to a SM I used a F body flywheel and had .090 machined off of it. I personally prefer the steel to an aluminum. I think the transmission may make more noise with the aluminum flywheel. Just my opinion.