Clutch Noise - Following Replacement

[Seamus1982]

More clutch woes!

Following on from an earlier issue, where I had the release bearing sleeve fitted with an early clutch plate, I replaced the full clutch assembly with an LUK early style. - https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/111198141xluk-200mm-clutch-kit-with-centre-pad-for-1500-1600.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw1K75BRAEEiwAd41h1InYTM7-CWw75xw0Zl_1XXtk2FvpPaZ5l2QIdoBIBZWBAWDvRwphVhoCbW8QAvD_BwE

So, I fitted the clutch using the locating tool I purchased. Replaced the bearing forks, bearing and pins, put everything back together.

All runs fine, however when I depress the clutch pedal I can hear a slight whirring noise, not very loud at all and can't really be heard outside the cabin. However if I keep the clutch depressed, it does turn to a squeal. No clunks, no mechanical sounds, just a high pitched squeal.

I have looked into it and some possible issues;
Bearing misaligned due to bent fork - new forks but still possible
Issue with bearing - again new but possible

The clutch plate, pressure plate, bearing and springs all came as part of the system, so really should be ok running with each other.

What I was wondering though, is could this just be a clutch cable adjustment issue? I can't seem to see much on this in a forum search.

My thinking is that the clutch isn't fully disengaging, therefore partly rubbing on the flywheel, causing the squeal. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for any advice! Still learning everyday with the van!

 

[Moseley]

I had exactly the same when I fitted a new clutch last year (Kennedy stage 1, uprated fork). I wasn’t happy with how the clutch fork looked when fitting but in my haste to put it back together, I didn’t bother to check that the release ‘prongs’ were actually parallel and therefore driving the bearing straight against the pressure plate.

Lo and behold, when first used, I had the same whirring which turned into a rotational squeak when keeping my foot on the pedal.

My intention was to hope that it lasted the season and that I’d strip it after, but within a few hundred miles, the noise vanished, and I’ve not had any more noises out of the ordinary since.

So I’ve got no idea if the release bearing / pressure plate needed to bed themselves in, but I’m just leaving it be and fingers crossed I’ve got no reason to believe that it is now going to imminently fail.

Next time the engine is out I will be giving it a thorough going-over to see if there is anything obvious wrong now that it has a few thousand miles on it.


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[Seamus1982]

Thanks @Moseley,

I will be removing the engine again in a week, so will see how it is over the period.

 

[Moseley]

Just thought I’d update this thread as I was definitely giving some bum information! So the vanishing noise I experienced turned out to be the failure of one of the retaining clips that holds the release bearing to the fork. I’ve done a bit of reading on The Samba, and it points towards the clutch cable being too tight, despite my adjusting it to within the tolerance stated in Bentley. As such, with the pedal on the floor, the clutch fingers run out of travel, and the bearing ends up being put under excess pressure - this causes the whirring or squeaking. Eventually it will fail!

In my case, I seem to have got lucky that a clip broke, but the clutch carried on working for another year. Although it was flopping around a bit, it gave it a bit of movement to take the pressure off the bearing itself, hence the noise vanishing. I imagine it was on the edge of just falling off the fork completely.

I popped a new bearing in when I found this, and the noise came back. Since doing the reading mentioned above, I thought I’d try slackening the clutch cable a little. Instantly the noise has gone. I’ve probably got an additional 10mm of pedal travel outside of the ‘max travel’ spec quoted. Obviously it is key to ensure that the clutch is still disengaging enough to change gear before doing any slackening! Just thought I’d post this update in case anyone else experienced similar.