keesje

I've got soft (now somewhat harder,sometimes rattling) chirping sounds when running, if I press the clutch pedal slighly the noise goes away. Am I correct to assume it's the ball socket or one of the barings ?

I don't like what I read about the bushing being the first thing to fail in a list of clutch components , as my mechanic told me several months ago the chirping sounds are no problem and I could just ride it out, till I needed a new clutch replacement (1500euro, labor + parts)

Did anyone replace the bushing from the top as described in the Nichols tips ?

I'm inclined to do more work on the car myself. If I need to sink money in it , let's see where it goes

Regards,
Kees

shmark

About three years ago I had the same problem with my '83. Hopefully someone will correct me if I get this backwards due to failing memory. If the sound chirps with the clutch engaged (pedal out) and goes away with the clutch disengaged (pedal in), then it's the pilot bearing. I'm pretty sure that's the way mine was, and I had a bad pilot bearing.

The good news is that it's not a hard job, just kind of a pain. You'll be pulling the clutch out to replace the bearing. This is a great time to also replace the throwout bearing, check the pilot shaft for wear (possibly replace), lube the pilot shaft, replace the clutch disc(s), and replace the crankshaft rear main seal. I did all this with my car on jackstands, lying on my back, with help from my lovely wife.

Jim_H

TO bearing and or Pilot bearing, One of the easier jobs you will do on a Shark.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Kees your description sounds like a release bearing (throwout bearing) which is failing and getting rough. What happens is instead of the bearing turning between the two races it sticks and the bearing spins on the spring fingers of the pressure plate and "chirps". When you put light pressure on the clutch pedal it is enough to make the bearing stop spinning on the fingers and act like a bearing again. As noted it gets worse and eventually the bearing will wear through the spring fingers and the bearing will pull out of the pressure plate .The clutch pedal goes to the floor and the car is in gear. The clutch arm plastic socket when it breaks and falls out does two things you may get a little rattle at times and when trying to move away from a stop the clutch may judder skip and grab as the pressure plate is being deformed by the clutch arm pulling back at an angle due to the socket being missing and the top of the clutch arm is now too far forward. It is hard to get a smooth clean clutch engagement.

Jim_H

The big problem with letting it go until it fails is the dreaded grenading pilot bearing which can add many hours to the job.

Jim bailey - 928 International

I have also seen where the release bearing only partly pulls out of the spring fingers and catches on the fingers destroying the the pressure plate spiting broken chunks around the inside of the bell housing etc.........

Styln928

My 83 did the same thing. The pilot bearing had a serious meltdown.

Jim_H

How many miles on your Shark? Year? You might just need to replace the clutch, pilot bearing, TO bearing and the pivot thingy. Depending on MY you may need a new sleeve also.

JKelly

Welcome to the forum!

My throw-out bearing chirped for several months. It gradually got worse. Yours will too, so a repair is inevitable. I replaced the throw-out bearing, pilot bearing, the clutch disks (x2 for 86MY), and the plastic release arm bushing. My car has 72,000 miles on it and the disks were original from 1985 (date is stamped on disks). The pilot bearing was in good condition, but since they are cheap, it was replaced. The bushing was partially missing so it made the release arm (clutch fork) rattle. The throw-out bearing was the obvious "chirping" culprit. The pressure plate and intermediate plate were in real good condition so I cleaned them up and put them back in.
A newly greased spindle, new throw-out bearing, new clutch disks, new bushing, a new pilot bearing, and a fresh clutch bleed makes a HUMONGUS difference in clutch operation. Depending on how many miles are on your clutch, I would recommend replacing these parts at the minimum.

You may also want to look for a different mechanic.........

keesje

Thank you for all the replies, I ordered the bushing at the Porsche dealer today, it could be 1.5 weeks before 928 parts arrive.

I started a new thread on another problem I have with idle running, it could be related with the clutch problem...

The car has about 100.000 miles on it. But has no history before being imported.
Milage is not reliable as it was imported from germany in '93 , the meters tend to automagically turn back several tenthousend kilometers when crossing the border. The first one I checked for buying had 86000 km's on it, a pity there were German invoices with 257000 kms in the dashboard... so no buy...

Ah well, the car looks & feels 100.000 miles old...

deliriousga

This comment may have saved me a bunch of greenbacks. Before I put her up on blocks (a necessity for all automobiles when living in north Georgia) to do the TB/WP, etc. she was chirping. I kept trying to figure out what the heck was making the noise. I searched and nothing previously posted mentioned this as the clutch, just smog pump, vacuum, etc. keesje sent me a PM asking about it, but I had no answer for him so he posted it again.

The last time I drove her home, the clutch was starting to feel squishy a couple of miles from home. I thought it was a leak or something like that and planned to work on it after I had her running again.

Thank you rennlist and Jim Bailey!!! Because of this wonderful site, I will be replacing about $300 worth of parts before I drive her again and did not have any clutch explosions or further damage. Best of all, my clutch should be much tighter.

marton

I had my clutch replaced last Spring, cost around 1,100 euros (labour & parts) in Swtzerland.

The parts (2 disks, pressure plate, intm plate, rel bearing & pilot) were 800 euros plus quote for 3 hours work. Job took longer than planned - 4 hours - because the unit did not operate properly - eventualy they found release arm was bent (and had been modfied to a later version) and we split the cost of taking the clutch in and out 3 times....
Original quote by OPC (who did not get the job) was 2`000 euro for parts plus labour

keesje

It looks like I will do the clutch myself...

I may order the parts in the us , the dollar/euro 1:1.30 exchange course makes this very interesting (the 120 dollar shipping costs is peanuts then)
It looks like the parts in the us are cheaper, have to get a quote from Porsche to make sure.

Regards,

marton

It is certainy worth considering buying the parts in US. I got my clutch parts from
http://partsforporsche.co.uk/
at the time that was the best deal

Jim_H

Can't beat the Big Three.