Re: spider bearing growl

[James Hamilton Lambert <jhl6d@domain.elided>]

I had the growl you describe that went away when the clutch was
depressed. I could hear it in motion, but most prominently when
idling. It was clearly coming from forward of the transmission,
i.e., bellhousing. I ignored it until it suddenly got louder at
high rpms and then it was as if I had suddenly lost all friction
in the clutch, stranded, the car coasted to a stop engine running
with the car in gear. When I took the bellhousing and
transmission off I found that the clutch driven plate had sheared
in two pieces at the pins that hold the center part to the
friction disk part. Maybe the growl was the progressive
deterioration of one or more of these pins in the clutch driven
plate. Later I noticed I could no longer turn the throwout
bearing in itself, but it had been sitting in the rain for some
time already, that is it seemed to have seized, but I could not
tell if it was incidental or a cause of the driven plate coming
apart. There was no other damage, it just called for a clutch
rebuild. I am not an expert but had the experience above. Jim 85
spider (problem occurred at 110,000 miles on the clutch
approximately)

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