Are you sure its the clutch making noises? Sounds like it could be trans bearings. With the clutch depressed, you've disconnected the trans from the engine and the trans will stop spinning. But changing the clutch or throw out bearing requires pulling the trans anyway so that's a good time to check it out. Let us know what you find.

Oh, and welcome to the VMF!

 

It could be the throw-out bearing or the tranmission itself, but it's highly unlikely that it's the actual clutch.

What kind of noises are you hearing?

 

Sounds like the Throw-out bearing to me

I had the same problem

 

My first guess would be a sloppy throw-out bearing. When you depress the clutch pedal, you're taking up the slop and the noise stops.

Yes, there are kits that replace everything. I got one from National Parts Depot that I'm completely happy with so far (about 300 miles into it). I don't remember the brand but it was made in Spain. What you get in this kit is a clutch disk, a diaphragm style pressure plate, a throwout bearing, and a pilot bushing.

To do the repair, you need to remove the driveshaft, prop up the engine block against the firewall and remove the tranny cross-member and tranny (which requires shifter lever removal (and a big floor jack)), then remove the bell housing. Then you remove the pressure plate. You really ought to have an impact driver to do this. You also need to remove the pilot bushing, which I use a socket and axle grease to do.

Does this sound like something you can handle? I know some guys claim they can swap out a clutch in two hours, but for me it's two days.

Maybe it would help to picture how a clutch works. What you've got is the tip of the tranny's input shaft rests in a hole in the middle of the engine's crankshaft's output flange. That hole is where you put this pilot bushing, which is just a fat ring of bronze. So anyway, the tranny's input shaft has these deep lengthwise grooves in cut into it. The hole in the center of the clutch disk has corresponding bumps. So the disk can slide back and forth on the shaft, but it can't rotate without making the shaft rotate too.

On the motor side of the clutch disk is an iron flywheel. On the tranny side is an iron pressure plate. The pressure plate bolts to the flywheel and encloses the clutch disk. When the clutch pedal is not in use, springs in the pressure plate assembly press the pressure plate against the clutch disk and the clutch disk presses against the flywheel. So if the motor is running, the tranny's input shaft has to turn along with the flywheel.

When you press on the clutch pedal, a lever in the bellhousing presses against the throwout bearing, which presses against the pressure plate's springs and lifts the pressure plate off the clutch disk. This disengages the tranny from the flywheel.

Sorry to put you to sleep with so much verbiage, particularly if you already know all this stuff.

Anyway, good luck with your noisy Stang.

Seven

 

Like all the others said, it's your clutch release (aka throw-out) bearing. As it goes bad it makes noise. It will not hurt anything, just gets hard to live with. Replace your clutch, pressure plate, release bearing, and resurface the flywheel all at the same time.

So, if your clutch is still good, you may decide to live with the noise for awhile, if you can stand it. Centerforce (www.centerforce.com) makes a heavy duty bearing and clutch assembly.

Good luck,

 

Sounds to me like a bad input shaft bearing, the throwout bearing usually makes noise when the pedal is depressed, when the pedal is up, the throwout bearing shouldn't be turning if you have freeplay adjusted into it.

 

Check your outer ring on your harmonic balancer (THIS HAPPENED TO ME) The ring had shifted back just far enough to rub on the timing cover. When the clutch was engaged, it actually pushed the crank forward a couple of thousandths of an inch so it would temporarily clear. New balancer cured it! The fact that the noise GOES AWAY when you press the pedal says it is likely NOT the throwout bearing, but anything is possible.

 

Usually when the throwout bearing goes bad it becomes noisey when the clutch pedal is depressed. Your's is noisey when the vehicle is in gear and clutch pedal is not depressed which leads me to believe your throwout bearing may be in contact with the fingers of the pressure plate causing it to spin loosely in place. Check your clutch pedal free play, you should have some free pedal movement at the top of the clutch pedal travel. Or when you go to depress clutch pedal, it shouldn't engage the clutch right away, there should be a bit of movement there that you can push easily with your hand before feeling it engage. Not sure of the exact amount I don't have a book handy. But this is adjustable on the clutch rod.