'73 2.0 side shift.

My trans was leaking out every seal and started to make a growling noise in all gears and idle. I figured it was the trans and took a known good one off the shelf, put in new seals and installed.

The noise is still there and now I have some vibration in the seat on decel.

There was only 30,000 miles on the clutch and flywheel so when I replaced the trans I didn't give it a second thought. Should I have?

Does it do in neutral. And does it do only in motion?

I would think your pressure plate may be messed up, and vibrating.
AND/OR your CV joints are having issues.

The vibration on decal may be that.

Also, check all your motor mounts, one loose one will do this.

Front fan secure also...and alternator.

Rich

Throw out bearing. Just a thought.

New motor mounts - one month old
CV's cleaned and re-lubed when i had the trans out, no issues.
New alt. belt and all associated items checked.

I figured T/O bearing and PP too. Gonna replace it all.

Nothin money cant fix, right.

Yup

Grind going into reverse? Clutch tube loose?

All the trans operations(shifting) are flawless. No grinding.

Went back and checked my build records and realized that the clutch/PP are in fact not new.(I know..flame on, I asked for it) Just the T/O bearing. Not sure how many miles were on it....

Reinforced the clutch tube when I had the car stripped.

New clutch kit ordered. Just a bummer paying for parts out of mt AX tire fund.

I will update with pics when the new parts are installed.

Ok. So new clutch, PP, TO bearing. Flywheel machined, new pilot bearing and felt. One outer CV was missing the c-clip, took care of that.

Test drive tonight. just around the block a few times and no problem. Go for a highway drive to get everything heated up...noise comes back.

Going to take off the alternator belt tomorrow go for a drive and see what happens.

Never had an alternator bearing go bad. Would affect the output? Alt output is fine.

You need to look at what shafts in the transmission are spinning certain bearings when you have the noise. Looking at a power flow chart of the trans should eliminate shafts that are free wheeling and not likely to cause bearing noise. You have eliminated the clutch so far, sorry to say your probably back to the trans again.

From my notes:

Whining:
Wining in a gear box that was previously quite can be an ominous sign. The usual causes in order of badness are:
• Low/no/dirty oil
• Dead/dying bearing

One needs to address this immediately as this is the beginning to the road of ruin. New onset whining indicates that something is not meshing up correctly or being lubricated adequately. These conditions can lead to ruin of parts that are too expensive to replace and, generally, to the purchase of another gear box to rebuild. Common findings in the tear down of one of these boxes are broken shaft bearings and galled pinion shafts. A galled shaft is not worth replacing since core transmissions are generally much cheaper than the parts and labor to do so.

Drivetrain noise could be rear wheel bearing. It was for me!

As Mels correctly points out, what is moving when the whine happens is key to diagnosing.

Test steps:

Input shaft - whines when your engine is at higher RPM. So, make engine go to higher RPM and see if this effects the whine directly.

Pinion shaft - whines when the car is moving faster. If whine increases in 5th gear (when the pinion is spinning its fastest) then you have narrowed your diagnosis. Also, a pinon whine will continue when the car is moving, the clutch is in, and the engine RPM are lower.

For the most part this rules out the trans as the source of the noise.

Its not a whining noise. Ive heard that one before about 10 miles before it started to get louder. Then a pop, and silence. The pop was the speedo drive and associated shaft trying to make its way out the tail cover. Still had 2nd thru 5th.

The noise is more growl and grind kind of sound.
All rpms, hard to tell at higher rpms as there is no sound pads in the car.
Depressing clutch does not affect.
Neutral or in gear doesn't matter. Driving or stationary.

Checking things over again tonight.

Remove Alt. belt noise still there.
Check fluid level in trans and I'm low...way low...but I put in 2.5L? Last 1/2 Liter in.

No leaks.

I'll keep checking possible causes.

thanks guys
Conrad

Check that,

Trans fluid bottles were 800ml so 2 and a 1/2 bottles makes 2 liters.

Last 'half liter' makes 2.4 liters in the trans.

Is that enough?

Fill till it pours out.

If it still makes noise when in neutral at speed you may need to take a closer look at the rear wheel bearings.

They are hard to hear with the axle shaft attached, but you can hear them better with a stethoscope while turning the wheel.

Money is on rear wheel bearings.

Nope, Rolling or stationary. Same result.

My worst fear is it may be the engine. Just a little denial for now. Going to pull the plug tonight and see if there is any metal loss inside the engine.

Well, if the clutch has been ruled out, and now the trans and wheel bearings, it has to be the engine. Correct shims under the flywheel?

End play: .005 I was debating adding shim to take it back to .003 but decided against.

That is concerning. You are running out of culprits.

record a video and post it here????

OK, lets see if my new Q10 is good for that too?

Forgot to mention:

My spark plug..

Click to view attachment

Spark plug and tools used to remove (note no wrench) DOH.

Click to view attachment

I need to spend more time in here.

Oh, we'll it could be a loose air cleaner, intake etc.....
Loose plugs, bad thing.

Ya, good indication of lazy owner.

Just did a gross measurement of the end play again. Definitely not what I measured before. Not sure where I went wrong. Trying to figure how to measure but realizing it doesn't really matter. Anything more than spec is no good.

Oh, sigh.

At least I have a new clutch etc.

That said can I just add more shims and keep driving? LOL only 2 autocrosses left this year....

Seriously, what do you guys think. its only got to last 2 hours

I am with the Doc on this one.

I had from what you described as a low "growling" noise.

O just replaced all new rear bearings and CV's. The noise is gone.

I know the drivers side bearing was gone, I just pitched it in tonights trash.

Does it when the car is stationary and moving. Just sitting there idling in the driveway.

If your endplay really is only .005" that isn't enough out of spec to cause your problem noise. Can you turn the engine by hand and listen for anything that might of dropped into the fan area? Any grinding around the clutch, you should be seeing metal shavings on something around the bellhousing. If this all checks out, and you said the trans oil was real low, I'd be questioning that "known good trans"

I would do it....

Then pull it and rebuilt it this winter.

rich

one last thing I can think of, have you checked the fan blades for paper,or other trash? Even a small piece of a leaf or scrap of paper can create quite a loud humming or growling noise. The higher you rev the louder it will get. Good luck.

Dial indicator tells me the end play is .008-.009 inches. Probably on its way out? Oh well it was fun while it lasted....its amazing how .008-.009 felt like it was going to be .030. I put a screw driver in the clutch fork hole to move the crank back and forth and it felt the crank was about to fall out the back of the motor.

I thought there might be something stuck in the fan etc. too. But the noise is temperature dependant. No noise until engine is fully warmed up.