I have a terrible shuttering when going from standstill to moving forward in first gear only. Slightly less when warmed up, but not much better.
I checked engine mounts by putting car on jack stands and trying to jack engine up, not much movement at all, even tried jacking each side of engine alone, not much movement.
Any ideas?
thanks, Matt

That's clutch chatter. It's usually caused by bad motor mounts as you already know or a warped flywheel and/or a fried clutch. Fried clutches are not even good with ranch dressing.

clutch disk ...
Andy

or with Bleu cheese.....

...tastes like chicken... or maybe



It could be either a warped or torched flywheel or a bad disk. There's really only one cure and it involves cash.

Do you know what kind of disc is in the car? If it's a multi-puck disc, it's normal (but still obnoxious).

not sure whats in there, bought the car about 1.5 years ago. I have a raby kit on order since November and am told it should be delivered any day now, not sure I want to tear it open to replace the clutch just to change motors in a month or so. Damn!
thanks
ps. so you think I will do any real damage if I drive it a little? try to keep the shuttering down?

Bad motor mounts or transmission mounts, or oil on your clutch disk

Make sure you clutch cable is adjusted properly too. I was getting a shuddering with my car when starting out from a complete stop and it turned out that the cable just needed adjusting. The engagement point in the pedal travel had changed but I was still using the 'old' and correct engagement point.

Probably not what's happening with your car, but it's an easy thing to check.