Throw Out Bearing Q

[jmgtp]

The clutch in my Beretta is ungodly hard to push. I have bad knees (they make crackly sounds all the time... thanks 4yrs of track and cross country in highschool) and its hell on my left knee to work this thing in thick traffic. Other than the pedal effort the clutch is normal. A bit of chatter in neutral, but the TO bearing doesnt seem to be knocking at all. I've owned the car about 6 months and it was like this when I bought it, doesnt seem to have gotten worse. When I first bought the car the TO bearing would make a chirp when I disengaged the clutch (only when the pedal was moving) but after about 2 days that stopped. The previous owner claims he just had the clutch done. Clutch grabs and operates just fine other than the pedal effort and releases full (although reverse requires about 2 seconds of spin down time after clutch is disengaged in order to go in without a crunch, if I wait 2 seconds it goes in like nothing though). So what I want to know, is there any kind of grease or lube used to allow the TO bearing to slide easily on the input shaft? Or is it a dry operation? I know the possibility exists that the TO bearing is just bad (I bet thats the case, maybe the previous owner was the kind of guy that likes to sit in gear at traffic lights) and regardless I have a new delco one waiting to be put in. I'm more or less asking because I want to know if when I install the new one if I should put some kind of grease on the shaft or on the bearing itself. The new bearing has some traces of grease on it, but honestly this thing looks like its been sitting on the shelf for 10 years the box is old school ac delco. I'd change out the pressure plate and disc while I'm at it, but they seem to be working just fine (supposedly new anyways) and since I'm a broke college student I dont have the cash to throw at it.

its a 90 beretta GT 3.1 / getrag 282

thanks!
-john

edit: when I pull it apart I am going to have the flywheel resurfaced, especially since I can get it done for free. Right now, it feels a bit warped and I get a bit of the shimmy through the pedal and the car if I ease it out without throttling above 1300 rpm or so. Is it possible for the clutch disc to be warped as well? In which case I'd have to replace it or is the likely culprit the flywheel? or maybe its the TO bearing doin all the nasty stuff
I know the wise thing to do would be to replace the disc and pressure plate too, but I really cant afford sink the cash into it. thanks again.

[TurboGTU]

For sure..you need to check the trow out bearing snout on the trans. Make sure its not worn out...or pitted. When my brother bought a racing ceramic clutch for his 5spd ford turbo coupe...the throw out baring snout on the trans was worn and need to be replaced. But also...the pedal effor felt a little stiff cuz of the performance pressure plate. We did grease the trow out bearing with lithum greas..just a tad of a coat to keep any from spreading on the clutch.

When you remove the trans...you might want to check if they installed the bearing right...It was probly just floating around hitting the preassure plate and the fork making the chatter noise.

lubbing the clutch pedal might help too.

It is recommend that you replace the whole clutch system if your going to resureface. The clutch disk already took the countures of the worn flywheel...so it will wear out more quickly when you get the resureface. The pressure plate might not need to be replaced...but check each of the forks for bends or worn spots. Chekc the springs too. The ones on my borthers car had a broken spring.

[Cliff8928]

also check the release for for wear, mine was REALLY worn after 100,000 miles... I think it's starting to wear again. (i've had enough of this transmission already!)


Cliff Scott
89 BerettaGT
89 Volvo740