Clutch Chatter

[Mike Webster]

Scholars,

When my car is cold, I engage the clutch and the car moves in forward/reverse smoothly. As the car warms up (after say ten miles of driving in warm/hot weather), I experience some clutch chatter. The hotter it gets, engagement turns from chatter to shake to the point where I have to rev. the engine substantially to prevent stalling, espically in reverse. Any ideas where to start?

Mike in Detroit
1966 230sl silver/red

[waqas]

Have you inspected your propeller-shaft flex disc lately? (mounted right behind the transmission) If this fails, you could have a lot of damage. There is much information about the flex disc, use the nifty 'search' function.

WAQAS in Austin, Texas

[Naj ✝︎]

quote:Originally posted by Mike Webster

Scholars,

When my car is cold, I engage the clutch and the car moves in forward/reverse smoothly. As the car warms up (after say ten miles of driving in warm/hot weather), I experience some clutch chatter. The hotter it gets, engagement turns from chatter to shake to the point where I have to rev. the engine substantially to prevent stalling, espically in reverse. Any ideas where to start?

Mike in Detroit
1966 230sl silver/red

I did not know what 'chatter' meant, so I did a search and this is what I found:

What could cause clutch chatter?
Chatter is when the car shudders as the clutch is being engaged. Possible [causes] may be as follows:

Flywheel has excessive run-out.
Flywheel was not resurfaced or improperly resurfaced before the new clutch was installed.
Damaged or excessively worn CV joints.
Bad U-joints in driveshaft or U-joints misaligned.
Excessive backlash in differential.
Excessive driveline angle.
Bad leaf springs, bushings or mounts.
The use of an aggressive clutch disc designed for racing.
Defective pressure plate and/or disc.
Disc has inadequate marcel (not enough cushion between the friction facing).
Oil or grease contamination on clutch facings.
Worn or damaged clutch linkage.
Bent pressure plate assembly and/or disc.
Improperly tuned engine.
Worn or damaged engine mounts or transmission mounts.

Any help?

naj


68 280SL

[Mike Webster]

Thanks for the input naj,

The operative word here is temperature. This chatter/vehicle shake only occurs when the car is hot.

Mike

[ja17]

Hello Mike,

Yes, as NAJ has mentioned, clutch or flywheel condition is normally the case here. Make sure the clutch is adjusted correctly and this may help minimize the chatter for now.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio