Horribe noise from clutch, after washing engine?

[Petrol Bleu]

I had to replace my starter, while I was under there I decided to spray a bit of engine cleaner and clean her up a bit. I "rinsed" with a spray bottle of water.

the car fires up great, but as soon as you touch the clutch there is a horrible noise. The noise will start to happen even if I rev in neutral.

I made a quick little video: 3.0 911 SC, bad sound after washing engine - YouTube

If someone wouldnt mind taking their time to help me out that would be awesome

[victatwin]

Hi, definetly not an expert ,but it could be the throw out spigot bearing on the clutch throw out lever, look on this site for a exploded clutch and parts diagram and it will reveal the location of this bearing, this is only a guess as you have used water in that bearing location,others with greater experience and knowledge will pin point the problem more directly, there is no easy fix if this is the problem .

Regards Brett in Australia

[JP911]

Possible that you unintentionally washed grease off of the throwout arm and bearing, which might cause that noise.

[Petrol Bleu]

if all I did was wash away some grease, would I just be able to grease it up again?
could I spray the area with something like graphite?

[Bob Kontak]

The noise is intermittent in the video. Is this because your "wheel man" was pressing the clutch then removing foot and then back on again?

Have you driven it to see if it changes?

There is a port you can see the throwout bearing and fork assy. If you can see it you can maybe some grease in there - on the fork where it touches the TO bearing. Throwout bearing is a sealed unit so that is not an issue.

The fork shaft pivot bearing victatwin speaks of may be a challenge but how you could wash away all the grease on that is baffling unless you discharged a couple of cans of engine de-greaser into the starter hole with the intent of removing all grease.

Question - how much de-greaser went into the starter hole?



Pic stolen from this website:

911SC Garage

[Petrol Bleu]

so this is the starter I bought : PORSCHE 911 MINI STARTER IMI PORSCHE 912 / 914 / 930 | eBay

my neighbor said that it is possible that the bendix is making contact with the flywheel

the ebay post says this " Units now come supplied with alignment shim. Not required on most applications, but if alignment issue between pinion gear and flywheel comes up, then this will eliminate your issue."

I did not use the shim since it states " Not required on most applications"

I'm going to jack her back up and put the shim in after a walk to the store with my wifey

[Bob Kontak]

Hope that is it.

[56 nomad]

i dont believe washing is going to cause the problem (unless you flooded it).
i cant imagine you were able to "wash" all the grease out of the bearing and if so ruined the clutch in the process.....is the starter is disengaging, check alignment, shim and should be fine.
regards, ben

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by 56 nomad

i dont believe washing is going to cause the problem (unless you flooded it).

+1

[Porboynz]

Have you considered that as you apply the clutch you are slightly changing the flywheel/pressure plate alignment and causing it to catch on that new starter? I would suspect the starter alignment before the clutch throwout bearing etc from degreasing.

[bazar01]

The 911 pressure plate is being pulled closer to the starter pinion whenever the clutch pedal is pushed. It is possible the cranshaft endplay is enough to make the PP/ring gear touch the starter pinion. It may need the shim or spacer afterall.

[Petrol Bleu]

Fixed! all I needed was that shim in there

thanks to everyone for their help.

this stumped me at first because it really didn't sound like it was coming from the starter area

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Petrol Bleu

Fixed! all I needed was that shim in there

Cool - thanks for following up. Helps the next guy searching for an answer.