I finished putting in my new stock clutch and fidanza flywheel yesterday. when I started the car there was a loud chattering noise and the engine started to bog down. the whole time I had it in neutral, and engaging or disengaging the clutch seemed to have no effect on the chattering.

so, I pulled the tranny again last night expecting to find some damaged parts, but everything looked fine, no sign of any metal scraping at all. the clutch is oriented correctly, all the bolts are torqued to spec, and the shift fork and release bearing are mounted correctly.

now I'm at a loss as to what could be making the sound and holding the flywheel down, if the tranny's in neutral then it should turn freely whether the clutch is in or out, correct? so could it be that I hooked up the tranny wrong somehow? I followed the helms procedures pretty religiously.

 

Since you followed the Helm it is possible that you have the wrong pressure plate or disc or they are indeed defective in some way. There should be no chattering if you used an install/alignment tool. There should be no binding. In rare cases the input shaft bearing can be bad, but I doubt this. If you have any adjustment available-try that as well.

 

thanks for the help. it looks like I have the right pressure plate - everything bolts up and the dowels line up right, and the friction surface matches the flywheel and the clutch disc. where is the input shaft bearing? is that the bearing on the flywheel?

 

the bearing on the flywheel is the pilot bearing, a normal clutch kit should come with a replacement for it, and the input shaft bearing is a ball bearing, and its inside of the transaxle

 

I just tested the transmission by putting the old clutch on the spindle and turning the mainshaft. it seems to turn freely so I doubt there is a bad bearing in there.

is there a way I can start the engine without having the tranny mounted? if I could do that it would rule out any problems on the engine side.

I was also thinking that maybe the flywheel is out of balance? it is brand new though so probably not.