The shifting symptoms are typical of a dead pilot bearing or warped clutch diaphragm. Miatae are notorious for pilot bearing problems because A) the bearings are needle bearings and are much more easily damaged when installing the transmission than US-style bronze bushings, and B) people tend to forget to replace them when replacing the clutch. A bad pilot bearing will be noisy only when the clutch is disengaged and the flywheel is rotating at a different speed than the transmission input shaft. ----- Original Message ----- From: TimothyErskine To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 5:40 AM Subject: Na 1995 ---puzzling symptoms
Hello... Great lurker here with a problem which is baffling. I wish I could record the sound so you could hear it. Its coming from the front of the car. It is not the engine. Might be the brakes because the sound seems to go away when I apply them, though it also could be that I am slowing down which effects the running gear. Running gear meaning the drive line including the clutch assembly. Clutch is not slipping but it is difficult to get into gear and every now and then I get a distinct clang coming from the flywheel(?). I am guessing here. What metal part in that area be free enough to ring while meshing the 1st gear and sometimes 2nd gear. You can kind of feel it clang through the gear shift. Short duration, no grinding per se. Is it possible the clutch itself is loose? When it is in gear at very slow speed, under 5 miles an hour on a very smooth surface you sometimes and feel a beat coming through the steering wheel and the sound is like a knock. Wheel bearing??? I know this is very sketchy information and you can see how ignorant I am by my attempt to describe the symptoms. A competent mechanic familiar with miata is over an hour away. I do not trust the local wrenches to trouble shoot and repair the problem. I am hoping this is something within my mechanical skill set. I have in recent history done some work on the car with some success. Mostly regular maintenance stuff. Replacing clutch slave cylinder, remove and replace front calipers and brake pads, timing belt and water pump(which was exciting for me cause the car actually ran perfectly the second time I aligned the timing belt to the timing marks on the cam sprockets), new radiator(best thing I have ever done to improve cooling reliability) which is of high dollar aluminum very well made, misc electrical headaches like the headlight switch, etc etc etc. One more piece of information. That garage an hour away did a engine and transmission replacement about 30k ago. Low mileage engine and tranny @ 46k. I did lose the ac compressor within about 2.5k after the replacement because I believe its shaft was mis-aligned or the belt was over tightened. Sitting in traffic one day all the refrigerant escaped up through the hood. Looked like smoke..but wasn't. One thing that happens now that didnt happen before the replacement is the headlights mysteriously close underway but can reopen if I push the manual black button on the center dash. What's up with that? And why would I have to top off oil on an engine that young? I did replace the PCV valve. Sorry to be so windy, just trying to give you as much background as you might need. Please help if you can. This is my only transportation. Thank you.. Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
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