Odd noise from bell housing.

It started out as just an occasional chirp, every once in a while, once warm, at an idle with the clutch in. Well, every once in a while has turned into pretty much any time, warm, cold, clutch in, clutch out, in gear, in neutral. So I pulled it into the garage and tonight I’m going to drop the starter, pull the dust cover and see what there is to see in there. Any bets on what it is?
Personally, with this things history of shaking bolts loose, I’m hoping it’s just the clutch pressure plate bolts but my gut feeling is its the flywheel bolts that have shaken loose and the chirping noise is the flywheel shifting back and forth.

 

Never run into that issue on anything I've owned, but whatever it is, can't be good. Hope it's something as easy as retorquing the pressure plate bolts.

 

Yea, doesn’t sound good to me either, that’s why I wanted to tear into it now.
It would be nice if it was as simple as torqueing down loose pressure plate bolts but since it does it clutch in or out I’m doubting it. If it’s the flywheel bolts like I think it is at least it’s an excuse to go ahead and get my spare transfer case with OD swapped in. Probably be easier to get that done with the transmission out anyway.

 

Throwout bearing gone bad?

 

That’s a possibly I had considered but the clutch and throw out bearing are pretty new and I’ve never heard a throw out bearing making this kind of noise before. From the few I’ve seen a TO bearing going out will make a howling noise, not a sporadic chirp like what I’m hearing. Not entirely ruling that out though.

 

The TO bearing (if properly adjusted) should not be touching anything with clutch out and would not be rotating to make any noise unless a lot of vibration is shaking it.

 

I have heard T/O bearings make some "chirpy" sounds as they start to go. And the fact that a part is "new" only makes it more suspect, in my mind.

True, it "should" not be rotating, but who's to say it was perfectly adjusted? Especially after a recent clutch install.

 

I lucked out, can't believe its this simple.
The dust cover had bent and was just kissing the flywheel.
I straightened it out and put it back in, its amazing how soft that metal is, but even if that doesn't completely cure it at least now I know what that noise is.

 

Sweet! That reminds me, I gotta take the bell housing loose again on mine, and reinstall the dustcover before I go pulling it out of the shop....

 

Whoo-hooo!

 

LOL.....We tend to overlook the simplest things...I believe I have had that exact same issue and just completely forgotten about it. Glad it was easy!