Anthony Atkins (Newcomb, VIC)

I’m a panel beater; I have a 2001 Hilux extra cab that I have done an engine conversion on. I put a 1KZ-TE in there in place of the original 5L diesel. I fitted a winch and bulbar, made my own sidesteps and built my own tray and crate that has a slide out Engel with automatic LED lights on mercury switches, solar panel, dual batteries. I have a water to air intercooler sitting in customs at the moment that I bought from the US which will be fitted as soon as I get it, mud tyres.

I only recently moved from Bundaberg, where I went 4WDing on Coonarr Beach a fair bit and at Pine Creek.

I have a high pitch clicking noise coming from the clutch which goes away with the slightest pressure on the clutch pedal, it is present in all gears including neutral, it’s not a bearing in the input shafts because the noise disappears with only slight pressure on the pedal even before the clutch starts to disengage, it has me beat.

I don’t think it’s the thrust bearing either, because I always thought they make noise when the pedal is pushed and my problem is opposite. Any help would be great, thanks!

Allan

Well Anthony, you’re pretty clever there, you’ve checked all the things that you could check. But one of the problems that you’ve got here is the clicking noise is caused by the release bearing just touching slightly on the pressure plate diaphragm fingers.

These days they don’t use a spring return on the clutch slave cylinder and sometimes the pushrod boot itself tends to keep the clutch release arm lightly touching the pressure plate fingers. This can be enough to cause the clicking noise.

Toyota and some of the other makes too, went to a great deal of trouble to actually insulate the clutch fluid pipe to make sure it wasn’t touching the body because it actually transmitted a lot of noise into the cabin.

To check this, just run the engine and hop underneath and push the slave cylinder rod very slightly back into the cylinder itself and this will give you more clearance here and the noise will go away. Cheeky mechanics will fit a very light return spring on the arm just to hold it back a bit. But if you make it too strong, your clutch pedal is going to go straight to the floor.

If it really annoys you, try fitting a very light spring to get the release bearing to hold off the pressure plate just a touch. Also check the insulation of the clutch pipework, where it runs close to the body as it can transmit some unwanted noise. That will fix your problem.