How bad is my Sprint?

[shaunroche]

Flocked dash in, all wired up....



The new rear brake shoes are all on using all new, (NOS none of this new new rubbish) drums, shoes and cylinders, save the top spring....



The brake and clutch circuits have been filled and bled now and all work; the clutch release mechanism is a Sprintspeed one that does away with the slave cylinder, however, there is an awful noise coming from the 'box when the clutch pedal is pressed....any ideas?

http://vid1266.photobucket.com/albums/j ... 152723.mp4

Rumours are it's the box that's making the noise and not the clutch...I'll have to try it with the car on stands to see if it does it when it's in gear and driving the wheel maybe?

[PaulB]

Hi Shaun,
Its the gearbox. When your foot is on the clutch, there is no movement in the gearbox, so its is quiet.

When you release the clutch the gearbox is turning. Its gearbox bearings.

Paul.

[shaunroche]

Hi Shaun,
Its the gearbox. When your foot is on the clutch, there is no movement in the gearbox, so its is quiet.

When you release the clutch the gearbox is turning. Its gearbox bearings.

Paul.

Yep, that's what I thought!

Did you get my text btw?

[Carledo]

Daft question probably, but you have filled the gearbox with oil? If you have then it is almost certainly the input shaft bearing that has failed - and you have my deepest sympathy! The only upside is that you won't have to remove all the trim and the tunnel to get to the gearbox.

Steve

[shaunroche]

Daft question probably, but you have filled the gearbox with oil? If you have then it is almost certainly the input shaft bearing that has failed - and you have my deepest sympathy! The only upside is that you won't have to remove all the trim and the tunnel to get to the gearbox.

Steve

Not so Daft, yes I have filled it with oil.

As far as I am aware this is the first time it's been run since it was rebuilt....

[soe8m]

I do read a noise when the clutch is pressed so not gearbox.

Jeroen

[shaunroche]

I do read a noise when the clutch is pressed so not gearbox.

Jeroen

Pressing the clutch pedal down makes the noise go away.....

[Carledo]

If its any consolation, I will soon be paying the price for choosing a concentric slave cylinder, the one on the Carledo seems to have gone from a weep, which it has always had, to a leak that empties the master reservoir in a fortnight.
I guess it serves me right, when I built the car, I bought a new clutch but it was for a Carlton which has a cable clutch. The slave cylinder came with the (scrapyard sourced) gearbox which had already done 77k. At the time, the bearing seemed good (still is) and the slave was dry till I popped it apart from using too thin a flywheel. But a new one was nearly £60 and it seemed OK after I rebuilt it so I left it in and took a chance which has turned round and bitten me!
Still, I've had 5 years out of it so I guess I shouldn't whinge! Just a PITA to pull the engine or gearbox to swap it out, on the upside, a new one is now a mere £35.

Steve

[SprintMWU773V]

My Mazda gearbox has a distinct rattle when hot which goes away when you press the clutch. It's common to all MX5's which have a lightened flywheel and it's the input shaft which with a standard flywheel doesn't resonate in the same way. Very odd but whether this is a similar problem to you I am unsure. Now's probably the time to sort it out.

[Jon Tilson]

I would find it rather strange if its a box bearing as they were all brand new when I rebuilt it.

Boxes do make some noise with no tunnel on as lots of bits whiz around when the clutch is up.

Did you do the release bearing? I cant remember if I supplied it with one or not.

I'd certainly try the noise in various gears before condemning it to extraction......


Jonners

[shaunroche]

As I said, it's got a Sprintspeed conversion on the clutch so doesn't have a traditional release bearing.....I haven't tried it with the box loaded, only in neutral - I'll pop it on stands later and try it in gear.....

[SprintMWU773V]

Just out of interest did you use a special tool to locate the top drum spring? I built up my backplates the other day and there was no way the top spring was going to go on. i think it might be easier now they are mounted to the axle but till not as easy as the 1500 was.

[bodgerben]

Have you asked Rob (Sprintspeed)?

I've driven Rob's race Sprint a few times and the release bearing was very noisy which can be heard on his SprintSpeed YouTube videos. How do you recon yours compares, is it similar? Tony Brownes (TR Enterprises, center release bearing but not a SprintSpeed one, a TR Enterprises TR6 one, his race Sprint is also noisy).

That was one thing I was not looking forward to, my car, POE is mainly a road car with use on the odd track day and the center release bearing (TR Enterprises or SprintSpeed) is not up there with a road cars NVH levels, that release bearing noise being one of my main bugbears.

Still, I'l put one in when the engines gets proper noisy.

[Carledo]

A release bearing would be noisier with the clutch pedal depressed, whilst Shauns car exhibits the opposite symptoms _ so I don't think it's that. But I'm somewhat confused by the Sprintspeed/TRE being inherently noisy, I have a concentric slave in the Carledo, courtesy of it's Omega gearbox and its completely silent, even after circa 100k miles (and i've lightened the flywheel)
I've listened to the video several times now, including turning the volume right up _ and i'm beginning to appreciate Jonners' comment, with the tunnel out and no soundproofing, you WILL hear a lot more noises than you would in a fully trimmed car. And Triumph gearboxes in general are quite mechanically noisy at the best of times. I'm not accusing you of paranoia, but from what I can tell from the video, it's not actually THAT loud!

Steve

[tom16v]

That sounds like normal input shaft noise to me as well.
Both mine sound like that from underneath with the engine running.
Sprint boxes make a right row in my experience.
That's one of the reasons why the repro box mounts are so diabolical.