I have the receipts that he gave me which says he resurfaced the flywheel and bought a new full clutch set. That doesn't necessarily mean the job was done, but it leans that direction. It definitely doesn't mean it was done well and to proper specs and tightening sequences.
He had an entirely wrong valve cover on the engine when I received it from him, and the timing mark viewing window cap is missing on the bellhousing. I do currently have an oil leak which I had assumed was the fault of the oil pan gasket(it was torn), so I replaced it. The small oil leak continued but i decided not to pay much attention and just assumed that I did in fact have a bad rear seal, however, yesterday I looked closer and found a small flow of oil coming down the back of the block and over the tranny which is likely deriving from the corners of the valve cover. I'll try to fix that today and see if the oil leak stops. Then...I'll pull the tranny and see what's up. How's that sound?
Thanks,
-Jarvis

By Don (199.2.139.165) on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 05:50 am:

Nope the problem is you dont know exactly what was done by the other owner he could have done just what you did. There are allot more things that can cause clutch chatter that are not listed in the hanes manual. You can try anything you wish just be prepared to pull the tranny mutiple times if you dont do a complete job. If there is oil on the disk you have one more job....fix the oil leak that caused it. Clutches wont chatter with just a smear of oil that someone left on the pressure plate they have to be soaked like a bad rear main seal.

By Jarcaf (Jarcaf) (207.55.238.216) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 11:18 pm:

It seems to me that if there's just an oil contaminated friction disk i should only have to replace the contaminated part and clean the other stuff. The bearings wouldn't have worn out that fast, the mating surfaces shouldn't have worn/warped at all, any glazing that occured would just return in the next 1500 miles, and the pressure plate springs should be in fine condition. Is the problem because of having a new clutch service with a slicked metal contact(like after turning rotors)? I'm not coming from a professional/expert standpoint, as I don't have much training in this, but I'm just thinking logically. Obviously, logic is not always correct, so I don't mean to argue with you guys where I have no business arguing. I'm just trying to save my poor self from expenses that were made and apparently wasted by the previous owner.

By Adrian (Evocivic) (203.42.97.141) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 04:57 pm:

Yep, even in that short distance. As Don said, you should always resurface the flywheel when installing a new clutch and quite frankly it's stupid to just replace the clutch disk. A reasonable new kit with disk, pressure plate and thrust bearing is around AU$90, $10 for a spigot bearing and $30-40 to machine the flywheel. It's not an expensive operation to do it properly.

By Jarcaf (Jarcaf) (207.55.238.216) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 04:23 pm:

crap. even if everything's just got 1500 miles on it?

By Don (199.2.139.238) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 01:57 pm:

New clutch means New presure plate, disk, throw out bearing, pilot bushing, resurface flywheel. If you skip any of these problems can start.

By Jarcaf (Jarcaf) (207.55.238.216) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 08:03 am:

By new clutch, you mean the friction plate or the 3piece assembly? The hayne's trouble shooter says it could be oil like you said. They also said that it could be loose mounting bolts, or bad splines. I really hope it's not bad splines! Thanks,
-Jarvis

By Don (199.2.139.223) on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 05:49 am:

Did you surface the flywheel? Clutch chatter can be caused by oil on the disk or just a cruddy rebuilt disk can do the same right out of the box. New clutches are always the best bet.

By Jarcaf (Jarcaf) (207.55.238.216) on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 11:20 pm:

Winter's a-comin' and I need to be able to slip my clutch on the ice, but I've got a problem. Ever since i got this engine there's been a chatter when i released the clutch especially from a stop and when downshifting. At first I thought it was a symptom of a sticky new clutch(it was new at the time) that just needed to wear in. Over time(about 1200 miles), it's become worse, to the point where I don't want to drive in traffic anymore. It's time to pull the tranny and fix whatever's going on, but I don't really know what that is exactly. As always, any help is appreciated. Thanks,
-Jarvis