Clutch noise - Any ideas please?

[trmorrisminor]

Hi all, a good friend of mine has a morris minor which he bought about a year ago. Really lovely condition, well looked after, 1098cc engine with a sierra 5 speed gearbox. When he bought it , there was very little play on the pedal before the bite on the clutch. He has had it adjusted by his mechanic - there is now a bit more play on the pedal before the clutch bites - but when you depress the clutch pedal by approx 3/4 no noise, but if you fully depress the clutch pedal (to the floor) there is a vibrating/ rattling noise coming from the engine/ gearbox area. The clutch changes the gears fine (although there is a small issue with 4th gear jumping out occasionally - which I think is a separate issue to the noise of the clutch pedal when fully depreessed ). I did take a video of it but on viewing it, it is hard to distinguish the noise after the full the clutch pedal depression over the engine. Any ideas please? Clutch release bearing?

[philthehill]

Unless you can see anything through the unused clutch release aperture in the bell housing you are going to have to split the engine and gearbox and do a through examination of the clutch and release lever assemblies.
The jumping out of 4th gear is a separate and unrelated issue and I suspect the 3rd/4th baulk/synchro ring is the problem which means a gearbox strip down.

[Classiccars]

May be worth checking if the gear stick is hitting the end of the hand brake and therefore not going fully into 4th.We had that issue and had to bend the gear stick to stop it.

[trmorrisminor]

Many thanks to you both for the info. Will pass on your comments to my friend. Thankyou.

[simmitc]

Always difficult to diagnose a noise until hearing it, but I wonder whether the adjustment of the clutch is now causing an overthrow so that the pedal is fully depressed, the fork is catching on the clutch cover. I have not had that problem with a Sierra box, but there used to be a Toyota conversion from Rooster Racing where a block of wood was often placed under the clutch pedal to prevent the problem - not a recommended engineering solution.