bob909

After replacing a rather noisey alternator, I've discovered that it was masking a strange squeak coming from behind the flywheel when the clutch is depressed. My mechanic friend and I both immediately thought throw out bearing. Is there anything else I should look at first? Is it safe to drive?

squidix9

It depends on how bad it is.

The WORST I've seen(RX7) is where the pivot arm was bent and the TO bearing was constantly pressing on the clutch fingers. Eventually it wore through them.

It would have to be pretty noisy before you'd have to worry about it completely disintegrating.

But don't wait too long.

bob909

I have a good friend that's a very accomplished mechanic, but his audi experience is limited to what he's helped me with on my 4ksq. So we can plan this out, what all is involved in rebuilding the clutch?

squidix9

Any competent mechanic can do it. No gotchas.

I suppose you'll want to get a clutch disk.

Hopefully the pressure plate is ok, if it's original it might not be a bad idea to look into replacing it. The hard part is that if you want to dissasemble it and inspect it, then if its bad and you can't locate one locally, you'd have to wait till one could be sourced.

Unless you're majorly strong, you'll want to locate a tranny jack too. When you order your clutch disk, make sure to request an alignment tool. If you need to buy one clutchtools.com sells then for a couple of bucks.

Good luck

bob909

no moving exhaust out of the way or anything funny at all?

Blewtoon

Mine was making scary noises a few months ago. About when I got the parts together for a rebuild the noise went away and hasn't come back. For a while I was very gentil with it, but it seems to be handling rough use without any problem.

4000skq

i work at a shop and have done a few other clutch jobs. other audis and mostly jap cars. The 4kq was by far the worst, and I have a removed battery tray, which i think really helped. I was also doing the rack at the same time. The worst part was getting the tranny to mate back to the engine. Not trying to discourage you it is definatley possible, just labor intensive. My hat goes off to anyone who has done these trans. with out a lift I just pushed my exhaust to the side. Be sure to get your flywheel turned while its out, that is very critical. Also get the updated sleve for the TO bearing, the new ones are metal and the old ones are plastic, maybe that for the 84'4kq only?

QuattroJay

I got 175K on my clutch and still strong

bob909

thanks, I'll need it

bob909

not making me feel better about this, but it has to be done