69 Barracuda Clutch Shake Help Needed.

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TimS said:
Here a couple of shots of the nick in the pressure plate housing. This happened in 4 or 5 places I believe.
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??maybe this if the cover is similar size.....................

coverclear.gif
 
Just a quick update on my shake issue at take off.

A couple of weeks ago I got the car back on a lift. Had 4 guys and myself disassemble the new clutch setup and reinspect all parts. With a height gage measured the flatness of the flywheel while we rotated that around. It was only out .003. I went ahead and removed the flywheel and had it resurfaced. Friend of mine that owns a very nice machine shop did this and measured the flywheel before completion. This time it was wet ground to make it a bit more smooth than what it was. Inspected the new clutch pad pressure plate and bearing. No issues noted. Before reinstall replaced the front bearing in the transmission while we had it out. Also put a new rear tranny mount in. After all this, still shakes at take off.

I then moved back to the rear. Borrowed an old school set of universal traction bars. Mounted those to the car and made sure the front rubber bumper of the bars was resting against the front spring hanger. drove the car around town here for two days . No shake easing out or dumping the clutch. Tire burnin' machine. I removed the bars just so I could turn this on and off. Back to shaking at ease out or clutch dump. I need to add that the shake is not all the time during ease out. It always shakes dumping the clutch thru this ordeal.

So..... I went ahead and purchased a set of super stock leaf springs. 003's. I opted to put drivers springs on both sides just to make sure I had level ride. Instead of the 002's on the RH side. Car sits great. Raised it up about and inch or so in the rear. I also removed my 4 degree shims I had put in the rear that gave me more angle. In a nutshell though, the car still shakes.

Not sure where to go from here. I do plan to put the shims back but I doubt that is the issue. It didn't help before, however those were in when I had the bars on with no shake.
Evidently the bars band aid the problem. Just have to figure out the cure.

Any brain storming out of the box ideas I'm definitely open to at this point.
 
Here's a couple of guesses; engine mounts, and compression. I know those 383s can hammer pretty good.One or two cylinders off the mark might just do it.
Sorry if a repeat, I did not review the thread.
 
The 383 compression is good. Engine mounts..... I just took a look at them while on the lift. They appeared good but I know that isn't always true. I would think I would have an issue slamming into any gear with the motor lifting. I've also set the brake and let the clutch out slowly. It will lift the car. Loose mount would be noticeable then I think but it's definitely worth another look.
 
Instead of the slappers, have you tried bolt on spring clamps just behind the front eyes?
 
Daves69 said:
Instead of the slappers, have you tried bolt on spring clamps just behind the front eyes?
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I have clamped both sides as the leaves come together from the front hanger to the U bolts. Still shook.

When I installed the Super Stock springs I did remove the 4 degree shims I had at the perches. Today I added the 4 plus another 2 degrees, total of 6. So far, no shake at general driving and ease out. Will shake about 50% of the time at hard take off from stop. Eye balling the pinion angle today it did appear that it was a bit positive. I need to do some more driving to verify all that. Hate to jump to a conclusion. I've done that too often too quickly trying to nail the issue down.

BTW. I checked the motor movement with the brake set and letting out the clutch to try and get the motor to rise toward the right. It does but not much. I feel the mounts are good. Had someone watch that LH mount while I did that and it didn't make any unusual movement.

Also when I say I eyeballed the pinion and it appeared a bit positive, that lead me to adding the 6 degree of shim.

I still can't help but wonder if I'm only band aiding the condition here and the cure is really at the clutch. Myself and the other half dozen guys that have looked at this just haven't found the culprit.
 
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Put a gopro under it from multiple angles and get some insite and piece of mind. Still wonder about the original impact of the pressure plate when you had clearence issues. It makes me concerened more for a spring on the disc than an imbalance on the hat.
 
1969383S said:
Put a gopro under it from multiple angles and get some insite and piece of mind. Still wonder about the original impact of the pressure plate when you had clearence issues. It makes me concerened more for a spring on the disc than an imbalance on the hat.
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I took that whole clutch assembly back apart and reinspected everything. All the springs were in good shape on the disc. Had a few friends of mine looking at it too.
 
TimS said:
I took that whole clutch assembly back apart and reinspected everything. All the springs were in good shape on the disc. Had a few friends of mine looking at it too.
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I hear you, but how did you inspect the disc springs and know they did not get tweeked? Not in pieces good! But what was the impact? Are you expecting more from an aftermarket performance clutch? Do the GoPro for piece of mind!
 
I don't believe I'm expecting too much from that clutch setup. Before adding the 6 degrees of shim it shook on normal driving at ease out. Just seems odd that I had to use the shims with the new springs. I've used that exact same Mcleod cltuch assembly on my old Super Bee with none of the issues I'm experiencing now.
 
My plan this weekend is to revisit all the easy stuff. For example the rear brakes. Take them totally out of the picture and see if the car still shakes at take off. Having no shake at all with the old school bars on would seem to be a clue toward the rear of the car somewhere. Only things I haven't addressed are the carrier itself and the brakes by total removal, adjusting so far inboard they won't contact the drums in the rear or just pushing all the fluid out of the master cylinder and wheel cylinders.
 
How is it when you drive it like you stole it? Maybe it just wants to be unleashed all the time :)
 
1969383S said:
How is it when you drive it like you stole it? Maybe it just wants to be unleashed all the time :)
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It shakes hard when you dump the clutch. I don't shake much now just easing out but I think adding the 6 degree shims has taken some torque away from the wheels. It get hard shake at launch but not as often but very little tire spin. At 4 degrees it shakes more at hard launch but will spin the tires more. No shim, more shake, but get thru the shake at hard launch and it will spin tire as long as you stay in it.
 
Curios? Does it have the front torque boxes as well as the rear? Only reason I ask is I have seen a certified factory 440 car that did not have rear torque boxes! Seemed far fetched to me but someone certified it!

Still think you ought to record what's going on with a camera, they can be indispensable!
 
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1969383S said:
Curios? Does it have the front torque boxes as well as the rear? Only reason I ask is I have seen a certified factory 440 car that did not have rear torque boxes! Seemed far fetched to me but someone certified it!

Still think you ought to record what's going on with a camera, they can be indispensable!
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Yes it does have the rear torque boxes.

I haven't been able to procure a camera. Best I've been able to do is look under the car while someone is launching forward. So much shaking going on it's hard to tell what the source is.
 
Do you have an adjustable pinion sunbber under there? I just added one to my dart & boy that makes a diffrence! Biyes real good now & seems to have less shuddering on take off too. My twin 10 from mcleod has a bit of chadder on take off too but still within the bedding milage now. But the snubber helped a lil for me.
 
Hipo65 said:
Do you have an adjustable pinion sunbber under there? I just added one to my dart & boy that makes a diffrence! Biyes real good now & seems to have less shuddering on take off too. My twin 10 from mcleod has a bit of chadder on take off too but still within the bedding milage now. But the snubber helped a lil for me.
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I do have a Mopar Performance adjustable snubber on. It's about a 1/2" from the floor. In this situation it didn't help.

I have a bit of chatter at take off easing out. Hard acceleration it's violent shake about 50% of the time.

Raised the rear wheels up this morning and checked for rear brakes sticking again. They don't stick at all as they are released. I had crossed that off the list before but just reverifying. I'm not much of a drinker but I may start if this keeps up.
 
TimS said:
Yes it does have the rear torque boxes.

I haven't been able to procure a camera. Best I've been able to do is look under the car while someone is launching forward. So much shaking going on it's hard to tell what the source is.
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What about the front boxes? I don't think it has anything to do with your problem, just curious!
 
TimS said:
I've got torque boxes forward of the front rear leaf hangers. Is that what your asking?
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No.

Up front at the back end of the front fender splash shields. From the rocker to the front frame rails! I am thinking all 4-speed 340/383 cars have them or should from the factory!
 
1969383S said:
No.

Up front at the back end of the front fender splash shields. From the rocker to the front frame rails! I am thinking all 4-speed 340/383 cars have them or should from the factory!
Click to expand...

I'll have to check on that. I don't recall seeing any. Do they look like the rear boxes?
 
Similar but It may be a tad wider, and on the driver side the parking brake cable would have to pass trough it twice before the anchor point at the torsion bar/trans x-member.

I know the auto cars do not have them, least mine does not.
 
I took a look and mine does not have front torque boxes.

Just to add, I have the original window sticker for the car and it hasn't had very many owners in it's lifetime. It's definitely an original 383 4 speed car.
 
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