I discovered an ugly sounding noise coming from my SM420 after driving at 40-65 mph for about an hour. I didn't hear anything while driving and everything seemed fine, but I had to crawl underneath the vehicle to check on something else, and I heard a lot of noise coming from the Tranny..... it sounded like a bunch of gears rattling around. I freaked out and took it straight back home (about 50 miles) without a problem, keeping it under 60 mph. When I got it home, I took the clutch housing off and it seemed like the clutch was spinning a little wobbly. The noise was rather pronounced and seemed to definitely be coming from the Tranny, and not the TOB. I shut it down and let it sit overnight. Today I started it up and the noise was gone. I ran the engine for 5-15 minutes, and shifted the gears, but I didn't hear the noise and the clutch seemed to be spinning normally. I was listening with a screw driver today while a friend depressed the clutch, and I could hear a slight change in the sound but nothing significant. (NOTE: I couldn't do this some test yesterday when it was making all the noise because I didn't have anyone around to disengage the clutch).
I know this isn't much to go on, but does anyone have any thoughts on what might be happening in that Tranny? I did pull this Tranny 9 months ago and replaced the front seal, but I'm certain the Bearing Retainer was properly torqued.
The only thing I can think of is that at the time I took the Bearing Retainer, the (Clutch) Output Shaft slid out of the Tranny slightly. Since the Tranny was sitting at a downward angle, the shaft and bearing had a natural tendence to wany to slide forward. I didn't know, and hadn't been told that this was BAD until it already happended. I was then told "DONT DO THAT!
You run the risk of collapsing the needle bearings inside that shaft if it moves too far forward, as well as having the forward synchro get unsynchronized."
So that is one possibility of what has happened. I don't know how to determine if that is the case. I assume those needle bearings would fall to the bottom of the case, so draining the fluid might provide the answer??
Does this sound like I am going to need to pull the Tranny to find the answer? Would driving just to more damage to the Tranny at this point?
Thank you for your advice!!!!
I know this isn't much to go on, but does anyone have any thoughts on what might be happening in that Tranny? I did pull this Tranny 9 months ago and replaced the front seal, but I'm certain the Bearing Retainer was properly torqued.
The only thing I can think of is that at the time I took the Bearing Retainer, the (Clutch) Output Shaft slid out of the Tranny slightly. Since the Tranny was sitting at a downward angle, the shaft and bearing had a natural tendence to wany to slide forward. I didn't know, and hadn't been told that this was BAD until it already happended. I was then told "DONT DO THAT!
You run the risk of collapsing the needle bearings inside that shaft if it moves too far forward, as well as having the forward synchro get unsynchronized."
So that is one possibility of what has happened. I don't know how to determine if that is the case. I assume those needle bearings would fall to the bottom of the case, so draining the fluid might provide the answer??
Does this sound like I am going to need to pull the Tranny to find the answer? Would driving just to more damage to the Tranny at this point?
Thank you for your advice!!!!