Is my clutch going south?

Do the revs go up without the car accelerating?
Will

Nope. When I hammer the gas it seems to pull right away. That's what ghot me thinking it could be something else.

I have about 23,000 miles on this clutch.
Most of it easy cruisin, but some hard track time and some terrible stop and go traffic jams.

This noise only happens when the car is in gear?

might be as simple as a slipping fan belt. Always check the simple first then the difficult.

quote:

might be as simple as a slipping fan belt

I agree. Check the belts first.

John

I started thinking this through more thoroughly. Clutch would slip and stink and all kinds of things that it wasn't doing. Can't be the clutch.
What would make this noise under load and not so much when coasting along?
Jack up the back and start looking around. One outside u-joint was in BAD shape. Good bet that is the problem. No press or big vise at home so will replace the joints at work tomorrow.

The car taught me a valuable pantera lesson today.
Less driving and more inspection and preventative maintenance would be a good idea.
Thanks again
Doug M

Doug,

Good catch on the U-joint, but I know of no u-joint that screeches under load, so your symptoms may still exist.

One of the belts is the most likely scenario, is it worse when cold?

The other possible culprit if it is coming from the clutch area is a throwout bearing. If it persists try just riding the clutch enough to take up the pressure on the thowout and see if the noise changes tone or stops.

Cheers,
Julian

I'd bet my bottom dollar it's a loose belt. I am having the same thing happening to my car right now, and it goes away once car is warm (as the belt warms up and gets stickier). I'll get to it sometime soon, but it's a sure bet it's not your clutch

A couple of Panteras I know of failed a replacement pilot bearing. Instead of the stock pilot bushing, this engine had a needle bearing substituted, and at the point of seizure, it screamed. We got it out of there before it tore up the input shaft nose ($2400 replacement cost!) In the lower gears, there's considerable side-load on that little shaft nose.

[QUOTE] ($2400 replacement cost!)

Good grief that's why the trans is the only piece of the car I'm terrified of breaking.

I got the joints in the axle. Also checked and tightened the belts. I'm getting pretty fast at removing the seats and getting at the front of the motor.

Screech is gone. Probably (for sure) it was the belt. Hey, the car is talking to me.
The screech was saying look around, dummy, there's more important things ready to fail. Especially after seeing some pictures of what happens when an axle fails. Not good!

See you in Reno

Doug M

quote:

.... I'm getting pretty fast at removing the seats and getting at the front of the motor.

Dug, you gotta cut the upholstered bubble loose from the rest of the firewall uphostery! There's nothing like having a minor engine problem and pulling the Velcro-ed firewall bubble off with your fingers, then with a screwdriver, pulling the steel door. 5 munites start to finish to replace an alt belt and the seats stay put.