Topic: High Pitched "Chirping" When Clutch Pedal Pressed

[JD]

Hey Guys,

I have a '91 PU 2wd with 22RE engine and W55 transmission.

Every time I start up lately I hear a faint high pitched chirping, which intensifies if I push in the clutch pedal even a tiny bit, and keeps going until I release the pedal completely.

However, the sound is only heard for the first minute or so after I start up and goes away completely after that. I have an idea of what it might be, but thought I would see what you guys thought, and what my options might be. Thanks in advance!

[Tallchevy]

Sounds like the release bearing is dry.

[jonathan82toy]

If it gets worse when you push the pedal it could be the Release Bearing.     

[JD [OP]]

So if it is the release bearing, Would it be possible to replace or grease it without dropping the whole transmission? I'm hoping I could just unbolt the bell housing halves and spread them far enough apart to get to that bearing without major surgery. Would that be possible?

I just replaced the clutch about three months ago and that took me two days, so I'm hoping to avoid a repeat of that.

Also, is this something that could wait a couple weeks? It seems fine once I'm going, it's just noisy for the first minute or two.

[OOPS]

In order to install a new one the tranny has to come out.

[JD [OP]]

Thanks for the replies.

Playing devil's advocate for a moment though, why would the chirping continue once the driveshaft stopped turning after the clutch pedal has been depressed for several seconds?

Because with the clutch pedal pressed in, the chirping intensifies when I race the engine. I would think this would point to some failing part connected to the engine, but if that's the case, I'm not sure why pressing the clutch pedal would cause the sound to intensify.



EDIT: I looked at the driveshaft and saw that it does not turn unless the truck is in gear, so please disregard the last question.

I just don't wanna drop that transmission again, especially if there is any chance at all it could be something else causing the noise.

So a bad release bearing is consistent with everything I described so far (chirping intensifies when engine is raced)?

I was really hoping it would be a water pump or something easy to fix.

[OOPS]

Thanks for the replies.

Playing devil's advocate for a moment though, why would the chirping continue once the driveshaft stopped turning after the clutch pedal has been depressed for several seconds?

Because with the clutch pedal pressed in, the chirping intensifies when I race the engine. I would think this would point to some failing part connected to the engine, but if that's the case, I'm not sure why pressing the clutch pedal would cause the sound to intensify.

Because the bearing is now turning faster and under a load.

[JD [OP]]

Hey Oops, I just noticed you are in Roseville, I'm in Granite Bay just off Douglas on Oak Knoll Drive.

[79coyotefrg]

release bearing

[JD [OP]]

OK, thanks, I guess it is the release bearing.

How critical is replacing this? It might be several weeks until I can fix it.

As it is now, as long as I run the engine for a minute or so before using the clutch, the bearing does not chirp. Which leads me to believe that the problem might be more of an annoyance than anything too critical.

*crosses fingers*

[MiniSimp]

Just replace it as soon as you can.
Remember, as long as your engine is running, that bearing is turning.

[Tallchevy]

Because with the clutch pedal pressed in, the chirping intensifies when I race the engine.

That's because the bearing is making full contact with the fingers on the pressure plate causing the bearing to spin. When you let the pedal out the noise goes away cause now the bearing isn't making contact to the fingers on the pressure plate.

Why didn't you change it when you had the transmission out the first time 

[KDXSR5]

Why didn't you change it when you had the transmission out the first time 

Thats all i could think of once i started reading this! haha.


Its not too bad to drop the transmission, I have dropped a few myself... putting in a new release bearing takes like no time once the transmissions dropped... its putting the transmission back in that really sucks!

[JD [OP]]

I thought I did change it, assuming that rebuild kits (no it wasn't a Marlin kit) usually come with a new release bearing.

However, I just stumbled upon what seems to be a solution, and if it buys me a few more weeks or months I will be thrilled.

Yesterday I adjusted the clutch pedal height to the proper 6". But today when I drove the truck, I heard almost constant bearing noise, even when my foot was off the clutch. So what I did was drop the height of the pedal to down to about 5" and now there's no more noise at all. *crosses fingers*.

So I hope this will last for a while, but we'll see.