Cherokee "Clacking" Noise?

ty20404

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Location
Wilmington
Some of you may have read my thread regarding an overheating issue that happened to be a stretched timing chain, but I believe this issue is completely unrelated. In fact, I think that it could be a cracked flywheel...

I bought the Jeep 2 years ago w/ a blown motor. Swapped in a used Stroker and bolted it up to the 238k mile AX-15 and XJ chassis. At day 1, I do not recall this loud "clacking" noise that I'm getting. Once I had the Jeep on the road for about a week, the transmission went out. It happened to be a cracked 5th gear, which I had replaced by a transmission shop. I did not, however, have the trans rebuilt. Even after I replaced the transmission last summer, I do not recall hearing this loud "clacking" noise.

I drove the Jeep rarely up until about 3 months ago when I totaled my DD and this suddenly became my DD. Between the mistiming and the stretched timing chain noise, I honestly do not know when this "clacking" noise began.

What I do know: the noise is much louder when the engine is cold in the morning and it is cold outside. It sounds the same, clutch in or clutch out (I even pulled the slave so I could move the TOB away from the PP, no change). It is linear with RPM, and speed has no effect. I have noticed on cold mornings when I am accelerating and press in the clutch to shift, there is a "marble-y" sound for a slight second, but this seems to go away once the engine warms up. I can hear the sound beneath the car and it is coming from the back of the engine / bellhousing area on the bottom side. Once the engine is warm it kind of sounds like a slight exhaust leak, but with a metallic sound to it (I could very well have an exhaust leak as well, so I could be hearing both). It pretty much sounds like a valve tick or clicking noise once the engine is hot, but it is coming from the back / underside of the engine.

And I took a video:



I'm thinking that it could possibly be a cracked flywheel? Or loose flywheel bolts? I vividly remember torquing the flywheel bolts but I can't remember if I used any sort of threadlocker...
 
Lee, any thoughts as to what it could be? This is the transmission that I brought to you where the 5th gear had cracked in half last June.
 
I do recall at some point one of the fingers on the pressure plate that faces the TOB being bent outward a touch. But why would this cause a noise if it was the issue? Just picking your brain a little...
 
Also, could it be a cracked exhaust manifold?
 
There is a crack in the header.


ai20.photobucket.com_albums_b220_ty20404_2012_11_08_12_55_14_975.jpg


Going to try to find someone in Wilmington with a welder to weld it up or let me do it and see if that eliminates every noise I've been hearing.
 
It sounds rotational to me too...
 
Any chance the blockplate between the block and bellhousing is contacting the crank? You usually have to pry around it to separate the tranny from the engine. Happened to me a few times...
 
It isn't contacting on the underside of the crank but that's a good point... It could be on top. I can see between the plate and the back of the oil pan to see the back of the flywheel mounting flange. And with that there is an equal one thread showing on each bolt. From laying under the car it really seems as though the noise is coming from the rear main seal area that blocking plate also seems like it could resonate a sound like that. I don't recall seeing any marks on the crank in that location but I will try loosening bolts and moving the plate a little.
 
Blocking plate is not touching the crank anywhere... Swapped out the rear main seal, and oil pump yesterday. I had Rotella T 15w-40 in there and put straight 40 weight back in... Sound didn't change one bit so I'm starting to think it's either the front bearing on the transmission or something with the clutch. It just sounds like it's coming from the bellhousing, resonating off of that blocking plate.
 
So, I realized that as of lately I had been leaking a lot of oil from the rear main seal... Could a contaminated clutch be causing this noise? And or a contaminated clutch have caused a spring to break which is causing the noise?
 
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