08 GT with TR-3650 - broken metal clip found inside bellhousing?

08-GTCS

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I been stalking s197 for the better part of a decade now, and I've finally had to register because I got something that I've never seen before.

I had a hard stop and heard a sharp "PING!" sound, like a flat metal spring went flying against a metal object, but didn't hear anything after that. Drove around fine until about a week later I took a turn and heard the same sound, but this time followed by a metal-on-metal scraping sound that fluctuated with RPMs. Clutch input had zero effect, but when I stopped the car the sound went away so I couldn't troubleshoot. Another week later I had a real hard pull vs a fox body and during the pull in second gear the metal-on-metal scraping/pulsing sound came back and this time wouldn't go away. Almost sounded like a cam lobe was gone, but it was coming from the bellhousing area. Once again, clutch in/out had no effect on the noise.

Getting up under there and pulling the starter and driver's side plug out I found two pieces of twisted flat metal jammed between the block and the bellhousing cover plate (could see it looking up right above the oil pan). Each piece seems to be from the same component, and if you look closely each piece has a bolt hole in it. You can actually see what looks like a galling mark from a bolt in the piece on the right. I could visually see both pieces of metal in there, one on driver side and one on passenger side. I gently opened the bottom of the metal bellhousing cover to see if anything else was in there but couldn't see anything except for those two metal pieces. Pulled them out and the sound went away. I could see one of them making contact with the front side of the flywheel (between flywheel and block) so that was the culprit, but couldn't see anything else in there.

Does anyone have a clue what this could be? About a month before this I installed the South Bend FMK1011-HD clutch (first clutch after 150k miles), and did not see ANYTHING that looked like that when I put it in, but I did not pull the flywheel. Anyone got a clue what this thing is? Or does someone have detailed images of the block with the flywheel removed? I got nothing in my photos and I took a lot of photos. It just doesn't look familiar at all, and I'm usually the guy that sees a random bolt on the ground and know exactly where it came from. Car runs and drives just fine, through hard pulls, slow revs, feathering the clutch on a hill... everything seems perfectly fine, even for 150k miles the car is surprisingly mechanically okay. This has got me stumped. And help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

unknown bellhousing part.jpg
 
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08-GTCS

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It looks like a piece from the Pressure Plate.
While I would agree, I just can't find anything that would even come close to this piece attached to my pressure plate (I have a second pressure plate sitting next to me right now)
 

TripleFJeff

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I suspect that is part of the clutch disc. The disc is a thin metal plate with the material riveted to both sides. If the lining failed and got jammed up in there, it could rip out part of the plate. Could also be part of the sprung hub, but looks too thin for that.
 

whitmanink

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that sure looks like a part of the clutch that holds a rivet into place (i can see the hole for it)
im %95 sure your clutch disk is messed up , rainbowed , still grabbing but will fail eventually .
somehow it got caught or stuck or jammed and shared off,, (maybe came outta plane for a moment flexing causing the damage ?

it should be ok as long as your not hard , on it ,, but again , id assume it will let go sooner than later
 

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