[DeTomaso] clutch squeal

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/26/07 7:15:01, garth_rodericks at yahoo.com writes:

<<   It's the rear tires!  Try not to rev it so high and let the clutch out a 
bit slower and you shouldn't break rubber every time.  ;o)

>>>That reminds me of a story.

As many people know, the Pantera was my first car; I didn't know how to 
drive, nor did I have an automobile driver's license when I bought my Pantera back 
in October 1989.  My girlfriend had to hurriedly teach me to drive in her 
Datsun B210 Sundowner in an abandoned parking lot, but as I had been riding 
motorcycles for years, it was a pretty straightforward process.

About a month after I bought it, after spending most of that time fixing it 
to the point where I thought it was safe to drive (I was wrong, but that's 
another story), I drove the Pantera from California to Wichita Falls, TX in one 
18-hour day, arriving at 9:30 p.m. just in time to go out and party with some of 
my friends from college who had started pilot training at Sheppard AFB a few 
months before I did.  One of them had purchased a brand new '89 5.0 Mustang GT 
with a five-speed, and as a non-drinker, I was nominated as designated driver.

Two other guys and three girls piled into this Mustang, and I got behind the 
wheel and set off for the club.  I noted that first gear was incredibly low, 
much lower than in the Pantera, and the throttle response from the 
fuel-injected motor felt decidedly weird and oddly difficult to modulate smoothly, and I 
also noticed a strange ZzzZzzZzz sound whenever I left a stop.  The car seemed 
to drive fine, but it just kept making that strange noise.

Finally, when I was almost there (having driven almost all the way across 
town), I happened to glance in the mirror while leaving a stop and saw SMOKE 
behind the car!

Turns out that I was absolutely BROILING the tires at each stop!  That 
ZzzZzzZzz sound was the tires spinning madly!  I bet I took 50% of the life off my 
friend's tires on that one short drive.  Fortunately he was already fairly 
well-lubricated and didn't seem to notice.

I conducted all further stops from 2nd gear with no further displays of 
inadvertant hooliganism....
   
  >Seriously, I agree with Bill. Sounds like the throw-out bearing. >>

>>>It's odd that it only squeals when you are in-transit, i.e. it is silent 
when the clutch is depressed, and when it is lifted, and only makes noise when 
you are initially setting off.  At the risk of asking the obvious, could it 
possibly be belt squeal (especially since you said "it sounds like belt 
squeal").  Those few Panteras I have heard with squealing belts, only seemed to make 
noise when the driver was leaving a stop....

Mike
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