Hi All

This is my first post, and I suspect has been posted before but I've not found a complete answer. I have noticed a "scraping" noise when in gear and under load - goes away when the clutch is depressed.  At first it sounded like a disc or pad problem, but changed all those and no different.  The noise tracks the engine speed - sounds like something rubbing part-way through each rotation.

 

I was advised it was likely to be a worn clutch with the rivets rubbing on the flywheel - but it's not.   The clutch is getting on but not excessively worn - and no marks on flywheel.  There is a fairly flimsy metal shield between the clutch housing and the block - does anyone have any experience of the flywheel rubbing on that?

 

Having searched around, it seemed that the gearbox is a common problem so I took the bell housing off for a look.  The diff bearings feel fine - except for the broken tapered washers (blue in picture) but I understand these can still work even in several pieces?

 

The bearing that has more play is on the middle shaft (outline in red).  Everything is held in place but seems like there is some wobble.  The input shaft bearing also feels fine.

 

So - is the middle shaft bearing likely to cause the noise?  I guess having come this far it's worth getting that replaced?

 

Any other possibilities?

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry forgot to mention that it's getting hard to get into gear - particularly reverse usually crunches.  Related?

if its apart it would make sense to replace all bearings and seals 

 

hard to select reverse would point towards a worn /badly adjusted clutch or high idle 

Thanks for that - looking for quotes at the moment.  Hope it fixes the problem