Hi there.

I have a '65 Barracuda with a newly built 360 and an A833-OD gearbox. The car has been complete for more than a year but I've been slowly chasing a few gremlins and sounds resulting from changing so much equipment. Last year I replaced the radiator, engine, carburetor, intake, power steering (pump, gear, and hydrobooster), aluminum bellhousing, gearbox, driveline, front disc brake conversion, 8-3/4" rear diff, and exhaust. I'm still stuck with the 273 manifolds but that's a discussion for another time.

I have a clear problem where I hear an distinct engine whine that's hard to echo-locate, but it seems to come from the rear of the engine about where it meets the firewall. The pitch of the whine corresponds to the rpms - so at 3,000 rpms the whine is the same note. When the car starts in gear from a dead stop and the revs build up, I hear a corresponding whine. The same happens in second, third, and fourth. That is, as the speed of the engine increases so does the pitch of the whine. I can even hear it in neutral a little. BUT when I push in the clutch ( a new Centerforce 10.5" clutch ) the whine disappears. It also disappears when I push in the clutch to change gears.

What can this be? The shop who rebuilt my gearbox absolutely maintains that it isn't the transmission. So I'm wondering what it might be now - throwout bearing? Input shaft? Crank bushing? Z-bar? Clutch fork? I've been trying to figure this out for a while but I'm out of ideas.

Thanks for any insight,
Marcus

sounds like the throwout bearing or a bearing in the trans.

Sounds like the throwout bearing is touching the clutch fingers when the clutch is released to me.

I am not a clutch guy but what Supercuda said, I'd shorten the clutch fork threaded adjuster rod to get the throwout bearing off of the fingers & see if it dissappears. Do ya feel lucky. Count the # of turns to easily return it to its' original length if that ain't it

Very good. The clutch pedal itself feels perfect with just the right amount of free play. But tomorrow I'll loosen up the adjuster and see what happens.

Transmission input bearing if it goes away with clutch pushed in

Usually when the throw -out bearing is failing it starts to whine when the clutch is released. it is possible that it is failing and the T/O bearing is still touching the fingers when released causing it to whine .
And of course it could be the front bearing in the tranny.
It could also be crank related, when you press the clutch in, it tries to push the crank forward and it will if the truss bearing is bad but when you release the clutch the crank will return to the Goldylocks zone (lol) and the whining starts again

I am not sure if its possible on a mopar small block, but I can tell you what I just went through with my Hemi. I had the exact same issue and thought it was something in the throwout bearing/clutch/input shaft bearing etc. Went nuts trying to locate it. It turned out being a bad balancer!!. The rubber elasomer in the balancer failed and allowed the outer ring of the balancer to work its way rearward and start rubbing against the timing cover making a similar noise. When I pushed in the clutch, it moved the crank forward just enough to move the balancer away from the timing cover and the noise stopped. Drove us crazy. Check your harmonic balancer before you tear the drivetrain apart!!!
good luck.

Input shaft bearing.

Everyone, thanks for the excellent information. I popped off my inspection cover and made sure to adjust the clutch disc to have .050" of clearance. I also heated and bended the threaded adjuster rod to make a more positive angle. It feels great. But because of the bend, I can't adjust any more clearance or rod hits the exhaust but it seems perfect.

The noise is still there, but I came to discover that the whine disappears if I remove the power steering belt. And I've already had the pump rebuilt twice. Lousy.

The best news that I found that the input shaft is weeping. After having the gearbox rebuilt. Twice in one year. I can't ever seem to win.

Anyway, it looks like the culprit is hydraulic, not gear related.

Thanks again!