Rear trasnmission shuddering

Post by **Mr Marmalade** » 24 Jan 2005 10:57 pm

Hello,

I'm new to this forum so I'd like to say howdy to everyone & say this webpage is smart. I've got a

GL 1.7 '88 (Blueline), just to let you know. I've just recently had my car in the garage for over 2 weeks getting a 'few' repairs, but i consider them worthwhile (fingers crossed).

i've just got one main question; the rear trasmission can sometime shudder quite heavily when going from a stand-still. what is this? it may just be my cr%p use of the clutch, it's not one of the rubber-belt cars as it has manual gearbox.

funny story: my recent reason for having the car off the road was a flat tyre, which ended up revealing a ripped/damaged alloy. the garage consulted an local alloy restoration place who said it'd be £50 to fix, so i said forget it and the garage (they said this to the alloy-fix people) then spent the best part of 2 weeks hunting the country for steel wheels. once they finally found them the alloy-fix guys came back with a better-than-perfect restored wheel! the garage had already said they didnt want it & the alloy-fix people didnt want it so they gave it to the garage, who then 'accidentally' left it in my hands, for free!

...now if i could only get the other alloys as clean as this one...

:340pw:

Post by **petefarrell360** » 24 Jan 2005 11:53 pm

Hi and welcome! If I'm correct in saying you have a rare version of the 300, a Blueline! It's good to know that they are still around and being cared for!

Back to your problem, I sometimes get an unexplainable shudder, it doesn't matter how you use the clutch either when it happens! I've found it most apparent when the car is cold, but I've often wondered if something is warped or not quite aligned properly with the clutch! It is very occasional though, so I've never investigated further.

I'm sure someone with a lot more knowledge in this area will help you out with this one!

Nice one with the alloy wheel too? Which style are they, are they the same as on a Redline version, number 4?

Pete

Post by **morgan105** » 25 Jan 2005 01:55 am

If the car is only juddering when taking up drive then it could be 1 of a few things wrong:

clutch plate hinges contaminated with oil or grease
loose or broken engine/gearbox mounts
clutch plate distorted
worn flywheel pilot bearing
clutch shaft splines worn
broken clutch spring

Hope this helps!

Post by **foggyjames** » 25 Jan 2005 02:30 am

300s are famous for doing this. Some even supposedly did it from the factory. Basically, your clutch is partially slipping. Careful driving can prevent it from coming on so quickly, but fundamentally it's a design flaw.

Mine does it in two situations...
1) In prolonged clutch slipping conditions, especially with a heavy load (eg: in a traffic jam with a car full of passengers)

2) From a cold start when it's been pointing up-hill.

My money is on a persistant oil-leak.

cheers

James

Post by **jtbo** » 25 Jan 2005 07:33 am

I got clutch replaced in professional garage because of that and nothing changed, I think that old clutch was also pretty new as I could not tell if it was changed or not. But that did cost good 500 euros for me

Engine mounts and gearbox mounts could affect that, I know that my engine §mounts are rather loose and one of gearbox mounts is half broken. Mostly at wet weather it does that shaking.

Oh yes, those 'professionals' could not change gearbox mount same time when changing clutch, but they managed to leave driveshaft bolts loose, nice thing to notice when you are 100km from home.

Post by **redline** » 25 Jan 2005 10:05 am

Welcome Mr marmalade At last a BLUELINE on the forum , ok we need pictures and can you tell us what special features the blueline has

Post by **Lonewolf** » 25 Jan 2005 11:11 am

i'm against the engine mounts, i've got recon. mounts in mine and it still does the juddering during the morning, it doesnt happen every morning, it has once or twice done it during the day as well. maybe they accidently hooked a tempramental ABS system up to the clutch before sending them out

Post by **foggyjames** » 25 Jan 2005 03:05 pm

The Blueline (AFAIK) is a standard 1.7 GL, but with blue coachwork, blue trim in the interior, and the ambient temp and economy gauges!

It might be interesting for someone to rig a video camera up to see what happens on the underside when the judders hit. I've heard from several authorititative sources that it is something to do with the clutch itself - but which replacement plates won't fix. I've heard talk of weak springs, and especially oil leaks, but no-one seems to know for sure. I'd love to get to the bottom of it once and for all!

cheers

James

Post by **jtbo** » 25 Jan 2005 06:27 pm

It accurs only when car is cold, so that is one variable that must affect it, also if weather is wet and foggy then it is almost certain to happen, so that we can say is variable 2.

I have changed clutch and flywheel got lightened also, at same time company that did those jobs needed to take little out from flywheel as it was not very good shape. But those things did not helped at all. That is why we can say that it is not about how smooth flywheel surface is.

I don't know too well what those springs do in clutch, but that I know that they need to be ok or clutch will be shaking a lot.
Is center part moving without outmost part? Are springs there to transfer power from outer part to inner part?

With race clutch it is little difficult to drive in city as it really bites into flywheel , very fun but for road use everyone recommends 4-plate version. I think those does not have springs at all?

I think that my clutch has now operating radius of 2-3cm when I start from standing still. But still car is shaking and to disengage completely I need to push pedal to floor. I just think that it should shake less as it has so fast bite? Maybe it is those springs that cause it indeed.

I feel also that whole engine-driveline is moving at different pace than a car. When accelerating at 2nd gear I feel like rear axle would be turning to left, but maybe it is just imagination

Sorry from chaotic reply, just a little mindflow there

Post by **5lab** » 25 Jan 2005 06:39 pm

happened on snowey when she was cold. i think its actually a lack of choke use, or something similarly engine-related.

Post by **foggyjames** » 25 Jan 2005 07:47 pm

I'm not sure we can be talking about the same think Hugh - this is unmistakeably (sp?) clutch related.

It's not always just when cold - mine does it when the clutch has been worked hard, for example in a traffic with several passengers.

cheers

James

Post by **pettaw** » 25 Jan 2005 09:15 pm

Mine did it until I changed the clutch. I did it myself using the proper Volvo Clutch kit from the dealer, which includes new pressure plate and release bearing. I also changed the g/box for one from daveslater's 360 because mine was crunching on the gear changes and making bearing noises. But I don't think that has anything to do with it.

The weird thing was, the previous owner had already changed the clutch and gearbox a bit earlier, but I think didn't change the pressure plate because this thing was SCORED to hell!! and needless to say the friction plate didn't have any Volvo or Valeo markings on it at all, ie: a cheapy pattern one. The gearbox, far from being from a newer/better car actually had 84 stamped on it, whilst my car is MY86! Dave's box was a 1987 model. So I now have the higher compression engine with the slightly higher ratio rear diff! More revvy but definitely more pokey too!!

So my recommendation would be to change the clutch but only with a proper Volvo kit. It is a palava though because of the torque tube. The 340s are much easier!

Post by **Mr Marmalade** » 25 Jan 2005 09:33 pm

thanks for the quick replies!

the alloys are indeed number 4 from the pictures! it is perfectly clean, sand blasted, re-engineered, coated & cooked, and lightly salted. i wish they'd do the rest for free!

the clutch thing is also relatively infrequent, but i am the main driver of it, so i get blamed for just not using the clutch properly! i do one serious bit of clutch-driving whilst on the ramp up to the tay bridge heading south, which can't really be avoided, its just a bit annoying when it decides to do it. i cant find any particular pattern to its occurance either. maybe i'll mention it to the guys at the garage then next time it's in.

since my car's come out of the garage it faster too, a cleaned air filter. mmm. he said it was the worst he'd seen since '78 on a Layland DAF.

:sm75:

redline: i can't seem to add pictures to my post! i just took 2 to show y'all the wheels. i think i'd need to wash the car before i dared to post a picture of it on this website...

foggyjames: the Blueline extras are pretty much as you mentioned; air temp, eco meter, blue bits. it also has heated seats, and a spoiler.

Post by **SteveP** » 25 Jan 2005 10:08 pm

Hi and welcome,

It sounds like this is a common 300 problem, one which I haven't noticed too much with my 360, but alot of others have experienced this! I'd say it certainly sounds like a clutch problem!

Mr Marmalade wrote: redline: i can't seem to add pictures to my post! i just took 2 to show y'all the wheels. i think i'd need to wash the car before i dared to post a picture of it on this website...

I wouldn't worry - all of our pictures are taken with "auto-flatter", making them look alot cleaner than they actually are

If you host the images on a host website (photobucket for example), you can just use the "IMG" button to copy and paste the address of where the image is located.

Post by **Mr Marmalade** » 25 Jan 2005 11:15 pm

mmm.