Greetings, had my '97 Legacy OB 5-speed in for clutch cluster-f*ck recently; evidently the fork that links from slave cylinder to release bearing cracked, release bearing hyper-extended. Since entire dis-ass'y was required and clutch had 50K miles wear, replaced clutch and all hydraulics to tune of $1300 or so.
Clutch feels great now and car drives fine. BUT ... there is a strange noise that I'm 90% sure was not there before the clutch replacement (even my girlfriend noticed it). Kind of a grinding noise, seems to come and go with application and back off of power. Definitely seems to come from rear area of car, either rear differential and/or bearings. Sounds good bit like a wheel bearing, but doesn't seem consistent with speed, more with power/ backoff. Two different mechanics test drove and put up on lift and agreed something sounded funny but could not figure out what. The only thing clutch job did aft of tranny was to unbolt/reattach driveshaft. That all looks fine as do u-joints. Perhaps a little more freeplay (backlash) in rear diff'al than optimal.
I'm in a quandry. It seems inconceivable that clutch job would have somehow created this problem but equally unlikely I'm imagining the new noise. Mechanic said drive it awhile and see if it gets worse, and he'd make good if it turned out they somehow messed up. I would appreciate any thoughts !
John