[undy]

I don't think it's your clutch either. If you were getting that kind of noise from the clutch you'd see a little debris in the bottom of the bell housing, if nothing but some excessive dust. From your photos it appeared somewhat clean. That and the fact that there's no drivability issues points away from the clutch itself. If you have noise then something's moving in a way it's not supposed to.

Some of these old style aftermarket "foriegn" throw-out bearings don't have the durability of the original OEM units. I'm a firm subscriber to the belief that if you leave the T/O bearing permanently in contact with the pressure plate you're sending that T/O bearing to an early grave. This doesn't apply to the newer hydraulic T/O bearings. I'm thinking that's where you're at now.

Also, you need to be very carefull in moving the slave back from the clutch fork. You not only need the bearing-to-plate air gap but you also need enough slave cylinder stroke to disengage the clutch. You might even need to upsize the bore on the clutch M/C or get a different slave with less cylinder volume to get the desired stroke. Pat's idea is spot-on with the clutch fork return spring. In a lot of situations the clutch fork pivot ball and/or pivot ball retainer spring puts a pre-load on the clutch fork, pushing it towards the T/O bearing. Some clutch fork boots will do the same thing. Pat's spring should negate that preload.

In any case, I'd pull the clutch slave rod out of there and tie back the clutch fork, away from the T/O bearing. Start the car in nuetral and see if the noise is no more. At least then you'll know if it's a T/O bearing issue or not. I'll bet a 6-pack it is..

Dave