Grinding Sound When Engaging Clutch

I was driving my car (340/833) home recently and all seemed fine until I got about half way home. I pushed the clutch pedal in to downshift and when I let the pedal up there was suddenly a short grinding sound while the pedal was coming up. Once the pedal was all the way up and the trans. was in gear it was fine but each time I depress the clutch pedal it makes this sound when I let the pedal up. I don't hear any noise when pushing the pedal down or while in gear and the car is moving, only when I depress the clutch pedal and let it back up again. I'm suspecting the throwout bearing at this point but I am not sure. I don't know how many miles are on the clutch and related parts but I have owned the car for 14 years and put maybe 1500 miles on it during that time. I am going to try and get out in the garage soon and look into this but was wondering if anyone might have any thoughts on what likely the problem is.

Sounds like a throwout bearing to me.

Can you feel the noise in the shifter or clutch pedal?

Kinda unusual, -
Z-bar lever may be interfering with header collector.
Z-bar bushings and/or motor mounts may be worn/broken .

RustyRatRod said:

Can you feel the noise in the shifter or clutch pedal?

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No, I just hear the sound. Also, the sound does not last for the entire time the pedal is coming up from being pushed all the way down to it's fully up position. It's only a brief grinding sound when you first start letting the pedal up. It stops before the pedal is all the way up (maybe half way up) and the trans. is in gear. I hope this makes sense.

69GT said:

No, I just hear the sound. Also, the sound does not last for the entire time the pedal is coming up from being pushed all the way down to it's fully up position. It's only a brief grinding sound when you first start letting the pedal up. It stops before the pedal is all the way up (maybe half way up) and the trans. is in gear. I hope this makes sense.

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Makes perfect sense. Glad you answered. Since you cannot actually feel the sound through the shifter or pedal, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's a noise coming from the clutch mechanism under the dash. Like maybe the over center spring or some such. I would get under there and just look and see if maybe something is rubbing on the spring or something like that. Might be that the mechanism just needs lubricating.

Get it up on the hoist while someone works the clutch to locate.