I see the mention of broken Damper Springs in the Clutch Disk.
I swapped in a 4-spd in the 85 300D, 22K miles later I changed the trans for another one thinking I had a bearing problem in the Trans.
Getting the Trans in, I kept hitting something and the input shaft wouldn`t fit into the Pilot bearing.
So I pulled the pressure Plate/Disk out, and the pilot bearing had come out when I pilled the trans.
I was putting it back together, and noticed a rattle with the Disk, the 2 larger springs were both broken, and the center metal piece was cracked.
Replaced the Disk, and some day will get this car back on the road.
Our 240 has 375K and have had it for 5 years, so don`t know how old/miles are on it. I do get a noise only when first starting it in the morning. Pushing in on the Clutch peddle a couple times and it goes away.
Iam thinking it is the T/O bearing.
I don`t hear any Input Shaft Trans bearing noise I see mentioned above on the 240.
Also as Tom mentioned, I always kick it in natural when at a traffic light. holding in on the peddle puts pressure on the Pressure plate springs and wear on the T/O bearing.
When slowing down coming into a traffic light, I just push the lever out of gear w/o using the peddle.
As you let off the power, there is slack in the gears between power and decelerating. This is when I push it out of gear.
Starting out in first, I just get her rolling then go to 2nd. I usually don`t wind them out.
It`s amusing to watch the guy behind me launch his 300hp pos into my trunk the quickly back off.
I get this in the 86 Ford F250 also when shifting between gears on a start. most all cars on the road are automatics and they are all in a hurry.
Charlie