[HSSS427]

Today I ran the car and the throwout fork is vibrating up and down against the bottom of the footbox when the car is in neutral and clutch pedal is out. When I push the pedal in I get an initial harsh vibration as it engages, and then it goes quiet. Thus, each time I shift gears it feels like a chainsaw is being put against the bottom of the foot box and it's transmitting the vibration through the clutch pedal. When the car is running in gear I'm still getting a slight vibration. I haven't had this problem in the past and am trying to figure out what would cause this. The throwout bearing was installed new about 250 miles ago.

First, I assume it's not normal for the fork to move up and down so it's not just a clearance issue. Given that, what could be causing this?

- the fork / bearing is not releasing all the way out? ie when the car is in gear, the throwout is still contacting the presure plate splines?
- could I have bent or broken a pressure plate spline and it's hitting the throwout bearing?
- The bearing is bad and not spinning freely?

Any ideas or experience with this? Don't want to go through yanking the tranny out if I don't have to since it's such a pain.
Thanks!
Scott