Strange clutch fork issue

[Autozone employee]

Does anyone know what the piece resting inside the clutch fork is? Or what could possibly cause it to be beat to all hell like it is? Honestly im not even sure if its supposed to be in there.

I just bought the car a couple weeks ago, so far the clutch pedal feels "grainy" only while the engine is running. Theres a whirring noise coming from the gear shifter with the clutch all the way out in neutral. Honestly a lot sketchy work has been done to this car. Also my clutch quadrant is aftermarket but no firewall adjuster. For some reason the quadrant has a bunch of zip ties on it as well.

Im starting to think the guy who sold me this car did a whole bunch of half ass temporary fixes to make it drive decent for a test drive just masking some major problems.

 

[Dr. Cobra]

Does anyone know what the piece resting inside the clutch fork is? Or what could possibly cause it to be beat to all hell like it is? Honestly im not even sure if its supposed to be in there.

I just bought the car a couple weeks ago, so far the clutch pedal feels "grainy" only while the engine is running. Theres a whirring noise coming from the gear shifter with the clutch all the way out in neutral. Honestly a lot sketchy work has been done to this car. Also my clutch quadrant is aftermarket but no firewall adjuster. For some reason the quadrant has a bunch of zip ties on it as well.

Im starting to think the guy who sold me this car did a whole bunch of half ass temporary fixes to make it drive decent for a test drive just masking some major problems.

Prior searches found around 2005 state this is a vibration damper for the clutch arm. Some remove it, others don't. The nut came off on my 96 Cobra, it fell and got caught between the bellhousing and clutch arm, preventing any future shifting. Result was loss of car control and damage resulted. So, I plan on either welding the nut on, or just removing the weight. Some forum responses say they did not get clutch pedal chatter after they removed it.