Aircooled VW South Africa

As a lot of you know, my Fastbacks clutch stopped working the other day, well have taken the engine out, and found the problem.

As it is such a strange problem, I was wondering if others have had the same thing, so lets see if you can identify the problem from the events that happened.

Stopped at a stop street, pressed down the clutch, it engage 1st gear, when the pressure on the peddle faded.

The peddle still had a little resistance on it, but would not disengage the clutch.

Drove the car home, got under the car, had my son, press the clutch peddle, and had a look at the box, all was working fine, cable intact, arm moving.

What you say it was......??????

1) The forks (arms) on the shaft pushing the release bearing gave way?

2) You forgot to tighten the engine bolts... ...?

The cork has cme adrift from the plate...

Just another hint, There was no noise when it happened, and no noise when starting or driving the car, also no noise when pressing the clutch in.

Forks intact when opened, rod and shaft fully connected and working.

Did these hints Help any.???????

Herman

No... they don't.

But I am intriqued... If you say everything looked perfect, it could not have been the tunnel tube, in which the clutch cable runs and which the bowden tube butts up to, coming undone and shifting forwards, because you would see that the bowden tube curvature was gone/wrong. But I've seen that on more than one occasion on a beach buggy (and a few Golfs for that matter, where the bowden tube came through the firewall) .

Does the Fastback still have the old sleeveless type gearbox meant for the old "three finger pressure plate"?
One of the 3 fingers could have unclipped at the collar, maybe one of the 3 bolts broke, or the old style sleeveless release bearing's clip came off?
Or do you have a later adapter style diaphragm clutch with a collar on it's fingers?

Ron,
All is well and correct up to the two forks, and is working correct till this point.

Dawie,
You on the right track....

Herman

Oh boy, you take it from here Dawie, I was going to suggest:

You had a release bearing made out of liquorice and it melted...

The end float on your crankshaft suddenly inceased without making any noise...

Put me out of my misery, c'mon!

You did some sort of a conversion to your early gearbox to adapt a sleeve for the later style release bearing and multi-finger pressure plate. Did this possible come out alignment or in the process damage the fingers on the pressure plate hence not being able to disengage the clutch?

Sean,

you also on the right track,

Yes I did convert to the multi finger,
No, I made a tap in sleeve,
Yes I did fit the later style release bearing,
No it did not damage the fingers on the pressure plate,
Yes the Pressure plate and clutch plate is still working fine.........

Herman

How was the later style release bearing's 2 shoulders attached to the clutch fork. (Modified old type fork or later one)? Maybe the release bearing detached from fork, and turned 90 degrees...

Dawie wrote:How was the later style release bearing's 2 shoulders attached to the clutch fork. (Modified old type fork or later one)? Maybe the release bearing detached from fork, and turned 90 degrees...

It would have to have been this!

Yes!! You got it Dawie

The forks where changed to take the new style thrust bearing, with clips and all. This was done correctly, all worked lekker till.....

What happened, was that the Circlip, holding the shaft in, against the bush, broke, allowing the forks to move off to the side, moving the sleeve just enough to bend the holding clip on the thrust bearing, where it disengaged from its position, bending the 2nd clip, and turning 90 deg.
The fade that I got on the peddle, was most probably the thrust bearing being forced in between the forks.
Amassing how a Penny part can cause a good couple of Ponds of

Herman

Ps, will be widening the grove to take TWO clips now.....

THATS NOT ON!!!!!!

You cannot expect us to fathom out problems that you have caused yourself. If all was standard, we would of had the answer long ago.

Damn.

I suggest a personal visit to all the Cape Town oaks in the Fasty, who tried to help you, so as to appologize.

hitlers revenge wrote:THATS NOT ON!!!!!!

You cannot expect us to fathom out problems that you have caused yourself. If all was standard, we would of had the answer long ago.

Damn.

I suggest a personal visit to all the Cape Town oaks in the Fasty, who tried to help you, so as to appologize.

Quite right there old chap. Well said, for a Welshman...