Re: Help - clutch failure

[shawnmze@ix.netcom.com (SHAWN C. MEZE)]

You wrote: 
>
>Can anyone help me with this clutch prob:
>I was driving fairly hard (about 40 Mph) taking some fairly hard turns 
- and
>was using the clutch fairly hard.  When i pulled out of one of the 
turns i
>noticed i couldn't get any of my gears.  Then i noticed that there was 
NO
>tension at all on the clutch pedal.  After closer examination i found 
out
>that the cables are all ok
>basically everything in my sight (ie not enclosed.. pressure plate...) 
was
>fine.
>Has anyone experienced this problem before? Is there anyway to solve 
it w/o
>dropping out the transmission? (BTW how much does this cost?)
>The car is an 86 scirocco 16v with a 2,000 mile old sachs 210mm clutch 
on it.
> Any help is appreciated.


This has been MY experience with a simular situation. I had my mom on 
the car for the first time since all of my major mods were completed. I 
went from first, second and was shifting it into 3rd when something 
poped and I couldnt get it into gear. I pulled over and checked the 
cable and determined it was OK so it had broken the little finger 
inside the tranny since the lever would not budge. (It pushes on the 
throwout bearing.) SO, I got me a new end cap (The green cap on the end 
of the tranny) and one of those new fingers. When the parts got here, 
(I order ALL of my parts from Mike Potter at Timmons VW. Awsome 
prices!)I went to work on the tranny. When I got the end cap off I 
found that the finget had not broken at all. Heres what happened.
While I was shifting, the clutch cable finished chewing its way thru 
the cable, just under the intake tube so it wasnt easily visable. When 
it got through the cable's teflon tubing, it gave the cable about an 
inch of instant freeplay. When this happened, the throwout bearing 
poped back and turned sideways. Now when I pushed on the clutch, the 
finger was pressing on nothing but air and such, no gears. 
In conclusion, your problems could be as simple as:
clutch cable
or as complicated as:
clutch finger broke. (Internal by the throwout bearing)
throwout bearing has turned. --->(I Dont think so since you say you 
have pressure on the clutch lever. if it were amazingly difficult to 
move, it might be the bearing has turned.)<---
Clutch pressure plate ---> they do in fact break, but not very 
often.<---
I hope this helps!

Shawn
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