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Whats up with all the clutchage breakages, HUH?



Geez, I get home and find a bunch of clutch problematic posts.

Hmm, don't feel bad, I had my own problems this weekend. Friday the wifes
84 Roc dies exiting the freeway. I go have a look and it wont run. I
suspect its the overheated fuel pump syndrome. Called AAA and towed it
home the last mile. 

Then saturday im trying to prep my car for the big autox at California
speedway. I try to open the hood and the release cable breaks. What a
pisser. Yank the grill and open the hood, replace the cable. 

today started off good enough. Got up at the butt-crack-of-dawn and drove
up to California Speedway. I get up there and open the hood, OIL
everywhere near the oil cooler. No real evidence of WHERE exactly its
comming from, I suspect its one of the cooler lines. (its only 7 years
old. heh.) OK soI wipe up the mess and get the car ready to race. Its a
very hot day, not even 10:am yet and im sweating in the sun. Come the 3rd
run group and the car is ready so its off to the races and time to have
FUN! 

I go out on my first run and miss a gate, DNF with a decent time. No
biggie, I got 2 more runs to make it count. Finally its time for my 2nd
run. I get half way thru the course and I feel a POP in the NEW clutch
cable. "Damn! My NEW cable just broke on me" is what im thinking while im
stuck in 2nd gear, pawing at the pedal with my foot hoping some miracle
happens and I can shift to 3rd while im reving the piss out of the motor.
I finish the run and pull off to open the hood -SPANG- the cable slipped
out of something and the hood wont open. Sonofabitch! OK, now im getting
irritated.

I limp it back to my pit spot and its making a terrible noise. Something
broke, bad. I thought the clutch bolts backed out of something else broke
internally. im praying its not my recently bought Eurosport quaife
installed tranny from Mannix self machining. GOD NO!!

Raffi from eurosport had showed up with his Yellow Rabbit with the Audi
20V motor (as seen in European Car mag last month, sweet FAST car.)
anyways I had him come listen to the noise to help pinpoint the problem.
Crank it over and we both saw aluminum shavings come out of the timming
hole. Just great! 

As it happened, Potterman planned on bringing my parts I needed for the
motor build project ive been working on with him since he and doug were
gonna co-drive Toulies car. Lucky enough for me, included in the list of
parts he brought me were a new clutch with new P&P, bolts ect. So since i
had no ride home, I proceeded to change the clutch right there in the
pits. 

I get the tranny out and take the flywheel off and the disc was pretty
screwed. One of the springs came out and the center section was bent
pretty bad. Also the center portion of the tranny had some machining done
but luckily, it didn't go thru the case. 

2 hours later I was done and on my way home. Im getting really good at
doing clutches in the middle of nowhere! Oh, don't call on me for it.

I also change my stance on stock clutches being FINE for most motors.
Potterman recalled that the clutch disc I got from him was not a quality
(read PREFERRED item) disc because way back 2 years ago, I needed a
clutch ASAP and he sent me what he had at the time. Considering I had 2
years on the clutch, I had a ton of autoxes as well as a few drag racing
events, a Pro Solo (Which I suspect took its toll on the clutch actually)
and a couple track days. I didn't have a problem with the clutch friction
material, it was actually still quite thick and serviceable. The center
portion of the clutch disc is what I had problems with. Anyways, im beat
and am taking my old ass to bed early tonight. Hope your weekend was
better than mine. 


Shawn Méze
86' Jetta GLi 8V       84' Scirocco 8V           88' Corvette -SS 30-
82' Scirocco GTi -FSP 54-     79' "Project FSP Scirocco"
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and best looking Scirocco in all of San
Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm

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