Aircooled VW South Africa

Guess it's everyones worst fear, stepping on the clutch pedal and with a faint 'click' sound - NO CLUTCH

Well, friends that is exactly what happened to me yesterday afternoon while driving the Bay, and guess where? At 15:30 on the N1 highway heading South, just before the Rigel offramp at the East of Pretoria. Generally regarded as one of the busiest roads in South Africa, and with the current road works, a nightmare.

Well I limped to the nearest garage after pulling over to the side of the road and starting the Bus with first gear engaged. (Never knew it is possible to change gears without a clutch, but it is indeed. Not easy, but possible, one tends to learn fast with some BIG trucks behind you The trick is to rev the engine a bit in Neutral, wait for the revs to come down, and then gently slip the lever into gear. )

At the garage I climbed down under the Bus, and much to my surprise found that the clutch cable was still in one piece. OK, release bearing then?

I managed the 60km home by the R21 road on a wing and a prayer (that is past the OR Tambo Airport, and on the R24, another VERY BUSY road), and with some luck and a lot of help from Above I got home before dark. All the traffic lights were green for me when I got to them (first time ever) and not once did the traffic come to a complete standstill, which would have been fatal for me...

So I took leave today, and started early this morning to pull the engine of the Bus, sequence more or less as follows:

- Disconnect Battery
- Loosen petrol pipe and block to stop flow of VERY EXPENSIVE petrol
- Loosen accelator cable
- Disconnect all electric terminals and unbolt terminals from altenator
- Remove air filter
- Remove rear bumper
- Remove rear valance
- Jack Bus up and support gearbox with stand
- Remove 4 nuts bolting engine to gearbox - OOPS! - top nuts are hard to reach so
- Remove rear wheels to access top engine bolts, and support Bus on stands
- Found that top right bolt loosens from the inside of the engine compartment - DUH - so right rear wheel removed unneccesary
- Unbolt rubber dampers from rear crossmember
- Put trolley jack under engine, and seperate from gearbox
- Lower engine and pull clear from Bus

Well after all the above was finished (and it sounds easier than it was ), I had a first look at the release bearing, and this is what I saw:




The release bearing had completely broken apart, and the 2 spring clips were broken too ! No wonder there were no clutch...
What you see below is usually supposed to be 1 piece, with the clips attached to it



Clutch luckily looked fine, and not damaged. I don't like these '3-finger' clutches, but I'll replace it later



So I jumped in the pool and had a good scrub in the shower afterwards and quickly went to town to get a new release bearing with the wife's car. Luckily Midas had one at a reasonable R 60.00. Got back home, smeared some grease on the sliding tube, and put the new bearing in. I'm not gonna bore you with the replacement sequence of the engine, but it is basically the removal sequence above, in reverse



Was luckily in time to fetch the wife from work, so the 25 km test drive in peak Friday afternoon traffic, was succesful *sighs relief*

Looking back, what worries me is that this happened quite suddenly yesterday, and except for a faint 'krrrrrrrrrr' sound when the clutch was engaged a few days earlier, there were no other warning that I was due for such a fatal malfunction. Imagine this happening while on tour, you would at least use a day to remove and replace the engine! I'm still a bit worried about the quality of the new bearing, but it was the only one I could get.

Footnote: Fig, please remind us to take some spare release bearings on the George trip

good article

Thats a problem with the later type box with the thrust bearing guide tube. When the bearing seizes , it will try and rotate with the flywheel / pressure plate and jump off the fork.

The older one which had two deep grooves in the fork (and no guide tube) that the ears of the thrust sat in would not easily allow the thrust to rotate .

That orignal design was required because the early VW's had carbon thrust bearings, with a thrust "pad" on the pressure plate fingersthat the thrust ran up against.

P.S that noise that you heard was the straw that broke the donkeys back--- probably had been making inaudible (from inside a kombi) noises for quite a while

Just a bit of useless O.F. information-----

You are lucky to get the milage you get with that setup the old pp dont like to run with the sleeve type bearing all though you see it works but not good for reliable driving

If you gave me a call and let me know what hapened you could have done it here then I would have seen your PP and gave you a nice 2nd hand newer type one I got here to use If you want to change it you are welcome to

What experiences have other forum members had with the tb and pp swoped around

Ja that old 3 fingered P/Plate is not the correct one for that newer thrust brg. I cant see from the pics, but it might not even be a diaphram type unit.The newer guided thrusts are made for the multi fingered diaphram unit.

is there a chance that that PP had a thrust pad that was removed to allow the later thrust to clear the PP fingers when the pedal was released.
I would imagine that this is the case here.

I havent studied clutches in great detail, but I have never noticed a VW diaphram with 3 fingers (and no thrust pad) that run directly on the thrust bearing

When it comes to bugs there are always mistakes being made when gearboxes are changed from the old type to to the later ones. guys fit the engine and find that they had to push a little bit to get the motor to seat, because they had not changed the clutch cross shaft and thrust bearing, and they were compressing the diaphram whilst tightening the engine up and so on. Result----- no pedal play ----- clutch cant engage !
There are a few other classic mistakes as well !

Clutch works actually quite well at the moment but I guess for the long term, I'll invest in a complete new clutch kit. Guess it would be the same as a 1600 t/p Beetle? The Buggy originally had the same setup when it still had the 1200 engine, had no problems. Thanks for all the advice, and the offer Pierre, but i didn't want to 'bugger' you yesterday

OK When you ready to buy letme know what price and what make you can get then through my sister in Law who has alot of contacts we can get a kitt for reasonable price

Only saw this now

Good article Pine

Nice read - my mechanic made the same mistake with my bug when replacing the clutch - fitted the three finger PP. The worst part is, most spare shop sales people dont know a thing as well. Best to take samples of your old stuff that worked. Even the oil pump, they first supplied me with a Kombi pump

stickied

I just saw this now.

Good article Pine. I think you were very lucky to get any sort of mileage with a mismatched release bearing and pressure plate.

In my early days with cars I put the wrong clutch in my 69 Beetle and everything self-destructed the first time I depressed the clutch pedal. That was my first lesson in the subtle changes in Beetle parts over the years, and that even though everything looked similar, many parts are not interchangeable.

You defintiely have an old style PP with the ring on the end of the fingers removed. As everyone has said, you need a diaphragm type PP. If it were me I'd make a new matched clutch kit a priority as your new release bearing won't last long. LUK/Repco clutches are OK quality and not too expensive, between R700-R800.

Thank Fig, will a standard LUK multi-fingered clutch for a 1600 Beetle work? (I don't think '71 Buses are still listed)

YES thats the correct p/p for that thrust arrangement

The LUK unit seems to have a stronger diaphram than the sachs or valeo unit.

Better for the Kombi , Adriaan

While you are at it check the driven plate out for wear and tear on the springs and linings, etc.

The Beetle clutches are generally interchangeable with type1 engined buses of similar vintage. However, originally the buses would have had the stronger springs referred to by Bill.

Single port engined Beetles and buses (69-70) had the earlier style with the three-fingered clutch with ring that contacts the release bearing, while dual ports (71 on) had the diaphragm style PP (is that what you mean by multi fingered?). Each style has a different release bearing and they should not be mixed or you will have instant or early failure of the release bearing, as you experienced.

Of course, most cars have had parts changed over the years, so you can't rely on the model year. The clutch required is dictated by the transmission. If your trans has the guide tube in front (FIF) of the release fork, then you need the later style clutch kit; if it has no guide tube, then you want the earlier style.

Your bus has the guide tube, which is correct for a 71 bus, so you need the later, diaphragm type clutch kit.

at one stage in jhb i used to make up a conversion tube to change from one set up to the next , i did them for Nick at bettle inn Bugger might know about this????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!B.A.B