Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:39:32 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Longer Lasting Clutch?
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My main strategy in operating vanagons or any other car is to be easy on the
equipment.
I never, for example, start the engine while holding in the clutch pedal.
Never. It's rougher on the clutch and the engine's trust bearings ...you
are pushing on the end of the crankshaft when you push in the clutch pedal.
( the one exception is if it's like 0 degrees ambient temp.......then you
might want to hold in the clutch pedal so the starter does not have to fight
the thick gear oil in the trans . )
I never hold the clutch pedal down more than 10 seconds or so.
I would never sit at a red light in gear with the clutch in ( it's
dangerous, and it's rough on the equipment ).
I would never say ....listen for a sound in the engine at 2,500 rpm with the
clutch for 30 seconds with the clutch pedal held down.
I lubricate about a dozens spots at least assembling a vanagon clutch . I
see mostly a large lack of lubrication of the moving parts on the clutches
I take apart.
naturally I avoid something like starting out on a steep hill with a big
load .
Watch how truckers drive ..
they'll go 3 mph waiting for a light to change so, on a hill, rather than
stop and start out from a full stop.
( which is why truck stopping places are always at the top of hills..
you never want to stop with a big load where it's uphill as soon as you get
moving )
and I shift nicely ....nice smooth stroke of the shift lever ...nice n'
gentle basically, even when driving faster.
Sometimes I watch other people drive their own vans.
Here are some of the very rough-on-equipment things I have seen people do
..mostly unconsciously ..
and like 'they have their whole life.' ...
Put the parking brake on with 500 lbs of force, like to' max- max' holding
ability every last time they shut off the car , like it was on the steepest
hill anywhere .....simply no need for that very often , like parking on
level ground . For that I just put in 2nd gear, and parking brake on about
30 % .
I've seen people so brutal on the shift lever they'll eventually destroy
those plastic balls at the base.
I've seen people hold in a clutch on a running engine for minutes at a time.
here is about the very worst one I ever saw.
Older guy shows up with a fully rebuilt 1.6 TD in his left hand drive
factory TD syncro , with about 40K on a full deluxe rebuild and it's puking
oil
We put in a nice 1.9 TD ..nice solid engine conversion ...Came out great.
He goes away for a few days ...comes back and says 'it makes a funny noise
every time I shift'.
So we go for a test drive, me driving. It's perfectly normal.
So I say, 'you drive '...
man ..this guy .....truly a buffoon sorry to say, nice older British gent ,
retired air force navigator., on a round-the-world trip in his TD Syncro
( he just destroyed his shifter too, but that's another story )
The guy short shifts, on every shift, on every run through the gears.
Like he upshifts up at 1,600 to 1,800 rpm ...very, very early in the pwoer
curve.
Now that by itself is not so bad...
I might short shift sometime stoo ...but I give it like 5 % throttle when I
let the clutch out ..and ease into the power very gradually, until I'm up to
say , 2,800 rpm where you can give it full throttle safely.
but this guy ....short shift immediately ...like go 6 seconds in first gear
to 1,800 rpm at the most, then give it max full 100 % throttle immedidately.
Every single shift .............for the entire life of the last engine
.....and all the cars he's owned the last 50 years probably.
and that's why it sounded funny on each shift, he BADLY lugged it ..
and worst of all, badly lugged it on every last shift.
When I told him he was doing that ..he said 'you're telling me I don't
know how to drive ? " .
Didn't have to answer that of course, the answer is obvious. He shifts too
early and lugs the snot out of it every last shift.
And that is why his previous engine puked oil so badly at low miles.....the
ring groves in the pistons were probably badly pounded out. ( that engine
btw..which I ended up with ....the bore was fine ..
crosshatch marks showing nicely still. I bought new 1.6 TD oversize pistons
..and normally you'd never put new pistons in a used bore ....but I knew
the bore wasn't really worn. And that engine was just fine after that. )
so people are rough on things and they don't even know they're doing that.
( no more than few vanagon owners on this list do that of course ! )
I don't slip clutches very much ...I get the van rolling, then get the
clutch out all the way soon..
go through that gear, shift nicely, and so on. My clutches just do not wear
out at all basically. And one can drive real fast and still be easy on the
equipment. Some racing car drivers just brutalize the equipment ..some are
faster than anybody, and are easy on the equipment. It's about sensitivity
to the equipment.
And in some disciplines...they are PROUD of damaging equipment, like in
sailboat racing sometimes..
broken boom .....hey, shit happens ! All part of the fun .
To 'good workmanship is really where it's at' I will add....and drive it
nice too.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "neil n" <musomuso@gmail.com>
To: "Scott Daniel - Turbovans" <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
Cc: <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2011 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Longer Lasting Clutch?
> Good to know.
>
> Accelerated wear on mine likely due to my own hand (or foot). Still.
> Unless my mileage estimates are wrong (gee. I've only swapped speedos
> 3 x's ;) the clutch disc seems to have worn pretty quick.
>
> Neil.
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans
> <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
>> I only use Sachs clutches myself.
>> either waterboxer or diesel vanagon.
>>
>> I find them to last just indefenitely.
>> Like one of the best made, longest lasting clutches anywhere ..
>> speaking more of the design than of the brand ..
>>
>> and I do not use anything like LUK or any other brand..
>> just OE type Sachs clutches in vanagons.
>> and they last super fine.
>>
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
