Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 21:33:21 -0500
Reply-To: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: clutch chatter
In-Reply-To: <53344AE3.2020807@cox.net>
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My experience with the clutch dictates to me that on the next clutch job
- Ol' Red (2.1L) gets - as a matter of course - a new pilot bearing, a
new flywheel seal ( why it's called that instead of a crankshaft seal is
beyond me), a flywheel refacing at the machine shop and a new felt seal
that covers the throw-out bearing. With the transmission out, this is
all easily done. There are a few "gotcha's" however, that it's good to
know about.
The first "Gotcha" is the felt seal over the pilot bearing. It is a
sdeparate item - not normally included in the purchase of the pilot
bearing. Be sure you get a new one. Some say not - but in my book that
seal is absolutely essential because it keeps dirt and crude from the
clutch from getting into the bearing and causing an early death of the
bearing.
The second "Gotcha" is the pilot bearing seal flywheel bushing! This
little goober is a brass bushing that fits inside the flywheel input
shaft opening and holds the pilot bearing seal in place. Machine shops
are notorious for losing those. They punch them out to mount the
flywheel on a lathe to resurface the fly wheel and they never get put
back in there - and unless your shop mechanic knows specifically about
this - it will go back together without the bushing - and not to far
down the road you will be wondering why your pilot bearing has failed.
You can find this little brass bushing on the Samba (try Tencent for
one.) I have heard that the pilot bearing for the Vanagon diesel engines
works and it is supposed to be a sealed unit. Don't take that as gospel,
however. I don't know that for certain myself. But you might look into it.
With the tranny out - it is well worth the extra bucks to take care of
any and all things related to the tranny short of a complete rebuild -
and that too if need be.
BTW - there are two clutches for the manual tranny - a regular and a
heavy duty one. I would get the heavy duty model - LUK brand I believe.
Good luck.
John
On 3/27/2014 10:59 AM, mark drillock wrote:
> Removing the flywheel is a pretty standard part of a full clutch job
> because the clutch pilot bearing is behind it so the flywheel has to
> come off. Also there is a main engine seal behind the flywheel that
> should be changed at the same time. Since the flywheel is already
> removed it can be resurfaced at the clutch friction area and that is a
> pretty standard part of a clutch job as well.
>
> I would insist on a new cross shaft as that is surely done for at this
> point.
>
> Mark
>
> The pilot bearing isn't going to be your problem
> Dave Mcneely wrote:
>>
>> Is there a possibility of a bad (possibly warped) flywheel
>> contributing to this problem? I would certainly not want to pay for a
>> new clutch only to find out that the problem was essentially
>> irreparable or required a flywheel to be pulled.
>>
>>
> .
>
