Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 00:10:47 -0400
Reply-To: karl <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: karl <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: [Syncro] new clutch
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
And to add my $.02 worth:
I think a few causes of some clutches, but not others, to chatter, are
careless installation, i.e. allowing the weight of the trans to hang on the
hub of the disc, forcing the trans into place when the disc may not be
aligned perfectly, or possibly a careless greasy finger touching the surface
on installation. Of course then there's the worn clutch fork, the
non-resurfaced flywheel........I've never had a problem on ANY Sachs clutch
I've ever installed for a customer.
Karl
----- Original Message -----
From: The Bus Depot <ron@NETCARRIER.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Syncro] new clutch
> > although some have had it work, many have had
> > endless chatter problems even after new associated
> > parts.
>
>
> And therein lies my belief that the culprit is not the clutch. Many
> vanagons, all with the same drivetrain, same body, same clutch. Most have
> no problems, but then a small percentage experience chatter problems. (And
> it is a small percentage, take it from someone who sells a sh*tload of
> clutch kits.) Some of them are 1.9's, some are 2.1's, some 2WD and some
> Syncros. If a poor clutch design caused it, they'd all be doing it, or at
> least the vast majority of them, not a small percentage of them. You
can't
> look at the empirical evidence and say "most people who had the problem
had
> Sachs clutches," because that logic is flawed. Most people who _didn't_
have
> the problem also had Sachs clutches. Most people whose rear hatch struts
> failed also had Sachs clutches. This doesn't indicate causation. My point
> is that most people have Sachs clutches one way or the other, since it's
by
> a huge margin the best selling brand and is probably in 90% of the
Vanagons
> on this list. So of course the ones that fail will overwhelmingly be
Sachs,
> because that's what's in the overwhelming majority of the Vanagons in the
> first place.
>
> So is there a common denominator among the vehicles that experience clutch
> chatter? Well, it's very likely not related to the brand of clutch, since
> the results there are very mixed. A check of the archives shows that some
> people reported no problems with sachs clutches, others reported problems.
> Some people reported chattering with other brands of clutches, too,
> including Volkswagen brand (which could be either Sachs or Luk, depending
on
> the time of day). Unfortunately, although the subject has been brought up
> several times, no definate common denominator has been identified. I think
> it's a combination of things. If you do a clutch job and don't resurface
> your flywheel (or it isn't resurfaced properly), you're a good candidate
for
> a chatter. Same thing if your motor mounts are worn. And there are
> probably other factors as well. Replacing a clutch can bring to the
surface
> other drivetrain problems that were not noticable before, in the same way
> that replacing an old clutch master cylinder can cause the slave cylinder
to
> fail shortly thereafter, because the old part can't stand up to the
> increased pressure created by the new part that was introduced into the
> system.
>
> I'm sure plenty will disagree with my assessment, but I feel confident
> enough about it that I didn't hesitate in the least to put a Sachs kit in
my
> own '89 last month - and it's working just fine.
>
> - Ron Salmon
> The Bus Depot, Inc.
> http://www.busdepot.com
> (215) 234-VWVW
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