Date:         Mon, 11 Oct 1999 15:01:02 EDT
Reply-To:     Gary McEachern <glmce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gary McEachern <glmce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Help, clutch problem on 87 GL
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Hello
I started to have problems shifting yesterday while 160 miles away from home
in Saratoga NY. I managed to drive the car home without the use of the
clutch. It became difficult to shift into (all) gears as I got on the
highway in NY with a carload of Boy Scouts. We cut short the trip,
continuing through from albany NY to Natick Ma. without a stop. I managed to
have my wife meet me there to take the boys home. I succeeded getting myself
home from there without further problems by starting the car in first gear
and them shifting into 4th by matching speed/revs.

Now..
The van shifts through gears without the engine running. I believe the
clutch is simply not disengaging. The slave cylinder appears to throw the
arm OK. The slave is extended by nearly an inch or so without depressing the
clutch pedal. The arm going into the tranny points to about a 9:30 clock
position at rest and when I depress the pedal it goes to the 8:30 position
(9:00 being horizontal). I manually pushed the arm upward to see what
hapened and heard a click. The arm went up to roughly a 10:00-10:30 position
when the slave cylinder bottomed out.

From my description does the position of the clutch arm seem normal? 9:30
engaged to 8:30 disengaged (pedal depressed).

What would account for a sudden failure like this?

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Can the tranny be dropped by itself? Suggestions?

Thanks

Gary


Gary McEachern, Reading Ma.
'84GL Super Sunroofer
'87GL Wolfsburg Weekender
'82GL (4 sp,Air cooled, for sale)
'75 Spitfire

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