That isn't bent fingers. It's a broken wave spring inside the cover. They get metal fatigued, cracks start and then you press the pedal and they break through. When they break the fingers drop and you have no clutch.
what he said.
Interesting. Do you think the metal fatigue is intrinsic with this type of spring application, or do they just use poor metallurgy, manufacturing technique, etc?
Re Wave Spring failure
Should have looked this up before I asked.
there's a good deal more corrosion on that than you'd typically want to see. most likely therefore, failure is rust pitting initiating fatigue.
that said though, they could have better protected the spring, so production spec and manufacturing definitely contribute.
A friend of mine's gf has a VW Jetta (fully manual transmission), I think an 05 or around that vintage. He goes to 'rescue' her because she can't shift out of 1st gear- depressing the clutch doesn't disengage it, and once she pulls it out of gear she can't put it into any other gear with the engine running.
So he took it apart, and the fingers for the pressure plate were bent. This isn't the one he pulled out of his VW (some random web pic), but it looks pretty much like this:
2) How the engine torque is *not* removed from the transmission input shaft, even though putting the clutch to the floor has normal resistance, you can see the little arm on the bellhousing pulling the throwout bearing to disengage position, and such. The 'connection' between engine and clutch was very positive- you could drive the car up a hill with the clutch pedal to the floor and no slippage.
3) In spite of the pressure plate being toast, everything else in the clutch assembly looked ok. It all had normal wear on it but it's not like the whole thing was trashed.What say you, sirs?
thanks
-J
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