clutch disengagement

The clutch disk has rusted to the flywheel, brute force or you will have to remove the engine. Roll/tow the car forwards att a moderate pace, depress clutch and slam it into first, NOT reverse. This happens quite often to cars stored outside, and longterm stored motorcycles.

J.

I cannot roll/tow my car forwards, depress the clutch and engage it. It is engaged already and will not let go so I would have to roll it ingaged in what ever gear chosen I think. I will try thanks

If you can get it into reverse or first and rock the car back and forth it might free up.

Good luck. I will kick back and think about this a bit more.

Randy

I will try to break it free but it might not happen until friday as I have some very minor surgery to remove a couple of cysts thursday. Thanks guys.......Dennis

You can move your car when in neutral, right? You roll the car forwards when in neutral, depress the clutch pedal and slam the gear lever into first gear. Depressing the clutch pedal will disengage one side of the disk, hopefully the other side will free itself when you slam it into gear. If this does not work after a couple of tries, do what Jan suggested, tow it in first with clutch pedal depressed, if you are lucky it will free the disk from the flywheel.

J.

I once freed up a Saab clutch by towing the hell out of it with my (t)rusted 4wd turbo subaru. Put some slack in the rope and floored it :D

It worked.

Jan

Warm up the engine, shut it off, put it in gear, start the engine which will start the car moving. Then get it up to some speed, depress the clutch pedal and slam on the brakes. You might have to do this a couple of times but it should work. ;-) It would help to have 3 feet so you can keep the gas pedal slightly depressed too! lol

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

I usually do this on jack stands to cars that have been sitting too long. I don't think that this problem has happened yet to my '70 Beetle that has basically sat since 1991.

Removal of the engine is probably the safest way to do it, but it takes an extra hour or so to R&I the engine. ;-) Not sure how easy it is to do the engine removal in your Puma though.

with Dave here... works like a charm...

What would happen if you put it in 1st or reverse, set the parking brake and cranked the started ? Would that be enough to free it up ?

Randy

Safet than towing or slamming into 1st gear with force when moving..

I vote NO! ;-) Starter is not strong enough usually.

The best suggestion so far, which I never thought about, was the "Start in gear, depress clutch and slam on the brakes". Very gentle on the drivetrain, never thaught along those lines myself, well done!

One learns as long as one does not get to the stage, where you are awoken to the fact you have soiled yourself B.g. After that only a 9mm counts..

I hope I have a few years til then. :-}

J.

Yep...

I've had good luck getting clutches unstuck by putting the rear up on jack stands, starting the engine with the car in gear, and putting in the clutch while giving it some gas AND pulling pulling up on the hand brake.

Chock the front wheels just to be safe.

Jeff DeWitt

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:

Yep that hand brake wins out!!! lol Gotta have really good jack stands, so I prefer the safer driving method BUT using the hand brake.

I am getting like P.J. Berg now and listening to more good ideas!

Great suggestions guys. I will let you know how I do. Dennis

quoted text -

I started the car in neutral and let it idle until the engine was warm. I shut it off, put the car in reverse with the clutch depressed and restarted it. The starter rolled it backwards about 1 foot and the car stopped rolling with the engine running strong. I let the clutch pedal out and the car responded and backed out of the shop. It is alive!!!!!!!! It works!!! Everything works as it should. Thank you for the help cause I didn't want to do something foolish with my favorite car which in my opinion is the greatest car Volkswagen never built. Dennis

Glad it worked out well for you. If this happens again, do not use reverse if it is stuck stubbornly, reverse is the weakest of the gears.

J.

de quoted text -

Hot Damn !!!

Randy

Yes you are lucky. ;-) AND be glad it was not your brake shoes stuck to the brake drums.