1st gear shimmy - Time for a new clutch pad?

I have had some trouble the past few weeks. While sitting rolling up to a red light a few weeks back I heard a pop - a click - and a spring noise. It sounded like pinball parts falling around my ankles. I cut the engine, and rolled my Bug into a service station to have a look. But there was nothing around my feet, and nothing out in the road. So I got back in and tried to drive away only to find ... the gears were no longer "clearly defined". :-) I had a bad shifter bushing. By bad I mean - NON EXISTENT.

So I replaced my bushing the other night, and adjusted the clutch. Having read about the procedure and looked at lots of pictures it all went pretty easily. 1st gear and especially second gear, have never felt better!! BUT -- I still have a slight "shimmy" when I come out of a dead stop in first. This was occurring before I replaced the bushing, and is still occurring now.

I have tried adjusting the clutch wingnut back up and down, and it doesn't have much of an effect. I am guessing that what I am experiencing here is a slipping worn clutch pad. If my timing is good, the shimmy is not so bad and I am in second gear pretty quickly. On a cold morning when my reflexes aren't so good - I nearly give myself brain damage (and I am banned from giving rides to infants for fear of shaken baby syndrome). Sometimes I shake so badly that I pop the oil-bath air cleaner off the top of the engine!

Before I drop the engine to check the pad - is there anything else obvious that I should be looking at?

Thanks,

-Steve Ballantyne

68' Bug
Reply to
steve.ballantyne
Loading thread data ...

Reply to
Kafertoys

You might want to have your flywheel checked out or if it looks blued then have it surfaced.

Reply to
Kafertoys

I've had this happen in the past, usually what fixes it for me is to put a few more washers between the end of the clutch cable tube and the bracket where it meets the transaxle. The tube needs to 'sag', if there isn't enough sag in there it will cause the clutch to grab and you'll get that driveline shimmy you are describing. Your problem could also be broken or rotted engine mounts, but you can usually see if the rubber is all cracked. If they're bad, change all three since you have to drop the engine to do the rear ones and if you're gonna tear it that far apart its better to do the 3rd one up front, too.

Good luck with it.

Chris

Reply to
halatos

This gives me a lot to check out. I'm hoping to slide under the car this weekend and start by checking the mounts, and my clutch cable. I hadn't really thought of any of these issues being a factor. It looks like I am in for a weekend of rain. Which really sucks since I am without a warm garage to work in these days. :-(

As for timing your clutching along with the RPM's of the car ... I am getting pretty good at it. :-) But I will be happy to get rid of this problem.

Thanks again for the tips guys,

-Steve Ballantyne

68' Bug
Reply to
steve.ballantyne

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.