@&*%*@!!!! My clutch cable snapped!

You could have driven it home. The aircooled VW transmissions are especially easy to drive without clutch, just need some practise and know how to do it. I have driven many cars like this through medium traffic in the city even. Need to know traffic light cycle times and plan the route ahead.. avoid having to come to a full stop to save the starter. You can get going from full stop by turning the engine off, putting the tranny in 1st gear and starting the engine. It will lurch forward and careful gas pedal operation will get it going nice and smooth. Search the archives for more details, I have written this up several times before.

Keeping the cable end attached to the pedal hook while fitting the pedal assembly in place can be a PITA. It just wants to jump out. Tip: secure it in place with a rubber band. The rubber band wont affect clutch operation, and in fact in a couple of months the rubber will deteriorate and fall off.

Jan

I had that happen to my 60 many years ago, but I was 10 miles from home. That was the day that I learned "Power Shifting". I actually drove it for the next couple of days like that until I got to the shop. I don't like to work the clutch myself.

Guy

I just use masking tape in the same manner. It dries out and falls off soon enough. It's annoying the first time you do the cable replacement until you figure out a way to keep it on there.

It's easy to fix really. I keep a spare cable and have changed it in the middle of a trip before. I think it would be nice to add a door to the bottom of the trunk behind the rear seat so you could easily have access to that end of the cable without needing to jack up the car or pull that wheel.

Yes, Jan, I've read them thank you. There was really no need to drive it home. I was on a very low-use road, less than 1/4 mile away from the driveway. It was merely just the access road from our driveway to the main road. Just tar on gravel. I hope I never need to drive sans clutch, but I know it's possible. Thanks!

~Anthony

I tried driving my 66' splitty withought the clutch when the tob and pressure plate had a "falling out", it was having none of that!

Anthony, you may want to look at your bowden tube and even the wingnut etc.. for wear. That stuff is cheap to replace and since the cables out now it's a 1 time replacement. Mark Detro Englewood, FL

Thanks Mark. I'll look into it. I'm actually considering turning this into a major several weekend job and replacing the clutch, pressure plate and TO bearing while I'm in there. Never dropped an engine before, but I guess you gotta start somewhere! I figure my clutch is very worn; doesn't engage till very high in travel, so it'll need to be replaced soon anyway. Waddya think?

~Anthony

The long throw (low pedal) on the clutch could have been caused by the clutch cable stretching before it broke. Won't hurt to replace the clutch if it is needed but look for other indications than long throw before engagement. You might save yourself a lot of unneeded work at the time. Tim Klopfenstein

I agree with Tim. yea its probably easier to work on the clutch cable with the more out but theres still a fair amout of room to work with it in (I could be wrong on this, my only beetle is a baja with alot of extra metal cut off the back) Might be no need to pull that motor out right now, unless you really want to :)

Mark Detro Englewood, FL

Well, I mean the pedal goes very high UP before the clutch engages, just like there is not much friction material left on the disc. It's been like that for a long time. It has slipped occasionally during harder starts uphill and when it's hot. It makes it hard to drive the car smoothly, becuase there's not much room to feather in the clutch.

~Anthony

Well, I got the new cable in today. I used Jan's suggestion to hold the cable to the pedal hook with a rubber band while installing it, so I didn't have to keep tension on the cable. Worked like a charm! Thanks Jan! Anyway, the hardest part was installing a new bowden tube, well actually, it was pulling the old one off. So I replaced the bowden tube, wingnut and cable. Talk about tight working space...I hope I don't have to do that again any time soon. Yuck. Lots of grease falling on my face and all...good thing I wore saftey goggles.

Hint: For installing the spring on the brake pedal (the one that rests against the floor) I made a loop of thin twine, and hooked it into the spring end. THen I used that to pull the spring up and hook it on to the pedal. Then I cut through the twine, and yanked it out the side with pliers.

Anyway, I set the pedal at 1" freeplay. Feels nice and smooth; tight and controlled. However, the pedal seems to engage the clutch much higher now than it used to. It doesn't slip, but I can tell the clutch needs replacement soon.

~Anthony