TRANSMISSION, STRANGE PROBLEM

"ALSO something to note, if i slip it into first while slowing down, just before I stop it seems to slip in easier. After a while all the gears get hard to find........ "

If I had to take a guess I'd say the clutch is not fully disengaging. Easy way to check, when you have difficulty shifting..at a complete stop put the clutch to the floor, wait 2 or 3 seconds, then attempt to get into reverse. If it grinds, the clutch is not releasing far enough. Could be air in the lines expanding when it heats up, or perhaps a pushrod needs adjustment.

Chris

OK, here is what I found. It was indeed the lack of disengagement of the clutch. I use hydraulics for the clutch. The slave obviously had leak by the seal of the pulling piston; however, the only indication of this (and I was not smart enough at the time to recognize it) was that the clutch pedal did not go down as far as it used to. In my defense, if there is any, it was a gradual thing. The fluid was slowly filling up the other side of the piston over a period of couple of months or so. The was very little external leakage from the slave cylinder, apparently the outer seal around the moving shaft was pretty tight. However, what little leakage there was expertly hidden by the dust boot.

Any way, picture this. The opposite side of the pressure seal was slowly filling up with fluid, I would guess a little bit every time it was operated. This slowly lessened the throw of the shaft because of the fluid on the other side of the seal that was hydraulically locking the motion.

SUMMARY. Very little leakage, so no discernable level changes in the sump and no tell-tail dripping since it was pretty well contained in the wrong side of he seal and in dust boot.

No radical change in pedal feel, since it was gradual

Heat probably expanded the fluid on the wrong side of the seal when it got hot further limiting the movement and preventing the clutch from disengaging.

Problem solved, thanks for the insight.......

Now I have to go back and undo all the adjustments I did to the cable shifter......but boy do I know how that works now......

Joe GLiebe

Joe,

Couple years back I had a 67 beetle that kept losing the clutch adjustment. I would get it set up perfect, and a day or so later it would be grinding/hard to get into gear again. I would tighten up the cable, and the problem would go away.

After a few adjustments and readjustments I knew something was changing but I wasn't sure what exactly was going on. As it turns out, the pin that goes between the clutch pedal and the actuating arm was slowly shearing off(probably original from 1967), which allowed the 'hook' inside the tunnel to retract further and further back, thus robbing me of the needed travel to fully disengage the clutch. What surprised me is how little the thing had to move to throw my whole clutch adjustment out of whack. I pulled the pedal cluster, installed a new pin..and never had any more trouble from the clutch.

Sometimes the problem is quite simple to fix and understand, but finding it initially takes a bit of work.

Chris

Well, I am living proof of that, lol. Thanks again, Lesson is look for the obvious!!