living w/ a past mistake

Nope. Pay now or pay later.....

When I swapped out my 1.7l for a 1.8L I needed a bigger flywheel for the new clutch. the guys at Adirondack sold me a used one with my clutch kit that didn't even need to be turned for $25. I'd say give them a chance and you should be able to get the flywheel and kit for $100-150.

Jim B.

Right, until you drop the transmission, there's no telling why your clutch is slipping (unless you have some fancy instrumentation like a bore scope so you can see what it looks like inside the housing before you do the repair). It could be related to the flywheel, or maybe could be fluid leak, or maybe you forgot that someone was learning to drive manual transmission on your car and caused premature wear of the clutch disk. I agree with Jim, good idea to replace all the seals inside the housing once you drop the transmission, including the engine rear main seal (probably the most expensive one, but still maybe only $20) since the labor of opening it up should be worth something to you.

You could also check your clutch cable, if there's some adjustment left (assuming you have cable clutch)...you might be lucky.

I also went ahead and changed out a couple of mounts (transmission and front motor mount) when I had it out, costs a bit more, but again, the labor is basically the same to do it then, and access is a lot easier when you have the transmission out.

I'll weigh in with a possible reason for this problem.

When you turned the friction surface did you also machine the three mounting pads?

Let me see if I can explain this. I'd provide a photo but my spare flywheel is in my storage unit.

Look at the friction surface side of the flywheel. You'll three "mounting pads" (for lack a better word) around the periphery. Each in machined flat on top and some have a dowel pin. This is where the pressure plate mounts against the flywheel. When you turn one of these flywheels you have to machine down the mounting pads the same amount that you machined off the friction surface. This keeps the distance from the friction surface to the top of the mounting pads the same as it was before machining. As the clutch disc wears and gets thinner, the pressure plate has to extend farther into the flywheel in order to contact the clutch disc. If the mounting pad to friction surface distance is greater than normal the pressure plate may run out of travel. The result would sound like the problem you are having: A clutch that works fine when new. As the clutch disc wears, the pressure plate runs out of travel and can no longer provide the proper clamping force. The clutch slips, probably not obviously at first, and you get short clutch life and a glazed disc.

Unfortunately, the Bentley manual doesn't list the correct mounting pad to friction surface distance. A machine shop with experience machining VW flywheels might know the correct distance and could correct your current unit. If you can't determine what the proper distance is so you can correct your current flywheel, I'd be inclinded to go with a new one.

Todd Seattle,WA '86 GTI, Red of course. (exciting racey car) 256,000 miles '87 Golf, Polar Silver. (boring work car) 458,000 miles