Last evening I visited Jon, a local, kinda-new Speedstah Guy, almost as close to the New Hampshire side of Massachusetts as I am from Rhode Island. That means that we're both about 15 minutes from the state line in opposite directions and about 40 minutes apart. Yes, it's a small-ish state, and we both commiserated about being two of a handful of Speedster Replica guys in Central Mass (I know of only one other nearby).
Anyway, Jon has a 3-year-old Vintage Speedster that he bought from Kirk and Mary, around 3,000 miles on it, and he contacted me a while back with a broken clutch cable problem and what he would need to do to fix it. He said that when he depressed the clutch pedal he heard a "Snap!" and the clutch no longer worked. At my suggestion, he bought a new clutch cable and wing-nut from VS and I went up to help him install it. Got there right after dinner on an almost 90º evening with about 75% humadidity but he has a beautiful home, out in the woods, in a great setting, as well as a VERY nice garage and lots of tools, so that was a treat.
We quickly got the rear up on jack stands and found that the tranny end of the cable looked fine so I went and pulled the pedal cluster out (mucho grunting and swearing and lost about half a gallon of sweat in the process) only to find that THAT end of the cable looked fine, too!
So what was the problem?
It had one of those made-on-the-other-side-of-the-world wing-nut adjusters on the tranny end of the cable, and that appears to be a cast piece of pot metal that is drilled and tapped for the cable stud. The effort of the clutch spring against those threads was simply too much and stripped the threads right out to smooth (almost looked like it had been drilled out), leaving the stud perfectly fine. BTW, the effort with my arm to move the clutch pedal told me that it was a stock VW clutch, not a moosey 1,700 pound Kennedy or something.
The good news is that he has a new wingnut, but I also asked him to get another nut with the same threads, preferably a stop nut (Nylok or Nylon Insert) to use as a lock nut up against the wingnut, just as a precaution. I've done that on mine, too - it just made sense at the time.
This is the second time I've recently heard of this happening - I think it happed to @Jack Crosby, too, a few years ago, IIRC. Certainly a PITA to fix in this weather (I was reminded of Cory Drake and me doing a clutch cable in a 7-11 parking lot at Carlisle once) but a much better outcome than, say, a busted shaft in the tranny or blown throw-out bearing.
I left it adjusted with the pedal play in the ballpark, but we left it in the air til he gets that locknut installed. BTW, I looked up these wing nuts and one like Jon got from VS runs around $3 bucks, whereas a German NOS wing nut (which is forged, not cast, much stronger and will probably last the lifetime of any Speedster) is about $18. I can buy a LOT of grade 8 locknuts for the difference in price and they are a simple solution and great insurance.
