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Driving home tonight I heard a knock under the center of the car. Maybe a pothole but more like a knock.

Within a mile I noticed clutch wasn’t performing the same. By mile 3 I could no longer find a gear without pumping the clutch repeatedly until it magically worked.

It was then that my guardian angel, @Dave Mitchell, pulled up to save me. “I have no clutch,” I said. “Ok. Gotta go, bye!” he replied as he peeled off in his Abarth.

A few seconds later my real guardian angel shows up in the form of a mechanic who yells, “your throttle pin” (or something like this - Remember, this is rush hour, and I am stopped in a bottleneck, making an even bigger bottleneck). Anyway, he goes on to say, “your clutch is hella soft, right? Keep pumping it to try to find a gear.” After 50yards of this angel pushing me along I get it, just in time for the green light. He disappears into the traffic and I set my goal of making it the last couple miles in first gear. I made it.

Now what? Apart from towing it up to @Anthony’s place.

 

 

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Last edited by Ryan (formerly) in NorCal
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Ryan, here's a diagram of the VW pedal assembly.

VWPedalAssy

 

Number 24 is probably the 'throttle pin' that guy was referring to, but it wouldn't have anything to do with your clutch. There IS a pin (11) that connects the clutch pedal (6) to the clutch pedal shaft (26), but that almost never fails and probably isn't the problem.

As Jim says, it's almost always the clutch cable itself. And no, you can't use a standard VW clutch cable without shortening it, and VS can send you one that's already the right length.

If you're going through the drill of pulling the pedal assembly apart (which you have to do to replace the cable), there's a mod that can be done to that little hook on the end of the clutch pedal shaft that will eliminate the cause of most cable failures.

Tony can give you all the details (although I think he's out of town for a few days).

The clutch cable cognoscenti right here on the forum should be along pretty soon to tell you more.

 

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Last edited by Sacto Mitch

I would guess clutch cable.  Had it happen on an old Honda in first gear.  Ended up driving 4 miles through city traffic without stopping because I was afraid of not getting it back into gear.  Cut through parking lots, back streets, etc. never stopped.  Was an adventure, as everything in life should be. I can still hear my grandmother's advice "Well, at least we're making memories."
-=theron 

Ryan, 

Where in California are you again?  In a pinch I have successfully used a stock bug cable with the aid of two cable saddle nuts (wrong name, but whatever).  You run the stock cable and put a big loop at the end. You use the wire nuts to hold the loop in the cable. Suprisingly this doesnt bind or come loose.

Shoot me a PM if youd like.

Ted in the bay area

Theron posted:

I would guess clutch cable.  Had it happen on an old Honda in first gear.  Ended up driving 4 miles through city traffic without stopping because I was afraid of not getting it back into gear.  Cut through parking lots, back streets, etc. never stopped.  Was an adventure, as everything in life should be. I can still hear my grandmother's advice "Well, at least we're making memories."
-=theron 

I try to keep that outlook in hindsight, then try like mad to make sure I live a boring life henceforth.

If it is a failed clutch cable, then why is the pedal returning to the top when his foot is removed?  

There is no return spring for the clutch pedal at the cluster, only the brake pedal (see Mitch's diagram).  There IS a return spring for the clutch actuator on the transaxle and that is enough to (gently) pull back the cable and pedal after the throw-out bearing is disengaged.

BUT!  There's one more thing and it would cause a "POP!" when it fails:

If the clutch cable tube welds have let go both at the brace right behind (rearward) the pedal cluster AND at the point where the tube is welded to the pan where it exits from the frame just in front of the transaxle, it will "POP!" when the last holding weld finally lets go AND render your clutch pedal useless.  Ask me how I know.

Welding the front of the tube back in place requires cutting a door/flap on the passenger side of the tunnel to gain access for the welding tip.   The rear can be fixed without welding with that magic gizmo that Dave Stroud invented that fits on the end of the cable tube (maybe he can repost a photo - it's pretty trick).  Otherwise, you would have to get the welding tip up into a really tight spot or, for better accessibility, remove the engine/transaxle.  

Personally, I like Dave's gizmo better.

Found it!  Thank you Theron for a decent search function!

https://www.speedsterowners.com...4#507117866427845064

Last edited by Gordon Nichols

Ryan,

I know everyone is throwing options your way and you should make a list and then look up photos of what the problems look like so you can eliminate them one at a time. I'll help you out with one of them, the clutch cable.

Jack up the car and have a look on the driver's side near the rear axle/transmission. See if the clutch cable is still attached at the transmission. Here's what it looks like:

343519 copy

blobid0

Everything I looked up indicated the tube that the clutch cable runs through has probably come loose inside the tunnel so the entire tube is moving and tension is not being being put on the clutch cable fully. When you pump the clutch the tube may hang up on something momentarily and suddenly you can shift again.

Look here and see if the whole assembly is moving (you'll need an assistant):

743753

That's all I have for now.

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Ryan:  Here's a way to test out my cable tube theory:

Remove the shift coupler inspection plate on top of the tunnel, behind the seats.

There should be several metal tubes inside of the tunnel and visible through the opening.  The clutch cable tube is the largest (about 1/2" dia.) pushed to the driver's side at the top of the tunnel.  Have someone fully step on the clutch pedal while you watch that tube - it should not move at all when the pedal is depressed.  If it does, the welds have let go.

The clutch cable tube is/can be welded to the frame/tunnel right at the rear driver's side of that inspection opening at the top of the tunnel - the cover fits over the welded area.  Look close and you'll likely see where it had been welded.  A decent welder can weld it back and you may not need to remove the cable to do it (but you'll have to get the car to the welder's shop).  One caveat is to get it welded in precisely the same spot as it has moved front-to-back.  Where it sits in relation to the frame is important to return to your original clutch pedal adjustment.  You may have to release the clutch cable adjuster to relieve tension from that tube to get it back where it belongs, then re-adjust the clutch after welding the tube.

Welding it there eliminates removing the engine/transaxle and probably eliminates the need to use Dave's fix-up gizmo, as great an idea as it is.

@Gordon Nichols, you are exactly right. My neighbor dropped by in his 356 and showed me exactly this spot:

By feel I could tell it was frayed and I was hitting sharp wire ends. I think that explains why it worked a bit, then got a bit better, but is still pretty darn broken.

I'm ordering two clutch cables from VS. And we'll see how far that takes me. My neighbor will let me use his lift and walk me through it as well.

How about this, get a standard cable from Bugformance, cut it at the "right" spot (sorry i cant be more specific) and overlap the cut piece and use 2 tiny wire rope cable clamps. Did that in a buggy, 15 years ago and its still going strong. The cut point has to be about 4"-6" outside of the bowden tube, in the area where the cable is exposed but far enough from the arm to not interfere.

Chris

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BTW since no one mentioned it, the tube is the Bowden tube. Someone else can explain who the hell Bowden is. Maybe Ferdinand's second cousin or the first poor guy that had to weld one. 

My spare that I had for the last break turned out to be the wrong length even though it came from Kirk. Tony ordered a few at that time so he may still have one. 

 

 

 

OK, I'll play Cliff Claven here.

According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), some dude named Bowden patented a bicycle brake around 1900 using the double cable most people now think of as the normal way to make bicycle brakes work.

Before that, bike brakes were worked by solid rods and stuff.

If anyone reading this is still awake, note that the Bowden tube on our clutch cables is different than the steel tube that Gordon was talking about earlier, which is spot welded inside the tunnel and comes undone occasionally, making clutch pedals mushy.

The Bowden tube is there mainly to create problems of a completely different kind.

 

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