73 Super Beetle Clutch/Shifting Issues

[redbaron42517]

I was driving home last night and stupidly downshifted from 3rd to 1st. car made some lovely noises whilst over revving the engine, all with the clutch disengaged and now its more difficult to shift between gears. after the fact as im finishing my trip home, everything sounds normal. no grinding of gears, or engine or tranny clanking or anything. Went out this morning and adjusted the clutch cable but no dice there. what could my issue be? Thanks in advance.

[mukluk]

Is it all gears having shift issues or only a specific few?
_________________
1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[Cusser]

Never hurts to check the shift rod bushing. Maybe it was on its last "legs" and you broke it when you made that shift.

Check the coupling under the rear seat too.
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

[ashman40]

[redbaron42517]

i dont normally go from first to third. i was tired last night and had a brain fart, honestly. the noise i heard was the sound of screeching tires and the over revving of the engine. cant remember what else i may have heard. happened so fast... and i had the clutch pedal in when i shifted into first, somehow it went right in without much effort. heard no grinding. and the engine rpms spiked even tho i still had the clutch in. now it takes more effort to shift into first and second gears, especially when downshifting. first gear is near impossible to get into if the car is moving. im usually able to get it into first when i get below 15 mph with no issues. i havent heard any grinding of gears when shifting so i guess thats a good thing. but i do hear the thunk when going into first, either when downshifting or from a dead stop occcasionally.

i did try and drive it around a parking lot a bit and just noticed that when i slowly let the clutch out from a stop, either in 1st or reverse, the car and/or transaxle kinda shudders a bit. has a brand new clutch in it with less than 2,000 miles on it.

[redbaron42517]

i forgot to mention that after i made the first gear to third mistake, the clutch pedal seemed more sloppy and thats why i went and adjusted the wingnut of the clutch cable to take up some of the freeplay. i am starting to wonder if the problem is something to do with the throwout bearing or clutch fork not fully disengaging.

[TheViking]

if the rpm increased while the clutch was engaged it is a problem right there as well

[joey1320]

[Volks Wagen]

I would start looking at possible physical movement of the transmission on it's mountings or with it's mountings . When u mistakenly shifted u put a large torque on the gearbox - enough to use it as a rear brake - tyres screeched. So it would not surprise me if the front mount or rear forks are out of alignment. I hope it's only a minor problem. Check the mounting points for the tranny and see if they look straight.
_________________
1973 1303 with AB-motor - sporadic
reconstruction as time permits, 1986 ex-Bundeswehr Doka - on the road again.

I'm definitely, probably, the worlds greatest lover.

Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile.

[Bruce]

This is an easy one.
You have exploded your clutch disc.
With the clutch pedal to the floor, there's a gap surrounding the disc, then stuffing it into 1st causes the input shaft to rev to the moon. Since it's not clamped together, the friction material flies apart. A piece of friction material landed between other friction material and the flywheel or clutch. That's what caused the rear tires to skid, even though your clutch pedal was still depressed.
_________________

[Volks Wagen]

Actually, Bruce has probably hit the nail on the head. If so you'll probably need to resurface the flywheel and change the throwout bearing and the pilot bearing as well as get a new clutch and pp. Inspect the input shaft too and all the tranny mounts.
_________________
1973 1303 with AB-motor - sporadic
reconstruction as time permits, 1986 ex-Bundeswehr Doka - on the road again.

I'm definitely, probably, the worlds greatest lover.

Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile.

[redbaron42517]

Greetings Gentlemen. Sorry I've been away from the computer for a while. Christmas season gets busy for my family. I ended up pulling the engine and low and behold the clutch disk was indeed exploded. New clutch kit going in very soon and my old girl will be back plowing thru SD Snow. Thank you all very much for the help and guidance. It is much appreciated.

Till next time, keep your powder dry and your stick on the ice.
Taylor [/img]