No-Go Bug: Total Power Loss!

[BWE]

Transmission went out on the way home, or so I thought!

Dropped the engine to inspect for problems and everything *seems* good. If I push the bug in 1st or Reverse the input shaft turns opposite directions, showing that it goes in gear, and the engine runs just fine, so I assume there’s a clutch problem!

I’ve never really replaced or troubleshot a clutch, but it seems simple enough? Going to take a guess from the look of it that it probably needs replacing. Alternately, I suppose it could be related to the clutch cable/‘actuator’ arm adjustments?

Please forgive my vocab, I’m pretty green at mechanicing. : )

Thoughts?

[bluebus86]

looks used, id put a new one if my car. The depth of the shallowest rivets is my gauge for this, its low enough to warrant replacement from that.

I asume your pedal operation was fine with about half inch or a tad more pedal freeplay, correct?

One thing is I have never worn a clutch the point of it wont allow the car to suddenly drive at all, usually there is another failure mode than wear on the lining for this to occur. Lining wear is not sudden from working fine to total loss. Usually when a clutch suddenly goes from working fine with no excessive slip, to it not working at all means that the clutch has become suddenly slippery from an oil leak, or a failure in the spring mechanism, something broke. (you'd get a loss in pedal tension if spring failure happens, but not with oil on clutch) Is the disc oily?

if the loss in clutch was gradual, then it is likely only a wear issue and a new clutch is needed, if oily, you need to repair oil leak, if broken spring, a new clutch will fix that to with a new pressure plate.

Good luck Bug On,
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[vwoldbug]

What does the other side of disc look like . Also has the nose of the disc been rubbing .

[Cusser]

If this happened suddenly, and the VW will not move at all, might be an issue with one of the rear drums, the splines wearing out, and not a clutch or transmission issue at all.

Since your engine is currently out, if your VW has IRS (drive axles with CV joints) I'd think that you could put the handbrake on or put rear tires on the ground and see if you can rotate both axles. If the splines in a drum are bad, axle will turn even though the rear brakes/wheels are locked up.

However, could also be slippage. A too-thin clutch disc can cause slippage. If your clutch disc edge fits within a 7mm open end wrench, then it's due for immediate replacement. Oil on a clutch disc surface can also cause slippage, as can bad flywheel surface or worn/weak pressure plate.

If slippage, I would not NOT re-use a pressure plate, and I'd get the flywheel resurfaced or replaced. Replacing flywheel means checking/adjusting crankshaft end play.
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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

[BWE]

Clutch disk is a solid 8cm all the way around and looks the same on bith sides, and there is no oil anywhere inside the bell housing (although a bunch of black crud fell out when I removed the clutch). Pedal seems to be operating fine/per usual.

Got it up off the ground and found that the driverside tire moves in tandem with the trans mainshift, but the passengerside tire has no apparent connection as it spins freely without any rotation in the other tire or trans main, which i think supprts Cusser’s notion that the axle splines may be shot, but doesn’t explain why there’s total loss if one tire is still tied in?

[GArBa]

If splines get stripped on one side that one would be the one with less resistance thus the differential is going to send all the torque on that side and the car won't move. By pushing the car you are driving the axle with the wheel that still makes contact so the gears will move.
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cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
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moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[David_nc_72std]

[Cusser]

[sjbartnik]

[dirtkeeper]

What exactly were the original symptoms? Why did you think it was the transmission?

[ashman40]

[Eric&Barb]

[BWE]

[Eric&Barb]

When you get a new drum on there, male sure to properly torque it to the correct spec., anything less and you will be back to this.
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[Cusser]

[BWE]

Well, after a series of unfortunate personal events I was finally able to get things put back together.

The old drum indeed had the splines shorn clean off out of the drum, except for the very edge. It boggles the mind how perfectly smooth the insides were. Even when I cleaned out the axle splines, all that fell away was packed grease, which as far as I can tell means that previous owner had the bad drum off and back on and decided just to make-do, while the nut backed off ever so slightly and caused the remaining bits to divorce from the axle.

Picked up a new drum from Appletree, which to my surprise was drilled and tapped- The drums on my bug had splined posts pushed through the back of the drum, with regular logouts. Picked up some wheel bolts, which had to be shortened to fit the 5-4 lug adapters (bolts were too long and hanging up on the brake internals).

Put a new e-brake cable in too, although I haven't quite located it's matching pass-through in the chassis to actually get it attached to the handle yet.

It does go down the road though, so it's a mighty fine step in the right direction.

Thanks for all the input!

[FeelthySanchez]

Glad to hear everything's "back" to normal. No longer a greenhorn, either!
Kind of a roundabout execution but it's all good, as that clutch disc was pretty well smoked.
Drilled & tapped drums are factory/normal - the studs are a custom modification.
Re the E-brake cable (remember to smear grease on it) routing, look for this feature:

Then this:

For better access, may have to remove the handle's pivot pin:

Shitty diagram. Handle pivot pin is item #12, the LARGE diameter pin:

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