Help me! New rebuild. Low oil pressure. SOLVED!!!

[VW_Jimbo]

So,........

got home early yesterday and went for a drive. Car is running awesome! Fully dialed in, unbelieveable power. I am shocked! It has been a very long time since I have driven a Bug, streetable, with a decent engine. Loving that part.

Now for the downer. Cruising down PCH about 70, start decelerating for a signal. Downshift into 3rd and hear a strange noise. Engine sounds fine but the clutch pedal felt odd. Push it in to go into 2nd and cannot find it. Where did it go?

Get to the signal. Super hard to get into 1st, like the shift plate is misaligned. Pull into a parking lot and take a look for something missing, like the gear selector of the tranny. Nope, everything there. Sat there for an hour or so. Started it back up. Everything fine. 1st gear is where it should be, 2nd is to. What changed?

Make a bee line for the house. Part way there the tranny starts missing 2nd and 1st again. I manage to get it home by pulling up to signals, turning off the car, putting it in first and then starting it back up. 2nd is still missing, at this point, so from 1st to 3rd.

So, what it feels like to me is the clutch is not fully disengaging the motor, or my tranny is now the weak link and has failed.

Going to try adjusting the clutch, since it seems like it could use it, but the tranny just feels off and that whole missing 2nd gear is really odd. Anyone have anything similiar happen to them?
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[Wreck]

maybe a broken front trans mount ,either the mount or the bracket may have broken off the torsion housing , allowing the trans to drop at the front which will affect how the clutch feels and it's adjustment plus change the selector adjustment .

Or the throw out/release bearing has moved on the arms . A friend of mine always glues the early type clips in with a blob of silicon , he had one move on a FVEE's and cost the driver a race win .

[VW_Jimbo]

[Danwvw]

Also, it could just be a broken clutch cable. Throw Out? Flywheel Gland Nut bearings? Shifter out of adjustment? Clutch going out?

_________________
1960 Beetle And 1679cc DP W-100 & Dual Zeniths!

[VW_Jimbo]

[VW_Jimbo]

Thats a pretty screwed up cable. Check this out!

This is what I found in the last 70 restoration. Middle mount point. You can see the broken bracket off to the right. Clutch pedal was odd feeling and there was a stud with a nut hanging out the bottom of the tunnel. Turned out to be a J bolts holding the clutch tube with a wire tie around it. Ahhh, PO are awesome!!!!

_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[modok]

Yes there's the problem. Improper Jerry rigging. Should have used bailing wire and duct tape.

[VW_Jimbo]

So, went out to the car this morning, after the morning festival.

Happy Fathers day to all of you!

Did a very good visual inspection. No oil leaks, nothing loose, nothing broken. Everything looked great. Pulled out the backseat and looked at the shift coupler, just because. Looked good, nothing broken or loose.

Got back under the car and pried on the new tranny mounts. All three in excellent shape. Bowden tube in excellent shape.

Jacked the back end of the car up. Started the motor and went through the gears. Clutch engaged, gears were selected without issue. Clutch would release and the tires would spin, through all four gears and reverse.

Dropped the car back down and adjusted the clutch. Took one and one half turns to get me 7/8" freeplay.

Thinking this may be the issue, went for a drive. Car did well for three miles worth of driving.

Got back and looked at everything really quick, just to be sure. Then planned to go for a GOOD drive. At the first signal, away from the neighborhood, it started. The tranny locked me out of first and second gears. WTF! They just worked fine. Pulled up to the signal, could not get out of thrid gears. Started to make my way home, in 3rd gear. Came up to another stop sign and the tranny allowed me to select first gear, then second, then thrid and fourth. Downshifted and went through them all. At the next signal, I got on the power and sure enough, the tranny would not shift again. I stopped at the next signal, could not exit out of thrid. Stopped at the next signal and it allowed me to get into 1st, once again. Drove it easy the rest of the way home, it worked, but it made a deep grumbly sound. Like when a differential gear gets loose and sloppy and makes that deep gear growling noise. Decided to check the oil and could not get the fill plug out of the side. Why????

So, I am not a manual tranny repair man. Just never had to do any repairs on manual trannies. Automatics, no problem. But manuals - no. So, what are my options. Buy a rebuilt tranny and pay for some better parts within. I could use the help in selecting a tranny that I can grow old with. Any thoughts on what I am in need of? Is this something I ca n buy parts for and rebuild it myself or do I need to purchase a fully recrafted tranny? What would guys do, if you were in my shoes?

Thanks in advance! By the way, the engine is running sooooo good! Feels great, as I am sure the tranny can atest to!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[modok]

Something is loose in there, literally.
Could be the 3/4 hubs came loose from the gears, or the mainshaft has too much end-play, or, something like that.... Is putting the 3/4 shift fork far enough off that the pins won't let you move the 1/2 shift fork. it still thinks it's in gear.

Several transmission experts here on the samba.

[Pruneman99]

Bummer on your trans when you finally got your engine running good.

I will need a trans for my '64 when I get me 1745cc done. The stock gear set is low it makes first useless with smaller tires. 65 mph, and I'm re-aligning the case bores..

I'm not even gonna try to deal with the trans build. I'll probably never do another. So Rimco or someone will be building it for me. I'll happily divest some of my paycheck there.

If you want to have at it, I'm sure you could get someone to direct you, but for me, it's not worth tooling up.

[VW_Jimbo]

[VW_Jimbo]

[67rustavenger]

Oh man that sux!

I wonder if this is something that will come up once I get the 2180 back to running form.

jpaull, had a trans done by mcmscott. If you haven't locked horns with him maybe he can build a sturdy trans for ya.

Sorry to hear that you have this going on.

Good Luck.
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[Cusser]

[VW_Jimbo]

[drooper]

Just wanted to drop you note on you how much I enjoyed your stepwise approach of diagnosis and correction of a "sudden" oil pressure problem -- Solved! My saga is very similar, with an almost identical engine build, in which shortly after putting the full-flow 2100 cc motor in my 71 bus, my red light came on and stayed on. I had contracted a local shop to assemble the short block, and was surprised to find that a piece of aluminum tubing roughly 4 mm in diameter and 5 mm in length had been left in the crank case, been sucked up into the will pickup tube, and was positioned against the intake gear of the oil pump. Presumably when it was orientated longitudinally, there was sufficient flow into the pump but when it flipped up it would obstruct. I was able to takeoff the pump cover, pull out the gears without removing the pump, discover the problem and reassemble without dropping the engine tearing the motor apart. From then on, the engine ran great, thousands of miles really, but would occasionally have the red light come on suddenly and without warning, confirmed by VDO gauge telling me that there was no pressure at all. Following engine shutdown and 5 minute wait I could fire it back up and move on, but it drove my wife nuts and would panic my son when he camped with friends. Like you, checked the oil level, the oil pickup, actually placed a flexible borescope in the pickup and checked the galleries, pressure-tested the pick-up horn, checked the gears and cover clearance, etcetera, and found no cause. Finally read your little sojourn and like a lightbulb going off remembered that 3 of my oil pump studs were firmly attached, but 1 had unscrewed out, firmly stuck to the red capped nut, that I had lazily and repeatedly chosen not to fix; I simply used it as a bolt (in essence), torqued appropriately of course, each time creeping a bit back along the stud and leaving less and less stud to seal against the block.. It never occurred to that the 10mm stud needed to form an airtight seal against the case at two points to prevent air entrainment into the pump and foaming of the oil and loss of pressure. At the last go-round of "red-lighting" I retrieved the pump cover and errant stud, used a new 10mm stud and loc-tighted it back into place with a couple of extra turns of depth just to be sure, and have now driven a thousand miles with stable highway and idle oil pressure and a new sense of confidence. Had I not read your post, seen your photographs and had that "Ah Hah! moment" the engine would be pulled by now and in pieces in the garage, or worse! Thank you.

[VW_Jimbo]

You are welcome Drooper! That does not make the journey less painful, but at least someone got something good from my experience! I like to remain positive and firmly believe, that in doing so, the good in ANY situation will rise to the top and help offset the negative that so easily invades, in the lowest moments we find during the journey.

Thank you! Hope you are through the woods and cruising down the highway with a huge smile!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[txoval]

That was a crazy issue, I’ve never seen that breakthrough before, but there is a lot of good info in this thread.

Pump gear shaft engagement into the cam is a big one that most probably do not check

[VW_Jimbo]

[Malanthius]

Jimbo, your thread my have just revealed yet another problem I have with my motor. Although I have decent oil pressure (45 psi cold at idle, 20psi hot at idle, 50psi max) I noticed the needle on my guage bounce here and there. Recently did some work on this and when I pulled my sump off and removed the pickup tube extender, I noticed the main pickup tube assembly was loose! It wiggled a bit. Think the nut is still there but not sure. But from reading your thread I'm guessing it shouldn't really move much because it should be tight in the hole to the pump?! Guess I'll have to drop the sump yet again. Nothing compared to what you have been going through! Hope it doesn't end up going that route. Makes me think that those blips in my needle are when it's sucking air. Glad you got your engine issues resolved!