Clutch pedal issue...

[Volky]

Good afternoon,

It's been a while since my last post, so if this does not belong here, DELETE. I've scatterred the Internet for possible solutions all this time and nothing points to the issue I am having.

My 1970 VW Turbo Beetle has an issue with the clutch pedal. Long story short:
I was at a stoplight when the light changed green, I could not shift. The clutch pedal had about 6" of freeplay. So, finally got it home driving and started to check stuff.

Changed the calbe which was fine, bowden tube, revised pedals which was fine ( I have the clutch cable shaft upgrade from some site). I also made a hole in the middle of the tunnel for that bracket and also fine.

Lastly, I took down the engine and the fork is not bent. PP, disc and TOB also good.

It's been almost a year and still NADA.

Any thoughts...

[Bruce.m]

I’d narrow down the problem.
2 person job. One smoothly operates the pedal, the other is watching the gearbox arm. You want to find out if the problem is between the pedal & arm or between the arm and the flywheel.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I pretty much agree with Bruce, but I think there are more things to look at.

Has the cable stretched (they can). Are the clutch pieces all correct and not the right pieces? Is the fork bent, is the bushing on the clutch pedal in good shape and so on?

Then there is the flywheel problem. If it has been turned when a new disc or PP was added was the mounting surface for the PP properly turned to match the specs of the relationship between the two surfaces. This is often forgotten to be done and it is important.

Lee

[nitrousjim]

I had the same thing happen. I switched to a hydraulic clutch. no more problems

[Ol'fogasaurus]

NJ, this is and probably always will be a problem; the cable aging/stretching or the hydraulics aging, wearing causing leaking or needing constant adjustment or the connections between the pedal and the clutch arm.

I wonder if direct brain connections via. computers (or something in the future) will eventually be the new case but then... (man vs. inanimate objects)

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

One other thing might be if you switched to a 4-puck disc and add to that a lightened flywheel. You cannot ride the clutch with this setup as the disc will mill the flywheel's surface to where the clutch won't work.

One reason I don't let anyone drive my glass buggy!

Lee