Calling the engine Dr.

If it sheared several of its pieces, my bet is inconsistent pressure and an out-of-adjustment fork. (That's just a guess -- there are plenty of folks here are smarter than I am about this stuff.)
A high-pressure clutch can bend or break the fingers on a stock throwout shaft. Teresa and I found that out last year.
We replaced the throwout shaft on the Hoopty with one that had been reinforced and had welded fingers. It took a shop to sort out the underlying causes and remedy them.

Thanks Cory.
I added two more pictures.
When you say "fork", I assume thats is the part holding the throwout bearing and the 2 clips?

Any ideas why my clips have been sheered?
Go back out to pull motor all the way...
This is my 2110 with kennedy preasure plate.
The center piece that the throwout bearing touches wiggles, it it suppose to be a little loose?

Yup, kind of.
The fork is the thing your clutch cable acts on. It's outside the tranny case, and is connected to the arm you can see inside.
That fork should be specific to the year of the case, and will either have a slight bend in it toward the front of the car, or will be straight and point upward.
It's connected to the arm, from which grow the fingers, one on each side of the pressure plate.
In theory, all of those pieces act as one, with the fork leveraging the arm and fingers to separate the internal guts from the spinney-around parts; your clutch, moving in time with the engine rpms, gets pushed off of the splines and disengages the engine from the tranny; ergo, a clutch.
If the pressure of the springs in the clutch is greater than the pressure exerted by the fork, arm and fingers, it won't work properly.
If it's not lined up properly, and there is a really inexpensive plastic tool called a -- get this -- clutch alignment tool -- then it's not going to act harmoniously at all, ever. Another usual suspect is the cable itself being out of adjustment; no matter how much you try to shift carefully, that guy being out of adjustment will always result in a rough shift.
Enough of that in combination, and the arms will become bent. Bent arms equal less strength. Less strength could equal a funny smell, and ultimately broken pieces.
I'm guessing that's what happened in your car.
Again, there are many folks here smarter than me, and I can't see your car from here. If that car didn't cost you average used Speedster money, there's a good chance this has been brewing for a while.
Luckily, there's probably not much wrong with the gears themselves. Since you've already got the parts exposed, take 'em loose and trot on over to Peek for an opinion on the broken parts. They're only about an hour's drive from you.

Two questions.....Is it normal for the throwout bearing/pressure plate surfaces to be that rusty????...and....Is that bright ring around the outside of the pressure plate freshly peeled metal?????

Can't tell for sure from the pics, but looks funny.........

if you havent driven it in a while- sure - they get a bit of surface rust. no big deal.

Just by looking at the pictures, I see the clips worn off and a bright worn ring around the pressure plate. So to me, that means the throwout bearing is traveling in to far. Do you have the stop on the back of your clutch pedal? Maybe this is the cause if it bent or broke off. I guess having the big wing nut clutch cable adjuster too tight could cause this as well. There has to be a little play in the throwout arm before it touches the pressure plate when initially adjusting the clutch cable.

~WB

Here's my call.. The keepers that hold the throwout bearing in place need to be seated deeper in the throwout bearing and possibly used or worn out keepers were originally used. Make sure you use new keepers and push then into the throwout bearing as far as they will go.

Rotate the throwout bearing, does it rotate freely?? If not, then replace the bearing. With that much rust, I'm sure it's not rotating freely but, if it is then clean it up but for as little as it costs, replace it.

The Kennedy clutch is probably still good but with the engine out, I'd go ahead and replace it and the disk.

When you re-install everything, grab hold of the clutch throwout bearing arm, move it towards the clutch and leave 1/8" of clearance betweent the throwout bearing and the pressure plate.

Make sure you put a dab of grease in the pilot bearing inside the flywheel.

By the way, you have the old style pressure plate and throwout bearing. The center section of the pressure plate must stay attached when used with an old style throwout bearing. (none of these parts are interchangable between new and old style clutch systems)

Use an old VW main shaft of a clutch disk centering tool to make sure the splines line up correctly. If they don't line up, they you'll play hell trying to get the transaxle input shaft into the disk and centered into the pilot bearing. BTW, the problem doesn't stem from an off centered disk a proposed above. There is no way you're going to mate the engine with the transaxle unless the disk is centered. And if it were possible which it isn't, the first time you depressed the clutch pedal, the disk would center itself.

You can send the pressure plate to Kennedy and for 50 bucks, they will totally recondition the pressure plate making it good as new.

Personally, I would trash-can that whole assembly and install a newer one, one with a collar in the center of the pressure plate, and move on from there.

As Larry says, you have the old style combination - the newer version is SO much better.

That throw-out bearing will work with both pressure plates, but the newer one works better - both the newer throw-out bearing and pressure plate. Both of the newer ones have a mating collar that will eliminate that wearing of the keeper springs. I wouldn't trust anything in the bell housing after ground metal from the keepers and pressure plate have contaminated the disk/pressure plate.

gn

Yes the shiney ring is from the keeper clip almost wearing through.

Car has not run in 3 weeks, will surface rust come so soon?

Thanks!

All of Kennedy's pressure plates can be used with new or old throwout bearings. If you use the old style bearing then you leave the center collar on the pressure plate. IF you use the new style throwout bearing then you remove the centr collar. The new style has a throwout bearing sleeve that fits over the transaxle mainshaft and guides the throwout bearing as it moves. The old style bearing doesn't require a sleeve.

There is a good thread on "the samba" that explains the difference

see:: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=148307&start=0

That amount of surface rust is probably older than 3 weeks

Larry,

What kind of lubricant do you suggest putting on the sleeve?

Bill, I've been tinkering on one car for a couple years; I knew somebody wiser than I would answer your question better.
Larry's a GENIUS with this stuff. Gordon is, too. Those guys have been working on lots of cars for lots of years.
Good luck!

It's been 20 yrs since I messed with these engines and I did'nt know what I was doing then...

Good stuff guys, thank you!

Michael, Many mechanics suggest that you use high temperatur greese on the inner bore of the throw out bearing (new and old style) and in the needle bearings of the flywheel gland nut (also known as the pilot bearing)

It's been my experience that if you use greese then dirt collects on that greese and eventually gums up the throwout bearing so for the past 35+ years, the only greese I use is to lubricate the pilot bearing.

Use Brake Clean on the splined transaxle input shaft to remove any dirt or crud and if necessary, lubricate with dry power graphite so the clutch disk moves freely on the input shaft splines.

You're all right--but what caused it? You have to check the throw out are and make sure it hasn,t twisted or other. Also since you can't see it once installed, hand fit the bearing to the plate and check for clearances. Another really silly question. In the first pic it looks like the cooling tin could have been pinched between the trans mate surface??? No? This could also cause a slight misaligment. Good luck.

Nothing pinched.
I think the clips moved outward and the flex may have caused this. But, yes, I must find out why...

What size are the 3 bolts that hold the sleeve to the tranny as I will upgrade the current set up?

Bill, Quite frankly, I can't remember if your current throwout bearing fork will accept the new style throwout bearing but I believe it will. Also, unless you have the triangle pattern 3 threaded holes surrounding your transmission inputshaft seal then the modification isn't possible. If I remember correctly, the bolts are either 6 mm or 8mm x 1.5 pitch 13 mm long but, if you have the threaded holes then check them first.

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/Microfiche/t201900.gif

The top clutch is the old style, the bottom clutch is the new style

Reminded me of a similar bookmarked link; see if there's any clarity here:
http://www.1800vw.bizhosting.com/0.to_bearing.shaft.htm (does this help?)

Thanks Scott,
That exploded view is much better. and it appears that the old style throwout bearing fork/cross shaft will not work with the new bearing.

I do have the treaded holes but I'm glad I saw this before I orderd!

You can change the throwout bearing fork to the new style

At some point I have to draw the line!

Quite frankly, you're not going to be "ahead" by switching to the newer throwout bearing.

If you buy from Kennedy then the actual clutch cover/pressure plate is the same, the differenct is the removal of the center ring for the new system or leaving it in place for the older system. .

There's nothing wrong with you're current system and your reasoning for not spending more money and time for something that isn't needed is rational and valid.

Thanks Larry!

I've seen the rust before, once you fix the contact problem you won't have the rust. Because of the grinding-the particles are so fine coupled with the heat of the area-it rusts quickly.

Sounds like you need my early>>Late retrofit adaptor.. Its a sleeve that incorporates an input shaft seal inside it while taking the place of the stock input shaft seal.
This allows the use of post 1971 release bearing, 71 only cross shaft and this allows the use of the post 71 pressure plate that doesn't include the release bearing ring.

I never use an early set up, all my trannys, cars and engines are set up for the late arrangement.. I learned as a child that the stock set up pre-71 is the weakest link.

On the other hand, I've used the old style clutch systems on many sand rail engines and transaxles. sandrail/Dunebuggies, driven in the sand dunes take quite a beating which equates to far more abuse than you can deliver to a street set up. Years ago, a customer told me that street engines/clutch combinations and transaxles take more of a beating than do dunebuggy set ups due to the amount of miles put on a street set up vs a dunebuggy that's only driven a few times a month.

My answer was this. I asked him to hand push my old dunebuggy while it was on the sand and again, when it was parked on pavement.

That buggy weighed only 1,000 lbs. He couldn't push it on the sand but it rolled around easily when on the pavement. (he became a believer)

In my opinion, the old style clutch will take quite a pounding if properly installed and will last a long time. The only modifications I made to the old style clutch systems was to reinforce the clutch release fork.

Jake, more info please.

If I remember correctly, you stated you have the 3 bolt holes in your transaxle surrounding the transaxle seal. If that's correct then you wouldn't need Jake's throwout bearing guide adapter if you choose to go with the late throwout bearing. From what I've read, you'll still have to change the throw out bearing fork to accept the new style throwout bering.

Is that correct????

yes, correct. Back to plan A