I've now put about two thousand miles on my 2006 Beck Speedster. I am still having occasional clutch engagement problems. Almost all my cars over the years have been manual tran.s and I have never had a problem. Unless I am very careful (which I am most of the time) I get axel tramp that is sometimes severe enough to cause the tranny to jump out of gear. Is this a funtion of a cable actuated clutch or is there something that can be corrected causing this problem?
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Well, the first thing to check is the sag in the "bowden tube". This is the flexible conduit between the chassis and trans the clutch cable goes through. It should have a U shaped bend in it and you want the bottom of the U to sag down at least 1 inch from the end points. This allows enough slack so the transmission can move without affecting the clutch cable. You can add some washers to the transmission side of that tube, where it slides into the mount to increase the sag.
The second thing to check for are bad transmission mounts. A bad mount can allow the transmission to move excessively and because the shifter is fixed to the chassis, this movement can pull on the shifter, making it pop out of gear.
The third thing is even if the first two are good, your frame horns may be flexing excessively causing the same problems as #2. If so you can add a "kaifer bar" or "truss brace" (they are the same thing) that ties the rear shock mounts and frame horns together to stiffen everything up. This is a very common upgrade to cure wheel hop.
Bad clutch chatter could cause similar issues too.
Justin's first 2 points are exactly where I'd start.
Bowden tube bend is the most common for chatter, broken nosecone mount would be most common for being pulled out of gear.
You may also have a cable that is fraying and the broken strand are slowing the cable's return and causing a hard chatter.
Your car does not have frame horns, it has a down support like an original 356, and Kafer bars are a standard part of all of our chassis, so you don;t need to worry about those items being added, but do look at them and make sure they are securely bolted in place.
Carey: do you guys pre-load your Kafer bar setups? If so, how?
There's another possibility as well- the disc. If somehow it ended up with a metallic-puck disc (copper, et al), it could chatter on slow engagement.
Gordon,
They are oversized by 1/4"" or so and the flex of putting them in place is enough preload
I had a nose cone mount separate after a very short time and the mount was new. You couldn't see the separation until the tranny was lifted just a little at the nose cone/front of transmission.
Looks like the classic "Urethane Failure".......Urethane doesn't like "shear" without some type of reinforcement.....
Point #1 is something I need to look at. Thanks everyone.
Good luck Michael. Thanks for bringing this up. I just took a 500 mile trip from one end of the state to the other, all on back roads. The first real road trip since I bought my car and started sorting it 8 years ago. It ran perfectly except for a "thunk" when I let up on the throttle and then hit it again. I jacked it up and checked the forward transmission mount that I replaced with a urethane version when I replaced the engine. The bolts loosened up, (blue loctite) and will be a PIA to fix without removing my perfectly running engine. Angle grinder and big assed bolts will get it done but it won't be fun. At least I found it before sh!t broke and required a tow.
My mount broke shortly after taking posession of my new VS. Kirk said there should be enough slack to replace it without pulling the engine, but the mechanic I took it to (not really a VW guy) couldn't do it. He cut out the welded bolts and put regular bolts in. I also added a mid mount tranny support which should prevent this in the future.
You can do it, but it's a frustrating pain in the rear-end!
Got'er done! Using every cutting tool in the arsenal, I removed a useless piece of the mount on the frame side about 3/4 " x 1/2" that was preventing the removal of the bolts through the nose cone. It also made it possible to get a socket on the new longer bolt head. Everything got reefed down to the max and double nutted. No more torque "thunk". I love it when a plan comes together.
And just before the 4'th with a house full of holiday guests........
This guy's got the madness!
Why do you think he goes out to the garage?
Any more problems we can find for Al's sanity restoral(time in the garage with some cold ones and a wrench)?
You got that right, Danny! Strangely enough, the madness is keeping me sane, or as close as I ever get to sane. We'll have guests right through mid September this year. We will go sailing for 10 days at the end of July leaving them to their own devices....I hope the house is still here when we get back.
