How do you make it rain in California?... buy a speedster.

TRP posted:

I was just thinking that when I came back here to see your reply. I'll need to look at the back of the old 1915 and see what the pressure plate looked like. I don't know if I have a photo of the new motor & it's pressure plate.  I bet that's it. 

Old pressure plate:

I bet the newer one looks like this:

No centering collar...

Silly Ted...

The 1600cc had the top pressure top. The old original looking one. The 1915cc has the bottom pressure plate.

I thought the T/O was based not the transmission you have and not the pressure plate??

Longfellow

I bet if you look closely at the 1915 pressure plate you will notice a metal collar around the center fingers on the pressure plate.

The transmission determines which throw out bearing you use. In turn, the throw out bearing determines which pressure plate you use. The later style throw out bearing does not use the center collar. You can't use the early style throw out bearing with the later style pressure plate (specifically ones without the centering collar).

With the early style throw out bearing the center collar ties the fingers together. Without the center collar the early throw out bearing skids along the open fingers and engages the pressure plate erratically.

Hope that makes sense. I rambled.

Grabbed a Guiness on Teby early did you?

This is most likely a good representation of the pressure plate on the 1915. Note the centering ring on the 'fingers' (springs).

I put another 6 miles on the car today. I pulled the motor and removed the clutch disk. 5 of the 6 springs on the clutch disk were broken. Some of the springs were broken in multiple places. 

I put the centering ring on the pressure plate. Installed a new clutch disc, throw out bearing, and clips. Car runs strong. The clutch chatter is gone. Glad to have it on the road again.

What would cause those springs to break like that?

I've never seen springs on the disc break, Ted...

TRP posted:

 

...What would cause those springs to break like that?...

Ted, a wise man once advised me not to put in a clutch disc with springs because it's very hard to find one anymore whose springs are not made in the People's Republic of Cheesy Car Parts.

Apparently, those springs are made from a very rare alloy that is 10 per cent high-carbon steel, 40 per cent sawdust, and 50 per cent lychee nuts.

The wise man said, "If thy clutch would chatter, avoid the valley of the springs and follow the Kush Lock path to eternal happiness."

And you know this wise man, Ted. He lives in Auburn, California.

A warped flywheel can cause driven clutch disc springs to fail.  It's always a good idea to surface the flywheel on a clutch job.  Long-term slippage can also heat the springs, making them brittle and easier to break.  If your flywheel is bad, you'll know before long, launching or not (just kidding about the launch).  In my case, cockpit problems were the culprit, but I was a mere callow youth at the time.   

aircooled posted:

AL....Yeah.......I'd like to get a Five Speed. After following all the dialog  on here I can see how close you can get to all of our "G-Spots"!!  Maybe later when I change "preferences" on what gets me excited while out cruising, I'll move "up a notch"

Winternationals are still fun. I was just looking at a photo of the Trophy Queen of the "66" Event. She was all really cute and all that but what caught my eye in this photo was how LARGE the TV camera was that was recording for the local news stations. In this case it was ABC or CBS. Now it's not a 1/4 mile race. Not 1320 feet but 1000 feet for safety reasons. Still spectacular watch though.

Cheers to you and all...............Bruce

You never posted the pic of the trophy queen...

ALB posted:

aircooled posted:

AL....Yeah.......I'd like to get a Five Speed. After following all the dialog  on here I can see how close you can get to all of our "G-Spots"!!  Maybe later when I change "preferences" on what gets me excited while out cruising, I'll move "up a notch"

Winternationals are still fun. I was just looking at a photo of the Trophy Queen of the "66" Event. She was all really cute and all that but what caught my eye in this photo was how LARGE the TV camera was that was recording for the local news stations. In this case it was ABC or CBS. Now it's not a 1/4 mile race. Not 1320 feet but 1000 feet for safety reasons. Still spectacular watch though.

Cheers to you and all...............Bruce

You never posted the pic of the trophy queen...

That would have most likely been Miss Linda Vaughn, the undisputed queen of the hot rodding world:

Ahh... Miss Hurst Shifter.

Some claimed that her displacement increased over time, but some technological progress is to be expected in all aspects of motor sport.

Sacto Mitch posted:

 

Ahh... Miss Hurst Shifter.

Some claimed that her displacement increased over time, but some technological progress is to be expected in all aspects of motor sport.

 

I did not post any recent photos of her because time was not her friend.

Still waiting on Berg and the 5 speed parts. Going on 5 or 6 months now. Completely lame that they are taking so long.  I should have picked one up from Rancho!

ted:

That's is unbelievable.  Based upon this, I'll not ever do business with Berg.  6 months. I could have built it myself. What have you, if not your reputation!

You are known as a straight shooter no BS! 

Art

FYI.   No matter who you order it from, they still have to get it from berg.

no body stocks the kits. I am still waiting on one for a customer......

Anthony posted:

FYI.   No matter who you order it from, they still have to get it from berg.

no body stocks the kits. I am still waiting on one for a customer......

Rancho has one in stock right now. If I cut my losses at this point, I'd be out the cost of the main shaft, the R&P, the spider gears and end gears I ordered from Anthony.  I have a handful of other parts I picked up (donor trans, rhino case, two heavy duty side plates, shift fork, etc.)  but at this point I'm furious that they have strung me along this long. 

Every 30 days since I sent them my parts I've called Tim. Each month he's told me something else was holding up the process. First it was the CNC of the nose cones. Everything else was on track. Then it's something else. Then it's the hardened shift selector rods.

There are at least 8 others in this same boat. I'm going to post on The Samba and see who else is tired of being strung along.

Since Dee (Gene's widow) has taken over the reigns after Gene died, the business model GBE subscribes to has been pretty hard to understand. They're out of stock for months, even years at a time of some of their biggest sellers (one eg.- deep sumps), when they do make a manufacturing run they sell out pretty quickly, and then they're out of stock for eons again. I (and a host of others out here in VW land) don't get it.

The 5 speeds are a rather unique situation because as well as their initial investment for having the end cones and intermediate (gear) sections cast and then machined, there's mods to the customers' parts as well, and to be economical they do them in batches (of 10 I believe). I know it's a pain in the @ss, Ted, but hang in there. You have to remember that they're doing something no one else does. It's worth it in the end. Al

ps- Did you start with a donor trans or use parts from the trans in the car? Can you and Anthony cobble something together so you can drive the car while you're waiting? I do understand the frustration, especially if the car is down.

I picked up a 3.88 R&P and main shaft from the Samba. I then picked up a donor trans off of Craigslist for 100.00. I still have a trans in my car. It's one that Ken Porter built for me a little over a year and a half ago.  Rancho has a complete 5 speed trans right now.  

I just hate to be led on. Nothing is worse to me than when someone can't be honest about a delivery date. 

Do any of you know anything about the subarugears conversion?

I hear you, Ted. 

I just spoke with Tim. He said the shafts are at the guy who's doing the 'hard chrome' work (?)  He said it should be 'about a week'. Let's say I get the parts by the end of July. Ken Porter is usually backed up 8 to 12 weeks. That puts us out to... November.  If I get the spider and end gears from Anthony I can take it to Teby's guy - might get it done in this calendar year.  

Unless I buy one outright - I don't see this thing being built and installed in this driving season. At this rate it will be a year before I get it built and installed.  

Let this be a lesson to anyone who's considering buying vs building.

I can still cut my losses and get one from Wright: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/cla...etail.php?id=1588600