Wheel hop or something else??? HEEEELLLLLPPPPP

I've burned up two clutches over the last couple of years. Someone said I was probably "burning the clutch" too much. But I've driven a clutch car for 30+ years and motorcycles for 40 years, know what burning a clutch is, but think in no way do I do it without knowing it.

Now since the clutch seems to be burned out again, I've got to replace it. Someone told me awhile back, after driving my car, he noticed the linkage from the gear shift to the transmission may need an add-on part to extend the linkage. He also noted, that since my car comes out of gear so easily having gone over a slight bump in the road... that too may mean the same thing.

Have no clue what he was talking about... but now it seems to be making some sense. Does ANYONE have any thoughts? Think I may have to put a new clutch plate in after only 8 months.

David

david, popping out of gear (easily/over a bump etc) is not the
same problem as a "burned out" clutch. once your car is in gear
(fully) the clutch is out of the picture unless it is adjusted improperly and riding on the throw out bearing.
When you say "burned out" does this mean slipping under load?
When you give it gas on a hill in a higher gear say 2nd or 3rd does
the rpm go up with no pull on the car=slipping? What did you find the
last time you did the clutch, worn disc?, bad pressure plate?
contaminated?
again, if your concerned with the popping out of gear thats
an adjustment issue or worn shifting forks/assy in the trans.
describe your troubles a little further. good luck

David,

Poping our of Gear relates to Transaxel Problems not a Clutch issue.

As "Burning Up the Clutch"; as the other note indicated your information needs more clairification. The last clutch you replaced what did the Disc & Pressure Plate look like.

The clutches in these vehicles aren't very large ins size and sitting with the clutch engaged at a stop for periods of time really effects their life.

Was seal leaking from the engine and getting oil on the Clutch assemply, was the Disc/Pressure Plate Glazed? What type of Clutch were you utilizing? (Porsche, Stock VW or Uprated Performance)
Is the clutch properly adjusted?

Is you engine a VW with a VW Transaxel or a Hybred?

I live in the Mountains and my Speedster is driven hard up hill routinely and have absolutly no Clutch problems.

As for Wheel Hop, the Cutch is working properly and giving so much grip that the power is transmitted to the rear suspension/tires and actually causes the "Wheel Hop" to happen due to grip/traction. You may want to focus on you rear suspension after you solve your clutch issue.

Good Luch,

Jack

If you have a big engine you may need an aftermarket clutch, which I would consider trying anyway at the rate you are going through the things. Check free play and to ensure it is engaging and disengaging all of the way, etc.

Dave:

First, the clutch:
Lots of good info on this thread - pay attention to it.

Something else to consider: Once you take your clutch out, find a really good standard transmission guy in your area who knows clutches and works with them daily and take the disk and pressure plate over to him to look at. Are they discolored? Do they show abnormal wear (like more in one area than another)? When you've replaced the disk in the past, did you also replace the pressure plate or use the original one? If it is a "fingered" pressure plate, are all fingers engaging equally" Diaphram clutches usually don't have this problem, but I have seen some weird things happening even with diaphram-types.

The pressure plate may not be parallel to the flywheel, or it may have more pressure on one side than the others. This condition can cause clutch chatter as it's engaged - can feel a LOT like wheel hop on a VW, as there's a lot of vibration going on back there and you can't look around to see if the wheels are actually hopping. The un-parallelism can be caused by it being slightly off-center with one side (usually the bottom as you assemble it) perched up on the slight depression in the flywheel that it's supposed to sit in when you tightened it down - hard to notice, easy to miss as it'll torque down just fine but be out of round, maybe warped AND not parallel, all at the same time. When you torque the pressure plate down, do you go in three stages of 1/3, 2/3 and full torque and use a star-pattern for tightening? That way you get it to tighten evenly to the flywheel and not warp (you can also make sure it's centered on the first round of tightening).

If you've not replaced the pressure plate before, I would now, along with the throw-out bearing and clutch disk, AND re-check the torque setting of the Gland nut in the center of the flywheel - 300 ft. lbs and no less!

Also check for leaking seals on the tranny. A leaky crankshaft seal seldom gets the clutch disk wet (although anything's possible) and if the clutch disk gets wet from a leaky seal it'll slip like hell but it'll be obviously discolored (and usuall smell bad, too!)

Lastly, get a good VW shop manual and adjust your clutch/pedal freeplay to spec after the new clutch is installed, just to make sure it's right - that may cause premature clutch wear, too.

Popping out of gear: Before we get crazy and start pulling the tranny out, remove the inspection cover at the back of your center tunnel for access to the shift rod coupler at the back. Make sure it is in good shape, tight with no obvious breakage or wear. (For that matter, you might just want to replace it with a new one, and don't forget to lube the bushing inside the center tunnel holding up your shift rod while you're working there).

Then, place the tranny in that gear which it pops out of (I'll assume it's fourth gear for now), then GENTLY remove the entire gearshift lever, exposing the coupling shaft and the "cup" which the shift lever engages. Now try moving the shift rod further forward (still assuming we're in 4'th gear) to see if it moves (it shouldn't). If it moves slightly forward and stays there, then I'll bet that your gearshift lever was mounted too far to the rear, thereby not fully engaging 2nd and 4th gears. Move the lever assy forward a bit and tighten it down and see if that helps. It should be quite vertical when in Neutral, but I don't know what you have for a lever.

If it pops out of 1st or 3rd, then the lever may be mounted too far forward, and not letting it go fully into 1st and 3rd.

Now, I may be jumped on for having these lever-moving directions backward, but I think I've got them right.

I would start by checking out the rear coupling and moving the gearshift lever mount forward or back to see if that helps. If not, then a tranny rebuild may be in order. sorry |>(

gn

Dave,
My friend Mel and I drove your car about a month ago. I was the one that mentioned that your linkage seemed out of adjustment as It did not seem that the trans was fully engaging. I suspect that if you are now having clutch problems it is due to the problem with the trans as it took lots of clutch slipping to keep it in gear when starting. I would start with the linage as that seemed to be the root cause of the problem. Hope this helps.

Troy

Troy,

Thanks for reminding me who you were! I've got to take more time reading all the responses, much to take in. I'm planning on driving the car down to JPS after the 4th. John will fix whatever's wrong... just would like your help to describe what you think may be the ongoing problem, as he thinks it's mostly likely because I'm burning out my clutch. I'll cut and paste your response for John to read (but he usually reads these post from time to time).

Please write WHATEVER you think may be the cause... even if it's "driver error". I really don't want to keep having to replace or repair anything, since finally the engine's running perfect after John replaced a local mechanic's terrible rebuilt engine work.

Thanks TO everyone else for their contribution and thoughts... MUCH APPRECIATED! Any other thoughts totally welcomed.

David

Dave,
Thinking back (way back) to my old VW days when my bug acted similarly, my mechanic adjusted my linkage and all was good after that. You still may have smoked the clutch but the popping out of gear is not a clutch problem generally.

Troy

Gordon

You hit on everything I could think of! Alan M

Yup......old, tired mechanical minds think alike.

Popping out of gear can be caused by several factors. The most obvious culprit can be the condition of your tranny mounts. If they're worn out (cracked) replace all 3 of them for under $20. If this doesn't help, you may have a bad syncro. This is caused by placing weight (your hand) on the shifter while driving around town. This causes undo pressure to be transmitted down the shift rob & onto the synco gears.

Wheel hop--Have you inspected your bowden tube? This is the rubber/plastic tube that the clutch cable travels through as it exits the pan and into the clutch throwout arm. It should have a slight 1 3/4" bend in it. Without the bend, wheel hop can & will occur.