[T3] A new T-34 owner?

[Jim Adney]

On 14 Jun 2011 at 1:28, John Jaranson wrote:

> Pressure plate looks fine.  Clutch disk is pretty thin, but otherwise
> OK.  Going to replace the disk as long as I have the engine out. 
> Still need to pull the pedal cluster and check that end of the clutch
> cable.  No other obvious cause of the symptoms from Saturday.  The
> needle bearings in the gland nut look fine too, Keith 

What brand of pressure plate? My first was a LUK; a beautiful piece 
of work that had a weakness that it took me 2 engine pulls to 
discover. If it's a LUK, with 3 arms and pivot hinges on pins, it may 
be best to replace it.  The pivot pins are the weak spot. They wear 
just a bit there and then the arms bottom out on the body, changing 
the fulcrum point and grossly reducing the mechanical advantage. 
Sometimes you can even see little scars where the arms have been 
pressing against the body. A new, thicker, driven disk will actually 
make this problem worse.

F&S 3-arm pressure plates pivot along edges, with much more wear 
surface. Later pressure plates from all manufacturers did away with 
the 3 arms and now just use a different form of diaphram. AFAIK, none 
of those have this problem. 

Also check where the Bowden tube exits the body. Sometimes POs don't 
get the flex tube hooked up to the body tube correctly. I had one 
where the cable had sawed a half inch notch in the body tube.

And certainly, pull the pedal cluster and cable, inspect everything, 
and lube generously. Note that sometimes the attachments of the pedal 
or cable arm to the shaft have been known to crack. For some cars, 
I've drilled a hole into the two tubular shafts and then installed a 
zerk in the outer hole. That way I can lube those sliding parts. If 
you drill in the right spot, you can even lube this without removing 
the carpet.

> There is an extra hole in the gasket inside of the sealing detent.  It
> overlaps the "cleavage" between the ports on the manifolds.  Direct
> air leak.  I took some pictures tonight and will post them to my
> website and provide a link tomorrow. 

"Cleavage" huh? Quite an apt description. I'll don't think I'll ever 
be able to look at one of those manifolds in the same light again. 

;-)

When VW introduced the dual port heads in Beetles in '71, for some 
reason they added a dowel to position things. I don't know why, as 
the 2 bolts already had everything pretty well aligned, but they did 
it, and that hole in the metal gasket is the result.

I just looked at one of those manifolds along with a Beetle gasket 
and I see what you mean. I would still say that the hole is not so 
much the problem as the fact that the "cleavage" overlaps the sealing 
ridge on the gasket, violating the seal. One could probably fix this 
by filling in the "cleavage" with weld or epoxy, or whatever, and 
filing the face smooth. Still, the paper gasket is a better thermal 
insulator and that's important on a dual carb engine.

BTW, the OG VW gaskets were just thin paper. The aftermarket ones are 
often thicker, which actually strikes me as better, both for sealing 
and thermal isolation.

> I got the proper distributor installed tonight.....after much cursing.
>  Had to re-index the distributor drive gear/shaft as it was set for a
> Type 1.  Could not get it pulled up enough to rotate it for the life
> of me.....after trying for nearly an hour, I had a homer moment and
> realized it wouldn't come out with the fuel pump drive shaft and
> bakelite hold still in place.  Duh-Oh.

;-)

> After that it went pretty easy...until I realized I forgot to install
> the little spring in the top of the drive shaft.  Out comes the dizzy
> a second time.  Got that in and the dizzy reinstalled and what do you
> know....one of the dizzy cap retainer springs falls out.  Could not
> get it back on....out comes the dizzy a third time.  After that I got
> it all installed and it is good to go. 

The spring is easy to forget, and IIRC the early dists had springs 
that are held in a completely different, and not as reliable way.

Sounds like you're coming right along and getting things nicely 
sorted out. It'll be both beautiful AND reliable once you're done.

Don't forget a little heavy grease on the pilot needle bearing.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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