[T3] Clutch question

Fri Aug 29 17:24:55 PDT 2014

WTG Jim for getting Marigold straightened out and running correctly!

On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> Sarah has left the building. She headed out at ~6:30 am this morning
> (Friday) in the hope of getting together with a friend who will be
> back in Columbus, OH this weekend. It's about a 10 hour drive, plus
> she loses an hour due to a time zone change. Columbus is where Sarah
> grew up, and her parents still live there.
>
> We spent 3 rather intense days working on her car, Marigold, and we
> think we have all the engine and clutch problems ironed out. I
> figured this was the time to let you all know what we found and what
> we did.
>
> The clutch:
>
> In the process of taking out the pedal cluster, we found that the
> angled plate that's supposed to be under the pedals was missing, one
> of the bolts holding the cluster in place was only finger tight, The
> brake pedal return spring hadn't been installed, and the cluster
> itself was marked with the typical junkyard yellow paint pen as being
> from a from a '74 VW, probably a Beetle. It had the long throwout
> arm! We replaced that with a '71 Type 3 cluster that I had,
> transferred over Maragold's nice new pedal pads, connected the brake
> pedal return spring, adjusted the pedal stop plate, and put in a used
> angled floor plate.
>
> We pulled and inspected the clutch cable, but it was fine, so it got
> reinstalled with fresh grease.
>
> At the engine end, we kept the throwout bearing and spring center
> disk, and replaced the 3-arm diaphram PP (pressure plate) with a good
> used OE 311 Luk multi finger PP that I had.
>
> The clutch now works smoothly and softly. Sarah is amazed at the
> difference, and it really IS surprising how much that extra 1/4" of
> clutch arm length changes things. In the process of looking over this
> problem, I discovered that aircooled.net has replacement throwout
> arms for both early and late transmissions in several longer lengths.
> Made for people with stronger PPs, these might also be good for
> anyone who wanted an upgrade to a lighter clutch pedal.
>
> With the engine out, we pulled the flywheel just to check the main
> seal. It was the late, red version, was still plyable, and looked
> fine.
>
> Distributor:
>
> I pulled the distributor just so I could take it apart, clean it all
> up and make sure everything was working properly. When I got it
> apart, I could see that both anchor pins for the mech advance had
> been bent over flat, from someone installing a long screw where they
> shouldn't have. The mechanical advance was still working, sort of,
> but the calibration was completely lost, so we replaced that
> distributor with a correct '71 MT distributor from my stash.
>
> Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and put the drive dog on that
> distributor backwards, so this gave us fits and cost us an hour and a
> half later when we tried to set the valves. Eventually I discovered
> my mistake and that got fixed, too.
>
> Thermostat:
>
> The thermostat was missing, but the linkage was there, but bent. So
> we removed the RHS tin and removed the linkage to straighten it.
> Since that was off, we removed the rocker assy on that side so we
> could go thru the entire head torque sequence on that side. With the
> rockers out of the way, out of idle curiosity I pulled out each of
> the pushrods to inspect them and found a shiny wide wear bar on the
> #2 intake pushrod. So I felt up under the cylinders and found a large
> dent in that pushrod tube, right next to where some gorilla had long
> ago removed the thermostat and bent the linkage.
>
> We had previously noted that the RH underside had a LOT of oil on it.
> The dent was in a place I couldn't see, so I probed that dent with a
> pin until I found a hole.... So we removed that head, cleaned off all
> 4 pushrod tubes, replaced one, and reinstalled the head.
>
> In the process of removing the thermostat, someone had bent the
> linkage rod and dented the pushrod tube. This eventually caused a
> rather large oil leak. Fixing that will save Sarah quite a bit of
> grief and oil.
>
> We installed a good used thermostat and adjusted the linkage. I
> should have sawed a screwdriver slot in the end of the flap rod, but
> didn't think of it in the heat of the struggle.
>
> There was no sign of mouse nest on top of the RH cylinders. That area
> was quite clean. We also removed the spark plug cover plate on the LH
> side and felt around there as much as possible and found nothing.
>
> Fan housing:
>
> While the engine was out, I figured it might be prudent to check
> those pesky fan housing screws that always seem to back out at the
> worst possible times. We removed the pulley, pulley cover, rear fan
> housing half, and fan. We found 2 holes in the front fan housing
> half, where someone had tried to use long bolts as jackscrews to
> remove the pulley, but they were rather small and we just left that
> as is.
>
> Then we checked those 2 screws (you know the ones.) The right one
> spun with no effort, but the left one seemed tight. I tried to loosen
> and retighten the left one. It broke free and then spun freely. It
> had been epoxied in place.
>
> Leaving the front fan housing half in place (because removing it
> would have required taking the thermostat linkage all apart again) I
> drilled and tapped the case for 15 mm long, M6 LOCKING Heli-coil
> inserts. Then I installed some long M6 screws. The screws were a bit
> too long, but we added washers under the heads in order to get as
> much thread engagment as possible. The bottom washer was a
> Belleville, which fit perfectly in the recess there. This should be a
> real and permanent fix.
>
> I could see that the oil return thread on the fan hub had been
> rubbing on the fan housing, so, before putting everything back
> together, we loosened all the attaching screws, and I used my
> alignment pilot to center the hole in the fan housing with the crank
> bore in the case. After doing this, the fan seemed more eager to go
> back into place.
>
> There were lots of other little things we did, but the only other one
> worth mentioning was the replacement of the rubber bellows that
> connects the dipstick tube to the filler pipe on the engine.
> Marigold's was "crunchy" and cracked down at the engine end. I think
> it had been too close to the aftermarket exhaust pipe from the #2
> cylinder, so it got baked.  The tubes didn't quite line up correctly
> anyway, so I was able to bend the filler pipe to line up better with
> the car body and also be farther from the exhaust pipe.
>
> Replacing that rubber connecting bellows cured another oil leak.
>
> After putting the engine back in the car, we set the valves, dwell,
> and timing. Sarah found that all 4 valve adjusters for #3 & 4 were
> backed all the way out, so I added .032" shims under the LH rocker
> stands to restore the valve geometry and allow decent valve
> adjustment. Since this was true for all 4 valves, the seats in that
> head must have been cut down extra deep.
>
> After pressing Marigolds fuel pump primer switch for a minute or so,
> the engine started right up, but the idle speed was way too high.
> Oddly, the engine did not lope as it should when the idle skyrockets,
> so the TVS was out of adjustment, which seemed odd, since I thought
> we had checked all those things at the Invasion. I adjusted it and
> got the idle speed to lope correctly. Then we had to find out why the
> idle speed was so high.
>
> Finally it became clear that the AAR was misadjusted so badly that it
> was wide open even when warm. We pulled it out and adjusted it down,
> and the idle was back to normal.
>
> With that fixed, there was still a sort of intermittent background
> "growling" noise that we couldn't find. Using a screwdrive to listen
> around the engine, it seemed to be coming from the generator, and
> with the generator removed, it seemed like the noise was gone, so I
> took the generator apart. The bearings were bad, especially the one
> near the pulley, so I replaced both of them.
>
> With the generator back in place, the noise was still there, but
> seemed reduced, but the belt seemed really slack and I thought I
> could see the belt shake in time with the "growling" noise, so we
> moved 1 shim from inside to outside and tried again. This reduced the
> belt slapping and maybe some noise, but we could still hear, or even
> better, feel that sound. That sound remains a mystery. I called Dave
> Pallo to get a description of the sound his failing fan made, and
> that was completely different, so I don't think the fan is the
> source. It may be some loose tin on the underside of the engine. I
> don't think
> it's internal, because I don't hear it when using a long screwdriver
> against
> anywhere on the engine case.
>
> Whew, that was a LOT of work! But also a lot of progress. We did 3
> hard days of
> work on Marigold and I'm pretty sure Sarah is as tired as I am, but
> Marigold is
> in much better shape now.
>
> So Sarah and Marigold are on their way back to Ohio.  We wish them
> both a safe and uneventful trip home. We look forward to seeing both
> of them at the next Invasion and hope Sarah will visit us again
> someday, hopefully for less work and more play. Sarah was good to
> work with, and Melissa and I both enjoyed having her stay with us.
>
> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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