[T3] Clutch Plate update...

[J. Jonik]

Yesterday, car was stuck in reverse gear.  Engine off or on, couldn't change gears...with or without clutch pedal pushed down.


Today, hoping to find a way to push the car forward to leave ample room for parked car behind, I turned the engine with big screwdriver.  It moved both directions.  Then I rocked the car...with gear still in reverse.   Magic...the shifter now moved...with engine off.  Putting it in neutral, I pushed the car up two feet or so. Probably could have also pushed it with gear in reverse.  

Status now is...can't shift when engine running...that's with clutch pedal in or out, no difference.

* No, didn't grease anything before assembly.
* Clutch cable seems like it could use about 3/4 inch snugging up. The adjust wing-nut end should be just touching the lever, but not enough to put tension on the cable, right?
* If I push the pedal way down, there's a clunk noise.  What's that?  Clue to something?


On 29 Oct 2017 at 3:22, J. Jonik wrote:


> Add to the previous Clutch Plate Problem post..About 3 hours after

> finding that the gears could only be changed when car wasn't running,

> with nothing done in the in those 3 hours, the gears now won't change

> either engine off or engine running. It's stuck in reverse

> gear...engine off or engine on.  Can't even get it to neutral.

> This must be a clue to something. 


My impression at first was that your clutch isn't releasing. This could be 

caused by several things: The pressure plate didn't get bolted all the way 

down, the clutch disk is in backwards or it's the wrong one, the pilot bearing 

is seized (Did you grease it?) the cable is out of adjustment, or some 

combination of those.


If it won't shift now with the engine off, my guess is that the drive train has 

stopped with some torque caught in it. Try turning the engine backwards 

very slightly, or lift one tire and rotate it back and forth a bit to see if that 

relieves the "captured" torque and lets you shift again. Or just release the 

parking brake and let the car roll backwards (because it's caught in reverse) 

a bit.


If that does't work, the only other thing I can think of is that the shift forks and 

"hockey stick" in the nose cone of the tranny have gotten "confused" and out 

of position. There's a mechanism that's supposed to make this impossible, 

and I don't know if this can wear to the point where the impossible becomes 

possible. This would be unfortunate, because it means taking the tranny and 

engine out to fix it.


*******************************

Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org