Hi folks,
When I was driving to work on Tuesday I felt my clutch pedal slip a bit, the feeling like the clutch cable has broken a couple of wires and is stretching. I was able to drive the rest of the way to work and back home again in the afternoon, but the clutch barely worked.
Anyway, I went to install the new cable last night, but when I removed the old one, it was completely fine, no signs of wear whatsoever!!
I believe the problem is with the clutch release bearing, which will require me to remove the engine to fix.
Has anyone else had this problem?

i was having shudder & stuff for a while then the peadl went to the floor and no action. took it apart and the hooks had snapped off of the thrust bearing actuating fork...

put it all back togather with new fork, cable, bowden tube, thrust bearing, clips, presure and other plate. all new and now excellent. cheap too.

Yes something has gone wrong with Your clutch...
Maybe the bearing or arm...

its common for the throwout bearing to come off the clips that held it on....
the bearing can be forced to twist round - knocking the clips off ...

the later idea where the throwout bearing fits onto a sleeve..
so it can't move off centre... is a good modification....
Has anyone done it??

Shame it wasn't the cable.....

Lee
http://community.webshots.com/user/vw68autobug 

yeh, it maybe the clutch actuating fork arms - it happened to me once.. same symptoms.. Turns out, I had a later diaphram style pressure plate and it was too 'heavy duty' for the original fork to handle, so it snapped! ..had to drive back from chadstone without a clutch! fun fun fun!

Another point worth checking is that the release arm splines have not slogged out and the arm has slipped around a spline.
L8tr
E

Thanks ppl.

I am in the process of removing the engine. Kadrons proved to be challenging to get off, due to confined space. Should be pretty straight forward now.

Will let you know what happens.
Cheers :beer:

ok dropped the engine.
the release bearing is fine!
one of the clips is a bit loose, but only a little rattly.
i believe i have found the problem though.
the release bearing is off centre, meaning that it would not push centrally on the pressure plate.
the circlip on the release arm has slid towards the right, out of its little groove.
i pushed it back into its groove and everything was lined up nicely again, but as soon as i push on the clutch a few times it moves out again.
i think i need a new circlip! what a biatch!

yes dude replace the clip as a matter of course.

Also, a hint on circlip installation, which is very often overlooked, is that there is a specific way that circlips must be positioned in their grooves.

If you look closely at the circlip, you will see that the circlip is actually stamped out of a bit of sheet (unless it is a much less common double sided circlip).
So, one side of the circlip will be smoother and quite rounded off and the other side will be very sharp, square and defined.

This sharp side is the side of the circlip that must bear end loadings.

If the circlip is installed the other way with the rounded, smooth side bearing loads, the circlip can be forced up and out of its groove.

A small installation point that is very often the cause of joining link failures on motorcycle chains.

L8tr
E

thats good advice Tass! :beer

thanks
i will be onto it tomorrow! factory work has been getting in the way

hey man, I think I have a circlip that'll fit! call me!

i ended up going to vp and getting the complete bushing kit, comes with circlips etc...
needed to take out the old bush to get the release arm out, mashed it up in the process because it was very tightly fitted, new one slotted in nicely.
i put a bit of wire connecting the two ends of the circlip together on the new circlip where the problem was, because the new one seemed to be almost as loose as the old one once i had slipped it down the shaft to its groove.
i need to lure some extra hands around to mine so i can put the engine back in :beer

i knew i should have listened to the person who said it was probably the clutch itself!
put the engine back in, still has the problem, release arm is ok now though! heeh
has come at a bad time too, because i am selling the green bug so i can buy a 4x4, will still have the black bug though!

Bummer............:puke