Finally got the car up to stockton on friday of years of waiting. I have to say, SUBARU MOTORS ROCK!!!!.

110 on the freeway and averaging 80 degrees. Did about 10l per 100km, maybe a bit less. Is that good milage?

Then on the dunes...
I'm talking 45 degree opposite lock power slides round the rim of a bowl in 2nd at about 60km/h! And still plenty of guts left! AWESOME!!!

Had clutch dramas though. Firstly the clutch wouldn't disengage properly, so I tightened the cable. Got to the stage where the clutch was beginning to slip at low revs in 4th. Gets worse. Now it makes a nasty clanging sound when I turn it over with the starter. It also seems to be vibrating some. It goes ok and I managed to drive it home to Sydney alright. I haven't pulled it a part yet, any ideas what it might be.

I have some nasty feelings is may be expensive. Might be time for that shortened sump and suspension lift at the same time...:onn[ Edited on 17-7-2005by pete wood ]nn[ Edited on 20-8-2005 by pete wood ]

I'm actually surprised the Signa (or sygna?) doesn't look much more corroded then when I was there 3 yrs ago.



IF your clutch started to not disengaged properly, and then started slipping, I would place my bet on the pressure plate dying or the bolts holding the pressure plate to the flywheel starting to come loose or something really strange like that.

Do you have something to stop sand getting into your flywheel area? Sand in the clutch plate could be another explanation. The sand would initially get in between and stop it disengaging properly, but would then quickly wear the clutch out and make it slip?

That's my guesses.

When I was at Stockton last I had my 1915 VW engine. I'd like to take the V6 there one day. The V6 on the beach is a lot of fun and will do 2nd gear powerslides all the way to redline (about 120kph). Great fun.

Initially I thought the clutch tube was floating round inside the tunnel, had this happen in a beetle before. But when we cut it open to have a look it was fine. There is no sand in the behousing either, as far as I can tell anyway. mmm, guess I'll have to pull it all apart then.

you must have taller gearing than me, I can only manage about 85 in 2nd. Still, it will fish tail in 3rd along the beach just fine. :Pnn[ Edited on17-7-2005 by pete wood ]

Peter pis the cable off and fit a hydraulic set up , cables give you the shits .
I go with Wes for the rest . seagull

could be loose fly-wheel bolts, wanna hope not!

Oh, well, it got home ok, and I didn't thrash it too much, so whatever is wrong, hopefully I can fix easily. I'd be real surprised if it's the flywheel bolts. I more expect the ringgear or flywheel to have fractured in some way. Still can't figure why though, I really don't drive that hard, and I thought sand was spose to be easy on drivelines with all the slippage and everything.

Sand is not easy on drive lines , its very grippy really ,on the the dirt is much more forgiving.

Sand is hard on drive lines.

It wouldn't be a fracture of the ring gear of flywheel. If either of those started to fracture then they'd explode at high rpm shortly after.

Could be your clutch forks or throw out bearing. Slipping could suggest issues with cluch fingures of the plate.

I doubt it will be anything real expensive. If she still drives well in gear and issue is only with clutch area I would be looking at expense items.

Did you use a good clutch kit ?

sachs german 217mm 2litre kombi clutch. Brand new. It's never slipped before.

yeah the 215mm one. But as I said, it's worked fine up til now.

The prblem happened like this. We got onto the beach and when I came off at the other end, I had problems disengaging the clutch properly. At this point I adjusted up the cable. This gave me enough to go for a hoon in the dunes, but after a while the clutch was quite smelly. Again, when we got off the beach, it wouldn't disengage properly again. So I tightened the cable again. This seemed to be ok, but again by the time we got off the beach the next time it was the same, not disengaging properly. Later that day we were due to drive home and I was keen to fix it. My mate had his work truck along with all his tools and oxy there so I thought we could have a good go. I thought the problem was the clutch tube coming loose inside the tunnel. I've had that problem with a bug before, so we cut a hatch next to the pedals and had a look inside, but it was all fine. By this stage is was also making a nasty mechanical clanging every time I started it. So I tightened up the cable again to the point where I could disengage the clutch, but it meant some slippage in 4th at lower speeds. So I drove it drove it home carefully and kept the revs up with light throttle so it wouldn't slip.

(Doesn't need heaps of throttle any way. It will accelerate up steepish hills in 4th at 100 with maybe a quarter throttle.) :thumbs

We got home fine. I haven't touche it since then.

You are goning to have to pull the motor.

I know :cry

It's gonna be a bitch too :cry

unfortunately, I've got two sermons and a 4000 word essay coming up in the next month, so it'll have to wait til after that.

Don't think its the flywheel loose, I can see up into where it joins the crank and it looks all solid.nn[ Edited on 20-7-2005 by pete wood ]

Do you reckon I could get to the pressure plate bolts by going in through the starter hole?

I figured I could turn the engine a few degrees and otrque each nut like that. Just a thought.

Nope.Have to pull the donk...unfortunately.Best having a looksy anyway in case the problem is elsewhere.

oh well, worth a try...

Starter motor came out last night. One of the mounting bolts was loose. As far as I can tell by looking through the hole in the belhousing, there's nothing wrong with the clutch bolts. So I guess the next suspect is the thrust bearing. And that means the motor is coming out.

Might be time to shorten the sump and drop the g/box a whole lot lower in between the chassis horns. Ah, the joys of modified vehicles...NOT!

Quote:

Originally posted by pete wood Ah, the joys of modified vehicles...NOT!

Or a Lada:puke

That's great, but anyway, back to Pete's clutch...

i bruck the hooks off the thrust bearing carrier/fork thing. leading up to the break, the clutch action was funny, incl jumping and shuddering, banging and stuff. i was concerned but it was a cheap & easy fix (with an aircooed motor -joke- :P).i dont know if this could be your prob tho.

dunno, I reckon it's got to do with the pressure plate, but you might be right. Anyway, I decided I'm just gonna fix the clutch and chuck it back together until december. Then it gonna get a complete work over the chassis, more clearance, or I'll dump it into the weeds, not sure yet.

Pulled the motor all out today. Clutch full of sand. The thrust bearing was just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy...and not chocolate milk,

Shoved in a 2nd handy thrust bearing and away we go. Oh well I'll know to block up any where sand can get in for next time. Damn my back hurts from lying on a concrete floor all day. Night night, I'm off to bed.:o