Clutch Tube Repair-Meatball style, Daily driver needs a CT fix w/o welding Options

[wgwhitney2]

Help!
I had thought the clutch cable had gone when the pedal went to the floor board, but nooooo. Upon inspection, the weld on the rear of the clutch tube has let go! This is on my 1973 1.7L with 252,000 miles on her. I have read the two articles in the Lapuwali classic thread, and those levels of repair are just too involved for me at this time.

Anyone have a successful recipe to get the system working smoothly, if not correctly repaired? The car is in what I call a "ready to be restored" state. I have to drive it now as transport, so taking it off the road for an extended time is not an option. Removing gas tanks, dropping engines, blowing out fuel lines...nope.

I think the front and middle welds may be ok. The whole tube now flexes (rather than free floats) when I put the clutch pedal in, rubbing up against the shifter linkage.

What is this "u-bolt" repair method mentioned in the Classics thread? What type of u-bolt, and where and how are they installed? Would rigging up some fender washer+spacer tube+JBweld monstrosity to take the pressure off the rear tube work? I'm thinking transferring the pressure onto the firewall, and totally off the tube body like it is now.

So, hold your nose and suggest an ugly, but effective, fix I can do on my back, on the garage floor, in the cold, with oil and grease everywhere. I promise I will fix it right when I restore my baby to show room glory some of these days.

Bill

[Tom_T]

Back in the late 70's when mine was a DD, my mechanic did the front & rear tube fixes as an on-the-fly repair without welding, which held up for about 50k mi. of not too gentle DD use.

IIRC this failure was so common on both 914s & 911s/912s, that the screw-in rear wall clutch tube repair plate below was sold by Porsche for the fix, so somebody may have access to one/some on here, or there may be a similar piece available at hardware suppliers (see 1st pic below). The screw-tie in the front of the tube is common & easy to get, just be careful when cutting the slots in the tunnel.

Similarly to you, I will be doing a proper welded repair on it in my strip-to-shell resto that I'm doing now, but this should get you by for now - then go to McMark in Napa for a proper welded rear wall & front/middle tube reinforcements etc. when you are more "bucks-up".

This should keep you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) until then! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Rear Wall Clutch Tube Repair/Reinforcement Plate -


Screw-clamp Hose Tie to Repair Clutch Tube Front -

BTW - this should work better & cleaner than the aircraft wire method above, due to the wider/flat surface to hold the front of the tube, but will require accessing the inside of the tunnel with a ratcheting 90-degree screwdriver & probably skinned knuckles, unless you don't mind the screw-clamp being outside the tunnel at your feet (carpet would hide it) as a temp fix. Note that you'll have to have the slots you cut for the tie to be rewelded shut by McMark as an extra step not required if he just did the reweld fix from the start.

Hope this helps!
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