I have a few questions about the repair and maintaining of my 914. I got my car about three weeks ago and have it stored now about 2 hours from where I am. It took almost a year and a half to seal the deal so finally "having" it but not really having it here is driving me nuts! Here's my couple of questions, I know I'll have more, especially once I actually "have" the car.

Question #1. What's the logic behind replacing the flywheel when doing a clutch? I did auto repair for 20 years as a profession,(mostly Volvo, but some others as well), and all we ever did was resurface flywheels when we did clutch jobs. Unless of course the ring gear was toast. I read the Clymer manual, (Yeah I know Clymer and Haynes manuals are best used as toilet paper but the manual came with the car so I was perusing it one night), and the Clymer manual suggests inspecting and resurfacing the flywheel as needed. (I would always consider it "needed" when doing a clutch BTW).

Question #2 What's your prefered product for preserving an un-cracked dash pad? Long ago I heard armor all would eventually dry out dash pads. I usually use vynil-x on that sort of thing but was curious what you guys prefer. Back in the 80's I heard vasaline worked well and I did use it on my Mom's vw cabriolet way back then. It seemed to work well but made everything kinda sticky and "gummy". If you guys don't have a good suggestion I'll probably stick with Vynil-x.

Thanks in advance, Bub

About the dash...

I used black shoe polish, it is basically a wax and I worked it into the dash and brushed it into the edges. I thought it worked the nuts......



John

Vaseline and modern shoe polish are petroleum products and will break down the plastic, the same as Armor-All.

I rub glycerin on everything. There might be better options but it does work alright.

The dash is vinyl, anything conditioner you put on it sits on top because it can't absorb anything [ except something like lacquer thinner] . . things like the old days Armorall make it look OK but they evaporate off a cause a hazy fog on the inside of the glass windshield. . others stay oily and don't dry. . . best bet is to clean and leave it as is. . In these days of no more oe dash covers, I'd suggest a Dash Topper{ cloth carpet stuff} to protect it from the UV light and direct sunlight heat. . sooner or later, they will all crack if you don't. . .

Flywheels, you got it right. . resurface as needed but each time you do, the clutch pack sits a little lower and the throwout arm ball geometry changes until the arm can't pull the release bearing enough without hitting the trans case. . time then to shim the throwout arm ball. .

Flywheel is different from the rest.
The pressure plate sits on a step above the friction surface.
It's critical to keep that relationship the same.
Each time you resurface the flywheel, you need to also resurface that step...so the measurement is the same...or the pressure plate won't work, and you will wear out the clutch quickly.

Then , as stated above, you have to shim the arm that moves the throw out bearing to match what you just cut off the flywheel...so that relationship stays the same.

With a new flywheel, you need to remove the shims under the arm....and the process starts all over again.the Haynes manual has a diagram showing the flywheel in section with all the tolerances you need to maintain.


As far as replacing it every time you do a clutch....hogwash.