Hi,
I have no gears in my '74 2.0l... so i pulled the tranny and removed the clutch. Clutch plate seems o.k. Pressure plate o.k. Throw out bearing o.k. And flywheel o.k. Pilot bearing toast... but shouldn't that mean i am locked in gear? Any advise would be appreciated.
Since it's out now and only o.k. i figure might as well do it all, any recommendatios for shopping pelican parts/AA ? .... Canada is ridiculous so far.. i could buy a new car Thanks
Ryan

are you locked in gear or not??

it is not hard to manipulate the shift mechanism on the side of the transmission, it goes in/out 3 spots, turns right/left 6 spots (from neutral)

you should be able to turn the input shaft and look at what the hub is doing (might have to hold or lock on side in place)

No i'm not locked in any gear, grinds in only. As for checking right now... dark and late long evening of wrenching... i'm done... tomorrow.. thanks for the reply.... parts? any ideas. thanks again

grinds only?? hmmm, have you checked your clutch cable tube? they have a tendancy of breaking away from the tunnel both near the shifter as well as at the firewall. was the cable adjusted correctly?

Checked , and adjusted ... fork threw fine while it was all still toghether...? i dunno either

Check the cup, or clutch fork pivot ball bushing. Sounds as if it's had it. You should only have about 1/2" of play on the clutch fork, with your clutch cable removed. Any more, and your clutch will not disengage, so, of course you've got no gears. Check to make sure your clutch fork is flat, they do bend. Also check the clutch fork retaining fork, they crack. If you find they're OK, and you replace the bushing, but, still have more than 1/2" of play, you need to shim the pivot ball with some small washers to bring it within range. I just finished doing a COMPLETE clutch job, and first gear synchro. I hope this is helpfull. If you decide to do a complete clutch job it'll run you a little less than $500U.S., including flywheel resurfacing and balancing, and the new pressure plate balancing. I know where you can get the best price on some of the major parts that are way overpriced at Pelican and AA.

Cheers to you. It seems the fork is straight and all is well with the ball and bushing. i suppose i could put it all back together with a new pilot bearing and see but if i can find a decent price on everything WTH might as well replace it. Funny, my 1st synchro is on it's way too!

I purchased the throwout bearing and pressure plate from Performance Products for about $200. If you get on their email list they'll let you know when they're having a sale. For about one week every four months you can save another 10 or 20%. You can usually find a six spring pressure plate for about $80 on Ebay. Perfomance will meet or beat Pelicans prices, Pelican WON'T. So go down Pelicans list and pick up whatever Performance stocks. Then get the rest from Pelican. Definitely replace your rear main seal, and your main shaft seal. It's just too cheap not to do it while you're in there. The shaft seal is a bitch, but I know a good way to remove it. Send your flywheel and new pressure plate to Rimco in Santa Ana, CA. About $70 plus shipping for resurfacing flywheel, and balancing both flywheel and pressure plate, they do good work. 1st gear synchro is a bitch, the retaining circlip is a real pain, if it's grinding you probably need more than just a synchro (slider $450, dogteeth $125) hopefully your slider is OK. Mine was just stiff, so I just replaced the synchro. Afterwards I found out you can just flip the old one over. Let me know if you need any advise, glad to help.

Thanks alot, going to look at performance... but shipping my flywheel in and out of the usa get expensive... with ebay the border has become confusing and expensive. silly silly humans.
ryan

Dumb new guy here, but couldn't a toasted pilot bearing offer enough drag to keep the gears spinning?

What did you mean by "toast"? And what does the end of the input shaft look like? The part that mates into the pilot bearing. I mean penetrates the pilot bearing. I mean.... never mind.

Jim

I don't know how easy it would be for you to get your flywheel over the border for shipping, but, the US postal service has something called "one rate any weight". I had a motor for my gas clothes dryer shipped to me across the country for $10. It weighs about the same as a flywheel. You could also enquire with Performance Products as to wether they would ship the pressure plate directly to Rimco, rather than shipping it to Canada, and then having it come right back down here. Most machine shops can resurface a flywheel, but, they usually have to send it out for balancing. It should be balanced with the new pressure plate. Rimco specializes in Porsche 6 and Type IV engines and have an excellent reputation for quality work. People ship them work from all over the country, because they do it right. I wasn't able to find another shop that could do the whole job in-house. If you know of a machine shop that specializes in Bug work they should be able to do it. If you do an internet search for 914 clutch disc, you should be able to find a retailer that has the six spring disc for about the same price as those on Ebay. $80 is a lot better than paying Pelican $193.50 or Performance $144.95 for the same damn disc. Stick with Sachs products, though.

YES.

Depending on how bad it is toasted (the input shaft pilot bearing), it can and will keep the input shaft spinning even with the clutch in.

How mangled was it?


B

How bad? There was no bearing left, just little pieces of steel. If it's just the bearing i' save the $ on a complete clutch... thanks again!

Hey, if you can't find anything else visibly wrong with the other components, replace the rear seal, (it may have been damaged by heat). Get yourself a new pilot bearing , a new felt washer, a new crush washer, some new flywheel bolts, and slap it back together. Cheap fix.