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New clutch and tranny. When I did my conversion two years ago I had trouble getting the tranny and engine to slip together. It would almost go but not quite enough to get the 17mm nuts started on the studs. I wrestled with it for quite a while, turning the pilot shaft and wiggling the tranny up, down and sideways. Finally, out of frustration, I pulled the engine and tranny together with a pair of come-a-longs and bolted it up!! I e-mailed Hobert at KEP about what I had done and he chewed me out. "Never force an engine!!". Well, too late. I already did and I drove happily for 28,000 miles! Last month the clutch pedal was getting more stiff and I was experiencing clutch chatter for the first time. Within a week it was getting worse and then one morning when I went to back up I got a bad grinding sound! STOP! I pulled the tranny out of my Vanagon and discovered that the pilot bearing had gone to hell! With the pilot bearing shot the pilot shaft was allowed "free play" and so the throw-out bearing was allowed to engage the pressure plate fingers off center and then proceeding to eat up the fingers and chew up the throw out bearing! Also, where the pilot bearing HAD been, the pilot shaft surface was galled! My guess is that "forcing" the engine and tranny together had damaged the pilot bearing but it took quite a while for the results to come home to roost! Since the pilot shaft was galled and since the tranny had been noisy since the day I bought the Vanagon; and getting louder... I decided to bite the bullet and ordered a rebuilt tranny from Transaxle Engineering and a new clutch kit and pilot shaft bearing from KEP. Last Friday I installed everything and this time, with the help of a more patient mechanic, we got the tranny and engine to mate smoothly and successfully after only about ten minutes of trying. That satisfying sound of "slip...clunk" was wonderful!! I expect trouble free motoring for a long time now. Note: Putting the tranny in gear and turning both axle stubs in the same direction while pushing on the tranny will rotate the pilot shaft and help mate the tranny to the engine. We did this instead of trying to turn the crank shaft pully bolt on the front of the engine. |