Club 80-90 Forums

Lost gears today. (clutch goes down with very little pressure) but cant engage gears, just the grinding noise when you try to engage them.
No fluid loss from under the speed.
AA man said the slave cylinder is OK and its something to do with the gearbox (he did seem to know what he is talking about)
AA man took it to my local garage (not a VW specialist, but they have fixed them in the past)

So any ideas what could be the problem?


Thanks in advance

eatcustard wrote: (clutch goes down with very little pressure) but cant engage gears, just the grinding noise when you try to engage them.
No fluid loss from under the speed.

No clutch pedal pressure, no hydraulic loss...broken clutch release arm? Seems most likely and they'll have to pull the trans off anyway. Chin up, could be worse.

Yes it will be a gearbox out.

but will it need to be reconditioned or just something silly, like a bearing

not gearbox it's clutch related, the clutch fork repair can be done without dissembling the gearbox but is a whole lot easier if you remove the bellhousing from the gearbox and do it on the bench then refit, new gasket if required £3, new oil seal from Baxter similar money, strip and replace fork with angle grinder, 2 hours, parts new genuine from classic parts, or cheap crap from JK job time = 4 hours work making the stupid f fit, be warned

Thanks for that

will pass this onto garage

Before you drop the gearbox, it's worth checking out the slave cylinder thoroughly. I had the same symptoms a couple of years ago, and it turned out to be fluid loss into the rubber gaiter which was acting as a reservoir, then squirting it back past the seal when the clutch pedal was raised. No fluid loss at all. Stranger than fiction, but a very cheap cure. You could try driving the van without the clutch to check out the gearbox. Put it in first gear then start the engine........off you go. Get the revs right and you can check out all the gears very gently without using the clutch. I drove 300 miles like this when my slave cyl went.

colinthefox wrote:Before you drop the gearbox, it's worth checking out the slave cylinder thoroughly. I had the same symptoms a couple of years ago, and it turned out to be fluid loss into the rubber gaiter which was acting as a reservoir, then squirting it back past the seal when the clutch pedal was raised. No fluid loss at all. Stranger than fiction, but a very cheap cure. You could try driving the van without the clutch to check out the gearbox. Put it in first gear then start the engine........off you go. Get the revs right and you can check out all the gears very gently without using the clutch. I drove 300 miles like this when my slave cyl went.

Its in the garage as we speak and I cant engage any gear.

may even be the thrust bearing, but it was all replaced last year

It's the light clutch pedal that's the giveaway. A failed release bearing will still push the clutch diaphragm, but will be noisy (whirr!growl!) A part broken fork means offset push (no disengagement), hydraulic leak/seal failure or total fork failure or broken release arm means no push at all.

The Clutch Operating Shaft had broken.
new one to be fitted