> the bus has developed this very strong shudder when letting out the clutch
> in reverse and first from a dead stop.  doesn't happen all the time, but
> almost all of the time, and much less when the bus is still
> moving a little.

The Vanagon clutch shudder has been covered on the list a number of times
and is certainly in the archives.  A small percentage of Vanagons seem to
develop this.  Some people have blamed the Sachs clutches, but others
(including myself) feel that the actual culprit is more likely to be worn
engine or trans mounts, or in some cases a flywheel that needs resurfacing.
I started carrying the Luk clutch kits in response to those who blamed the
Sachs kits for the shudder, and have to admit that I haven't had a report of
any shudder with Luk kits.  But I'm reluctant to draw any conclusions from
that because the sample size of installed Luk clutches is much smaller than
with Sachs kits.  In other words, given that the vast majority of Vanagons
have Sachs clutches, the odds state that any Vanagon that developed the
problem would probably have a Sachs clutch, even if there was no causal
relationship between the two. Check the archives; you'll see way too much
info (much of it conflicting) on the subject. :-)

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  http://www.busdepot.com
  (215) 234-VWVW