On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, ed maikranz wrote:

> The clutch in my 81 aircooled vanagon is growling at
> me.  After just a few shifts it starts to act up.
> mostly when taking off from a stop in 1st I get a
> growling/groaning noise as I come off the clutch. from
> time to time i get a slight noise shiftint to second
> also.  Today when  I came to a stop with my foot on
> the clutch it felt like it was trying to grab as well.
> Is it time for a new clutch, or is there possibly a
> hydraulic issue to be addressed?

Sounds like your pilot bearing is going bad.  Eventually it'll start to
growl all the time when the clutch is down and the transmission is in
gear.  Then it'll start to grab a bit and make you grind going into
reverse.  Then one day it'll seize up and you won't have a clutch anymore.
BTDT.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
 / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------------------
| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
 \__, |\__,_|_|_| "The VW camper is a brilliant invention -- it's like a
 |___/             Swiss army knife for the road... It's the stealth RV."
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