On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, Leon Korkin wrote:

> Looking under saw oil covering everything. Thinking it was engine oil
> added some oil and kept driving. There was also occasional loud grinding
> noise from trans but only after long drives and never cold. Assumed it was throwout bearing.
> Came back home and after removing trans and flywheel found all of the pilot
> bearing missing except outside shell. Input shaft had some grainy finish curtesy of
> ground pilot bearing parts.

My pilot bearing story involves the '75 Westy I owned in college.  I'd
noticed grinding noises with the clutch in and occasional inability to
disengage but didn't have anywhere to work on it at the time.  Eventually
it seized completely and I drove it clutchless to a shop. No VW shops in
the area, naturally.  The shop fixed the pilot bearing but didn't replace
the clutch disc like I instructed, which ticked me off plenty.  They also
damaged the main crank seal, so I had to take it back again to get that
fixed.  During that repair they managed to butcher the FI system while
pulling the engine and it was never quite right again.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
 / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------------------
| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
 \__, |\__,_|_|_| "To the optimist, the glass is half full.  To the
 |___/             pessimist, the glass is half empty.  To the engineer,
                   the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."