I second Marks comment on Clutch cross shafts..I regrind/resurface the stock
shafts during my trans rebuilds and if I ever see a gold colored one...I
toss it..The metal is way too soft and wears 6 times as fast as the factory
stuff...Newer is not always better..

----- Original Message -----
From: "mark drillock" <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:29 AM
Subject: sudden clutch failures

> The stock linkage parts inside the housing wear out but I have not seen
> one break suddenly. There are some poorly made aftermarket clutch cross
> shafts out there. These can and do fail inside the clutch housing, when
> a bad weld fails on one of the clutch release bearing support arms. I
> learned this on the hard way on a Syncro tranny after a month of it
> working fine. The inexpensive crappy replacements I have bought were
> gold colored and the welds looked shaky on close inspection. I would not
> use one again, though I still have some. If I was desperate I might try
> to add more weld and use one but I bought a few good quality ones to
> keep on hand.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> neil wrote:
>
>>..............
>>
>>Don't know how common it is for linkage to fail inside
>>clutch housing.
>>
>>Any takers on that one?
>>
>>Neil.
>>
>>
>