my thoughts are that it's not likely to be the clutch master cylinder
itself...
but the clutch pedal and the clevis pin ..
something to do with the pushrod etc.

I have never done it , but I have read that it's possible to cut an access
hole in the front of the van behind the left headlight to get easy access to
that mechanism.

just looked at a shell of a vanagon ....'maybe' that could be useful.

here's an idea ...besides take things all apart...
if there is some extra free-play on top of the pedal travel.....try
adjusting some out,
and even that is a pain of course.
and you spray lubed up in there as best you can ?
can't hurt.

I always lube the ends of pushrod that go against hydraulic cylinder pistons
..like at the clutch MC and the slave too. ...
never have seen that mentioned anywhere, but I think *any* metal-to-metal
dry contact is a very bad thing.
< and , speaking of that ....everyone has heard 'not too much oil or grease'
on something right ? ...I sure have.  Like 'too much' lube on any point is
bad...but I disagree on that ..
thinking about this the other day .....grease does evaporate.  Why should it
not ? It might take 10 years, even more, but a dap of grease on one little
spot like the clevis pin there at the factory in 1982 or whatever...sure is
not going to last 25+ years .....same on CV joints ..the spec amount is not
enough after say 7 years. .  I commonly find things that were lubed, dry.  I
put pretty generous amounts of good grease on and in things, and most of the
time extra grease doesn't hurt, within reason. >

anyway ....
if you lubed the upper end of the push rod decently with a good grease. ...
my vote goes toward the clevis pin and hole....and clevis itself.  I always
thought they were just loose and funky anyway. like a much more cheaply
produced part than the entire rest of vanagons, which are really well made
vehicles overall.  Unusually so even.

it's the single hardest adjustment anywhere in a vanagon . - clutch master
cylinder push rod length adjustment.  And it's trial and error too , adjust,
put together, see what  ya got, etc. A real bother sometimes. .

Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "neil n" <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 6:39 PM
Subject: Clutch Pedal Click

> Hi all.
>
> Pedal cluster rebuilt, clevis hole repaired http://tinyurl.com/2uw8qax
> and new clutch MC installed ~ 4 years ago. Low miles since then. All
> has worked fine and still does but....
>
> After pedal free play, I hear and feel an intermittent "click" or
> light "clunk" in first 1/2" of clutch pedal travel. This noise seemed
> to suddenly appear. If I stuff my hand up into the rear of cluster and
> move the clutch MC pushrod L/R several times, the click goes away.
>
> I imagine this is highly unlikely, but could the noise be coming from
> the push rod where it pushes on the MC plunger or from the MC itself?
>
> It's possible my pedal repair has failed. The archives suggest that a
> click can be due to an ovaled hole. But there isn't any appreciable
> play in pedal compared to a spare 1985 cluster. (which is in good
> shape)
>
> Just trying to narrow down to what the most likely cause of the noise is.
>
> TIA,
>
> Neil.
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines