hwyengr

The engine is coming out. Slowly. Luckily all 6 exhaust flange bolts came out without breaking, but at the cost of a trip to Urgent Care from PB Blaster dripping directly in my eye (I'm fine. Abundance of caution, and all that...). Wear goggles everyone!

I'm following the WSM to the letter, but hit a bit of a gray area. The 32V removal details the steps for an auto, with the note "The clutch must be removed completely for vehicles from Model 87 onwards."

Does that mean that I can leave the clutch pack attached to my '85? I cross checked the 16V process, which leaves the clutch but removes the starter (which isn't in the 32V sequence). Which steps are valid for the S3 5spd?

This 1 manual for 18 years of production gets a little tiresome from time to time...

Ducman82

You could leave it, but while you are down there, might as well take it off..... Les chance of banging it out the way out I suppose

SeanR

Take it out, much easier to remove and reinstall with it out of the way.

hwyengr

I hear ya all, but I don't know if this clutch has ever been opened. If it has, the last mechanic did a beautiful job aligning the intermediate plate, everything works perfectly.

I'm starting to get noise from the TO bearing, so it's due for a service, but I was hoping for one last run after the engine refresh before opening that box, if possible.

Rob Edwards

Steal a bottle of nail polish and draw a big pink line across the edge of the pressure plate onto the flywheel, so it goes back together the way it came apart.

I don't see why you'd want to pull the motor with the clutch still in place. The release arm hangs on a ball attached to the bellhousing, so the bellhousing would have to come along with the engine. Which is a _really_ big PITA to get the bellhousing detached from the TT with the clutch still in place. And even if you can do that, you'd still need to get the engine and bellhousing off the motor mount 'hats', which is a PITA in itself. Then you have 600 lbs of engine, clutch, and bellhousing hanging on a cherry picker, then what? The bellhousing would then come off, nothing like loosening M12 bolts that have been in place for 30 years, from a motor dangling in the breeze....

GregBBRD

Seems a bit strange for someone brave enough to pull the engine, but to be afraid of the clutch....

Take the clutch out, remove the bell housing bolts to the engine, leave the bell housing attached to the torque tube, remove the transmission mount bolts, and slide the entire transmission back an inch....this will allow you to lift the engine free of the motor mounts.

Fix the clutch while you are this far apart....now is the time!

hwyengr

Not necessarily afraid of it, just trying to take one bite at a time. I was planning on pulling them apart, but after seeing the note, just thought I might be able to defer the next project until later.

mark kibort

its easy... dont be afraid of it....in fact, its one of the easiest clutches to replace!
the only problem i ever have is getting that darn lever on the ball for the clutch .I always seem to forget to put that in position before i bolt everything down. I remember one week i did the clutch job 5 times before i gave in to realizing that throwout bearing and retaining clip was toast . I got pretty fast at it by the end of the week. about an hour.

GlenL

Remove the clutch and check it out. I like the nail polish trick but it should (with stepped pin) go together only one way.

Something I've done is to unbolt the clutch from the flywheel and then leave it in the belhousing while pulling the engine. A bit tougher to get the engine out/in but then I avoid lifting the clutch with one hand, on my back, while fiddling with it with the other hand. I like Greg's tip about pushing the tranny and bellhousing back a bit. That'd combine with not dropping the clutch well.

mark kibort

I usually use a fat magic marker and mark several spots. that way when lifting, you are putting it in the same spot. ive never had to push the trannie back...seems there is plenty of room to work and get stuff in and out.