Someone mentioned a company in/near Warwick who'd shortened a Beetle clutch cable to Buggy length, does anyone know who the company are? Been busy with moving my Mum from wales to by us last few weeks but hoping to make a start on sorting the buggy now, and I'll need a new clutch cable even if that's not the main cause.

That's a lovely roof and a lovely buggy too.

Thanks. I suspect previous owner sold them before he had the engine swap done looking at timings.

Quote from: AndyRobinson on October 07, 2017, 10:54:29 AM
Welcome to the Site!


And currently have exactly the same issue too! Cold, its OK, starts to get warm even after a very short trip and all gears very hard to select, finally manage to force it into gear. once in gear its running fine, when moving, it can change gears OK'ish if you match speeds etc.

Hi, This sounds worryingly familiar 

This sounds like it could be the problem - http://www.superbeetles.com/Tech_talk/may2.htm

Quote from: Merscury on October 07, 2017, 10:15:25 AM
Hi, Welcome to the forum and buggy ownership, really nice looking buggy, here is another photo of it taken some time ago when it did have a rear cage and tow bar mount fitted.

Thanks, any idea when that picture was taken? Curious to see it's lost the cage, no idea what you mount a towbar to on the chassis?

Quote from: farmer rob on October 06, 2017, 09:39:48 PM
The clutch cables are a bit of a pain to replace. And those Empi shortening kits  cut into the cable as you have found out. looking at your photo, your return spring has broken as well. With your tuned up engine, I would imagine that they had to put an uprated clutch pressure plate in there to stop the clutch from slipping. So it will need a good clutch cable making up

Rob

Thanks, the photos's not mine, but I realised mine's got the same Empi shortener and has started breaking up (i've got a nice hole in my finger where a broken piece of wire went right in). Will see if I can get a cable made up - anyone know what the length needs to be (12 in shorter due to chassis chop?)

Thanks, in Olney, between MK and Northampton.

A friend took this picture 15 minutes before we ground to a halt, and he ended up towing me home 

I'm learning fast!

Looks like my clutch cable has the Empi shortener on it, causing exactly the problem this image from another thread shows.

[img]http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1243068.jpg/img]

So, second question, if it is the cable, what's the best solution? New cable and loop?

Hi, After 30 yrs, and great plans to build myself a Buggy, I've finally succumbed to the fact that time is against me and bought one instead.

As you will see from my post in the engine section (actually a clutch/gearbox issue), its second trip out ended in failure but hopefully that will be resolved with a few spanners.

My buggy is a SWB GT so seems to be fairly rare, the builder added a few "extra" bits in the form of a fully opening bonnet with catches and a small boot area nicely fibreglassed in, plus what seems to be a unique dashboard too. I'm not sure if it will be known to any club members but looks to have been built around 2010.

After 30 yrs of waiting I bought myself a Beach Buggy this week.  All good on the reasonable length test drive but first time out (owner delivered it for me on low loader), after about 30 minutes of driving, it got harder to engage gear. Similar tonight but after 15 minutes.

Car fine when moving as could change by matching engine speeds but refused to engage once stopped. If you pushed it towards first gear the car would move on the synchromesh but not engage gear and clutch felt dead as if not disengaging.

Also goes into gear fine when engine off.

Had a look underneath and it looks like the cables slightly broken (some of the wire broken but not all) and it was slack against the clutch arm when engaged.

Started doing it up (was easy to do) but struggled to get at it enough to make progress with car on the road so ended up towing it home.

Is it likely to just be a poorly adjusted/part broken cable? Or is there anything else I need to look for?

The odd bit is that it was OK initially tonight then went, which is how a hydraulic clutch goes when it starts leaking (gradual deterioration) but then went dead like when my Escort clutch cables used to snap?

Just wary that I'm kidding myself it's an easy fix?

For info - Buggy has replacement 1914cc engine fitted, assuming it's original 1500cc gearbox/clutch