98 Jetta Clutch Job lessons learned

Chubber

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Location
Central Florida
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI
This past weekend I changed the clutch and main "rear" seal in my 1998 AHU Jetta. It had about 287k miles and was bucking a bit when pulling away and kind of grabbed up fast when upshifting. I bought a new Sachs VR6 clutch kit, a spline alignment tool and all three new motor mounts. I got the main seal and a new oil pan gasket as well because I didn't want leaks and I wanted to look in the pan and block to judge cleanliness. Plus, I was teaching a friend about fixing on cars and he had never seen inside an engine before.

I went to http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a3b4/clutch-rear-main-seal-tdi.htm for my step-by-step.

I had recently bought one of those hydraulic engine hoists from a friend of a friend for $30, so I was ready to do the job.

Lesson 1: Put the hoist on from the right side of the car so you have space under the tranny to get the roller jack. Also, a C clamp through the left-side lifting bracket will give you enough clearance if your snap hook won't go through the thick aluminum.

Lesson 2: You might as well break free the axle nuts when you loosen the lug nuts. People say you don't have to remove the axle shafts, but it will save you at least an hour of fiddling trying to get all the parts to fit if you do. Once you have it all loose and jacked up and on engine stands, just go ahead and remove the big ball joint bolt, pop the arm down and swing the strut out of the way.

Lesson 3: Go ahead and take off the passenger side CV flange as well. Even if you tilt the motor forward with the scissor jack, it's still tight. No passenger CV flange: it falls right out. A single 6mm hex in the middle. Have a bag wrapped around a wad of paper towels to seal it. If you just use towels it will soak through quickly and that stuff is no good for shampoo, I can tell you that. Thread two CV bolts back in and stick a screwdriver between them for leverage.

Lesson 4: The motor mount bracket on the transmission has a really long bolt on the bottom. You have to take out the motor mount bolt, lift the engine another 2-3 inches, then you can get the bolt out. It it were just 1/4 inch shorter, it would come out easily. The old motor mount dripped nasty brown/black goo when it tipped over, so don't just drop it on your driveway. Throw any old mount away away or wrap in a bag.

Lesson 5: The front motor mount is a lot easier to get out if you take the oil filter off. I was changing the pan anyway, so I did it after I drained the oil.

Lesson 6: Leave the passenger side rear mount in place until you are ready to put it all back together. Otherwise it's hard to keep things aligned well enough to keep hoses and wires from getting stressed. At least it's pretty easy to do.

Lesson 7: Making a flywheel holding tool is really easy: Just put the old pressure plate back on with two bolts as far apart as you can while still reaching the center bolts on the flywheel, then stick a pipe through the middle. The flywheel bolts came out without fuss.

Lesson 8: The NEW flywheel bolts I got from mjmautohaus.com don't have the same head the old bolts did. Plus, for some reason he sent me 10 of them... The bolt isn't a Torx and it isn't the same as the head bolts, that's all I know. I hate to do it, but I had to put the old bolts back in there. I know, I'm a heathen, but I'm a heathen that had to drive it to work on Monday. NAPA had NO tool that fit the new bolts, but "might" be able to order one by Thursday... So, when you get new bolts, make sure you have a tool to fit them.

Lesson 9: I was amazed that my CV joints looked pretty good inside and only needed some fresh grease and buckled back up. But, I still think that they are starting to wear out because when driving it now there is still some "slop" in the power train when engaging the clutch. At least they won't be too hard to replace as I know that the CV bolts are stuck and getting them out once the ball joints are popped is quite easy.

Lesson 10: I had a torn driver's side steering boot. It was easier to put the new one in with the trans and CV joint out. Notice I said "easier", not "easy".

Lesson 11: When you put the new transmission in, of course it won't go in smoothly and once you get close, you can't see if you are close any more. If you can find a couple of spare long bolts to fit the bellhousing, cut the heads off, dremmel a screwdriver slot in the new end and put them into the bellhousing at the top and bottom. That will help you line everything up without seeing the shaft. Once it's up and in, back the stubs out with a screwdriver and take them out of the hole, putting the real bolts in. I learned this trick on my BMW motorcycle.

Lesson 12: When putting in the new motor mounts, leave all of the bracket bolts loose until they are all in and the motor is down on the mounts and you give it a good shake side to side and front to back and all. Then tighten them up. PS: Those starter bolts are a royal pain to get into the front bracket while also holding them tight enough to keep centered.

Lesson 13: When putting the passenger side flange back on once the tranny is in, you are going to have to push hard on the flange to get it in. It's not easy with the oil trying to get out and a big spring to push out while you try to get the center bolt in. A big screwdriver (The BFS) works well for this. A 20-24" prybar is pretty much required for many parts of this job.

Lesson 14: The main seal is really easy to reinstall. My crank did have a bit of a wear circle in it, but the new teflon seal bridges it. I cleaned it off and installed it dry. Use the plastic "install" disk to make it easy to push onto the crank.

I was amazed that my old clutch disk looked great. It wasn't even a whole millimeter thinner than my new clutch disk. But the pressure plate was badly discolored and both the plate and disk were very glazed. I flap-disk sanded the flywheel to give it some teeth.

My pan was totally clean inside, not even the smallest bit of sand, grit or sludge. First time I have seen a pan that clean.

It took me and a very inexperienced friend about 10 total hours of work to get it all done; steering boot, clutch, main seal and motor mounts.
 
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RIP TDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 16, 2000
Location
Santa Barbara, CA
TDI
'15 GSW SE 6MT...... '01 Golf GLS 5MT.... '96 Passat Variant....
How did the disc hub springs look? Wear on the spring ends or hub contact points?

Any gear rattle in neutral or any difference in rattle from original clutch?
 

Chubber

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Location
Central Florida
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI
I didn't look really closely at the disc hub springs. The trash man just took away the cans this morning or I would look for you. Are they a common failure point? I have never had one break or wear on my aircooled clutches, of which I have replaced many.

No gear rattle in neutral, but there never really was any anyway. The splines looked beautiful and the clutch kit came with spline lube, so I cleaned it up and put a THIN schmear on there before assembly.

The only real issue now is that there is still a lot of "take up" when letting the clutch out between when I feel the disc bite and the car starts to move. I fear the CVs are starting to wear out and be sloppy, but they were still stiff when I had them apart. Probably more from dried grease than tight fit though. Or maybe the gears are worn. Next time I have it up Ill put a wrench on the inner flange and feel for slop between there and the tires.
 

Yblocker

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
Location
Oakland, CA
TDI
1997 Passat
Really a great post Chubber. I really think that these kind of real world summaries of big jobs like a clutch are the most useful things on the board. Thank you for taking the time to write it up.
 

RIP TDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 16, 2000
Location
Santa Barbara, CA
TDI
'15 GSW SE 6MT...... '01 Golf GLS 5MT.... '96 Passat Variant....
I didn't look really closely at the disc hub springs. The trash man just took away the cans this morning or I would look for you. Are they a common failure point? I have never had one break or wear on my aircooled clutches, of which I have replaced many.

No gear rattle in neutral, but there never really was any anyway.
Glad it worked out well for you. Some report a gear rattle after installing a VR6 clutch kit because the VR6 disc transmits harmonics to the geartrain that the TDI disc mostly filters out (different hub spring design). Both kits use the same pressure plate.

Its also not unknown for a high mileage original TDI clutch to break a hub spring, usually causing a failure to disengage.
 
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