Howdy Webriders! Dr. VW here. Hope you all have been enjoying the schwagmart. I’m saving up for that sweet GPS so I don’t get lost… Anyways I’m here to share with you guys my latest auto adventure.

We’ve all been there; driving along, things are going great, when suddenly an unholy noise like Thor’s hammer starts from under the hood or back in the rear axle. Sometimes it’s the high pitched banshee scream of a bearing gone bad or worse. However what happens next is often times what separates the men from the boys, the real gear heads from the show sharks. A lot of the webriders I know are real gear heads. They know their cars inside and out, every nut bolt and strap. They do more than just cosmetic stuff, they do brake upgrades and suspension mods, clutch work and hot cam installations. And they’ll be damned before they drive their precious baby into whatever shop is closest in an unfamiliar town or lonely stretch of road. So what are they to do? It’s time for the Parking Lot Repair. The test that oftentimes makes or breaks a home brewed mechanic. Full of Mac-Guyver esque engineering and Red Bull fueled desperation, these repairs are often impressive feats of ingenuity.

Which brings me to my newest adventure. There I am, driving along, when suddenly my 71 Squareback starts to slow down. Thinking I let off the gas a little, I gave the accelerator a tap and listened as the RPM’s began to rise, while the car continued to slow down! Even worse, some definitely strange vibrations were making their way through the shifter, and before hitting red line, I pulled over to see what was up. No heat, no smoke, no dripping oil. I scratched my head and attempted to continue on. Everything was great until I shifted into third, and again, the RPM’s began to rise without any accompanying increase in speed! I limped into the CalPoly parking lot, and with my flashlight in hand, began to see if perhaps I was running on 3 cylinders. However the idle was smooth and the 4 pulses of the exhaust assuaged my fears. I concluded that the clutch was slipping, and it was time for a repair.

Now depending on what car you drive, clutch swaps can be fairly easy, or a bear. Having changed clutches many times before on various VW’s, I wasn’t about to pay the 400 dollars I was quoted for the repair, since it involves dropping the engine to access the clutch plate and disk. So I did what many an enthusiast has done before: I did it in the parking lot.

With the help of my roommates, I used a pair of scissor jacks, a few skateboard parts and a small 2 ton jack from autozone to remove my engine. From there, it was determined that the flywheel was junk, and that the front main seal to the crankshaft was leaking. I loaded my engine into the back of a Toyota Camry coupe, and drove it to a shop with air tools, where I payed about 40 dollars for an hour’s use of his air tools to remove the large gland nut holding the flywheel on. Having made the flywheel swap and installed the new clutch disk and pressure plate, I returned to the Poly parking lot and re-installed my engine, after replacing the front transmission mount, clutch cable, bowden tube, throwout bearing and using all new hardware. I also found the time to put some high temperature paint on the muffler!

Between classes and waiting for parts to show up, the whole procedure took about 5 days, and when I was done, I finished off my adventure by driving the 620 mile round trip to San Diego for a late valentines rendezvous.

Well thats the end of this auto adventure, but there are more on the way, as always. Be sure to leave me YOUR parking lot/ roadside repair story, and be sure to check out my gallery for pictures from my various adventures! This is Dr. VW, out.