Not an engine swap, but a tranny swap horror story.

Got my new HProd Rabbit, and the p/o and I bolted the tranny up (clutch/flywheel were already installed). Slide the engine in and attached the two side motor mounts. Got back to finish it a week later, and when everything was buttoned up, I had no clutch. Couldn't figure out why, and thought that I might have left the pushrod out.

So, out comes the tranny. Pushrod is in place, and all looks good. Swap in a different tranny, just to check. Same problem.

So, out comes the tranny. Really scratching my head now. Several phone calls later, I decide to pull the clutch/flywheel. Everything looks ok, so I'm at a loss. For whatever reason, I decide to bolt the clutch/flywheel together, off the car. Check this against another setup. Turns out that when the p/o had the flywheel lightened, he didn't have the pp face cut, so when everthing was torqued up, the clutch fingers were fully deppressed.

So, on goes a new clutch/flywheel/pp. After much wrangling, can't get the tranny in, so off comes the clutch. Got everything lined up, and in goes the tranny. Same problem, still no clutch. But, this time it was because I forgot to put the throw-out plate back on when I took the clutch off and reinstalled it, to get everything line up.

So, out comes the tranny and off comes the clutch. Got everything put back together and it was all good.

Now, the fun part. This all happened over the course of two days, the weekend before the I was supposed to race the car!!!

Sorry, no broken windshields (lexan), and only minimal blood. But, several thrown tools!!!!

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MARRS #25 ITB Rabbit GTI (sold) | MARRS #25 HProd Rabbit
SCCA 279608