the wire is to hold the clips in place while you are putting the throw out bearing back in. trying to hold the bearing and get the clips in place are a real pain in the back side. as long as the wire is not interfering with the operation of the bearing, leave it there. Fred McDonald <accessibility's@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Thanks for the reply, My brother is a very good mechanic but not a VW mechanic; I'm not a mechanic but I have owned several VWs in my time and have some (not a lot) experience with the quirkiness of the breed. He was very concerned that the shaft was a little lose, he said "If this was a ford Transmission I'd be very worried and would recommend we fix this." I told him that it has always been this way, even before it had been rebuilt and as far back as I could remember my past VWs were the same. I told him just to be safe that I would ask the group. On another subject, In order to replace the main shaft oil seal we had to remove the throw-out bearing. The spring clips that hold the bearing in place had a fine piece of wire strapping them to the throw-out bearing leaver. Is this necessary, just good practice, wouldn't bother? I'm not sure but I think Lyle Cherry did this when he rebuilt my engine. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Sawyer" To: Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 9:28 PM Subject: [tcb] Re: Main Shaft >I agree with sammy, there should be some play in the input shaft. > > > Sammie Smith wrote: > Fred: > My experience is that it has lots of play. > > At 04:24 PM 10/27/2004, you wrote: >>Hay everyone, >>I'm in the middle of replacing the seal around the main driveshaft as it >>exits the transmission. I have a question, Should the driveshaft be >>absoultly stiff or does it tend to have a little movement? > > > > > >