You could be correct about being heat related. I have seen the center of a clutch spin out when it was hot but be okay when it was cold and the metal hadn't expanded. I doubt it the pressure plate is warped. you would feel that whether it was cold or warm. You might have to go to a kennedy clutch and pressure plate to hold the horsepower of the new engine. good luck "Gerald V. Livingston II" <gvl2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 13:51:15 -0600 Dan Martin wrote: > Sorry to hear about the clutch problem. > Do you have a spare cable? > Could just be stretched. (did you install a new heavy clutch with the > raby motor?) Cable new and looks good. No heavy duty clutch. (and there's under 1000 miles on the motor since startup) (and yes, I carry a clutch and accel cable) > Did you get the idle straightened out? Not really. It still wants to "hunt" after it warms up if you let it drop to idle. I think it may be a sticky cable/linkage. > That windshield could wait until the return trip? No. > We will be glad to have you at the beach! Plan to bethere anyway. Can do that one with a 7/7 swap. Here's the text I posted to a couple of those forum things (I thought Forum was PentHouse, not VW?). Every time I repost this I came a bit closer to just towing it. The towbar is aleady hooked up. I'm about to hit the hay in a few minutes as I have my alarm set for 2am so I can get to Killeen at a decent time in the morning. Should be done there before 10 AM and once I'm there I'm already 6 hours closer to Havasu. When towing I don't normally leave HOME until about 6pm Tuesday and arrive Thursday afternoon/night. I could even still do the "backroads trip". The better stereo is in the bus though . [text reposted from forums] Just got back here. Boss at least thought to grab my tow bar so we could drag the Rivi back here without me having to make another 100 mile trip in my truck (home is 59 miles from work where I have my VW's garaged). Clutch cable brand new and shiny clean. Seems to be heat related though. It started "grabbing" a little after about 40 or 50 miles of driving but it did that some last week on the "break in" trip of 350 miles each way. It would release most of the time and when it didn't, it wasn't a full blown "stuck in gear no clutch", more like a "reluctant to let go". I thought I just needed another 1/4 turn or so on the wing nut. As I said, it started grabbing a bit after 40 or 50 miles today. I stopped by my house to make sure the cats were loaded up for me being gone 10 days and noticed it a bit at some of the stop signs. I have no idea how much further along the highway it decided to REALLY refuse to let go. All I know is I had gone another 100 miles when I decided I wanted to refuel. I coaxed it back to the house and called the boss to come get me when he could. I fiddled with tightening the wing nut as far as it would go. Still not releasing. Clutch in, shifter in 1st, buck and jump when I turn the key. Boss called and said he had my towbar so I kicked the Rivi real hard then made it complain as I coaxed it back and forth in 1st and reverse to get it pointed back out the driveway. Then I went and watched Television while I waited (and remembered all over again why I don't watch TV in the first place). He arrived, we hooked up, we towed back here. We unhooked the towbar, I got in - put it in 1st - turned the key... smooth as butter. So, either something rattled loose during the tow, or it's heat soak related and cleared as it cooled. Ideas? G2