Dash Shake when engaging clutch in 1st

[mroy224]

I recently picked up at 1991 VW Golf with a 1.6L N/A Diesel engine. The previous and only other owner has had the car sitting in his garage for 12+ years only driving it on nice dry days.

He’s had a TON of work done to the car I can’t even imagine trying to list it all. its got 488k on it.

The engine idles great and seems to run fine under load, But when engaging the clutch in first and pulling away the dash seems to shake vigorously. Like a Paint shaker lol.. Does the same thing in reverse as well.

I notice it also happens a bit in between gears when driving but as soon as the engines under load it’s fine.

Looking at the motor in the bay when it’s idling doesn’t seem to shake to bad. It’s mainly noticeable from inside the car.

Any help in figuring this out would be appreciated!

[Fatmobile]

Sometimes clutches wear funny.
If the clutch is used wrong.

Or maybe they put a 6-puck clutch in there as one of the mods.
Mine is hard to let out without some shaking.
Kind of an on/off switch.

Try revving it up and burning the clutch a little when you let it out. That might smooth it out.

[sgnimj96]

My first 1.6D had a terrible judder from a stop.
Finally pulled the transmission and found 2 of the clutch springs had worn down
enough to fall out. The pieces had been flying around in the bell housing so long it
really scratched up the aluminum.
Also some leaking had been going on from the
input shaft seals and grease was caked inside the bell housing.
Also the shift rod was really worn down, explaining why it was
hard to shift gears unless I pushed the clutch pedal ALL the way
to the floor.
Also the flywheel had hot spots all over it.

...so glad I pulled the trans to have a look and didn't keep driving
damage it worse.

This was kind of a worst case scenerio.
Got a clutch kit and some seals from rockauto, push rod,
push rod seal, it's bushing, and the starter bushing (bell housing)
from hansautoparts, and just sanded the hot spots off the flywheel.
People were saying I had to at least get the flywheel machined
(which no one has the equipment to do), but careful sanding
worked out fine. These motors don't put a lot of stress on
the transaxle.

Also had to do the CV's flange seals, but that can be another topic.

[sgnimj96]

btw, those clutches are bad about the springs failing
before the disk wears out.

I actually have a clutchnet 200mm disk that came with some extras
of an engine I bought off a guy, thing has NO springs.
Some kind of racing clutch disk. I don't know what I'll ever do
with that thing, looks cool.

Reminds of the time I got stuck in the sand at the beach in my 81 jetta diesel,
got out by taking off in 4th. B u r n, baby burn...
Didn't seem to hurt the disk at all.

[Fatmobile]

I have found some clutches with the springs missing.
That could be the problem.

Even my 6-puck has springs. Can't imagine how bad it would be to start out using a solid/springless clutch.

It would probably be a good idea to pull the trany and see what's going on.
It would suck to have pieces flying around in there.