recap of the clutch install
 

With a lift and two of us working and only minimum breaks for food and drink it took us from 8am until 11pm to swap the clutch. That's right, full 15 hours of work. :blink:

Ended up having to remove the exhaust completely which necessitated removing the rear valance and all 5 (wideband also) O2 sensors. One of the rear O2 sensors got stripped so we had to disconnect it in the engine bay and leave in on the exhast.

The subframe had to be disconnected in the back and lowered, then all 3 driveshafts and tranny mounts, shields, tranny linkage and all the connectors. At least so we thought. Then we could remove the bell housing bolts and finally we were able to support the tranny on an oil tank cart on the lift and raise up the car further and slide it the tranny back and out of the way. The actual flywheel and clutch replacement was the easy part. Aligning the tranny and sliding it back in place took a bit of finesse. Then everything went back on in reverse order. At some point during reassembly I realized that we broke the cable on the rpm sensor that attaches to the bellhousing. Also, we tried bleeding the clutch but not sure if we were successful.
In the end the car is reassembed but not running due to the dead rpm sensor. So for now I'm leaving it on the lift. I should be able to replace the sensor and bleed the clutch next weekend and be good to go.
Here's some pics for ya.

<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_003_Large.jpg">

busted rpm sensor:

<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_010_Large.jpg">
<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_011_Large.jpg">

Half way there:

<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_012_Large.jpg">
<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_013_Large.jpg">
<img src="http://tomasz.data2net.org/gallery-albums/album97/Passat_014_Large.jpg">

and great thanks to Jim for letting me use the lift and for his hard work
 

I owe you big time!

Tom, I must say, you are the man!

Something that would've been useful for you to know yesterday......
 

Those mounts on the side of the trans, that are held on by 8mm allen bolts.......It takes 5-10 minutes to remove them, and makes it 1,000x easier to move the trans in &amp; out. 15 hours!? Gasp!!!

Oh, and you're not the first one to break an RPM sensor. ;-)

we chose to leave the mounts in place and remove the main bolts only
 

it made it easier to align the clutch on reinstall as it would slide back and forth on the mounts. Maybe the other way it would've been easier, not sure.

regarding the rpm sensor, do you know where it plugs in in the harness?
 

Does it have it's own plug or am I gonna have to rewire a common plug?

Yes. It's a 3 pin connector. When you get the new one, it should all make sense. ;-)
 

Just find the wiring that got ripped out, follow it up, you'll see.

What'd you use for clutch alignment tool, the crappy plastic thing that came with new clutch?
 

I always hated those. On an occasional trans overhaul, I'd encounter a completely toasted trans. I cut the input shaft off a few of them, which makes the perfect alignment tool. ;-)

the crappy plastic thing came with my clutch. it does the job.
 

We dont all have shops, mostly shadetree. If you want to give out free input shafts i'll take one..

--dillon

the plastic one worked fine. Thanks nunya.