New clutch won't disengage (2.5L 5 spd)

[Anile_eight]

I installed the clutch (SB Stage III Endurance) the other day and the car started fine there was no issues, i was rather surprised on how quiet it sounded (Wow what a pedal difference!!! there is a clutch in there now). The reason for that I am guessing is that the clutch was not disengaged. I tried to shift into reverse *Crunch*...this was all at 4:30 this morning. So i gave up for the night and will try to bleed it today and look at the shift linkage to make sure it is adjusted properly. I tried to pump the clutch a bunch last night but still no luck. None of the gates would open for any other gear either (when the car was running). Hopefully the slave isn't blown or yet leaking into the bell housing.

If that doesn't work, I've been looking and people suggest starting it in gear and trying it with that. Drive around with light speed and pump the clutch a lot.

should I take the slave out and pump the clutch or is that bad for it? I inspected it before i put everything back together and it looked fine. I will check the brake fluid levels again to see if it is leaking.

Thanks for any input.

[Anile_eight]

So today I bled the entire system (swapped fluid).... and the same thing happened. Couldn't get it into any gear. It felt the same as it did earlier when I had the car off. Now i did not adjust the cables on the transmission as I don't think that would do much... But i guess that is my next step. I didn't see anything wrong with the slave. I took it out and inspected it. No leaks, could it still have failed? I am out of ideas here and really need my car back.... Suggestions?

[aznk]

did you ever figure out what the problem was?

i seem to have the same symptoms on my 2010 Jetta 2.5 but on the stock clutch. the shift gates dont open and when i throw it into reverse, it makes a crunch and whirring noise.

I immediately turn the car off and restart and everything is normal. Happened twice today.

[Anile_eight]

Wow... A restart fixed everything... lol I wish mine what that easy.

Long story short (i'll link the other thread):

This is the info I got from the shop
I some how wedged the throwout bearing into the fork on installation. When i had the tranny out I made sure I had free play and it slid fine. Next when they re-installed the tranny with new slave and master there wasn't enough force to disengage the clutch completely so you could shift kinda, but it wasn't very good for the tranny. So the shop and SB got in contact and I sent up my stock clutch they measured it and it was within .04" of their spec so they sent me down a stage II pressure plate instead and voila, it works. So i sent them the Stage III pressure plate hoping they will find issues and repay some of the $1300 it took to get this sh*t fixed. I could really use some of that money back lol. Good luck and here is the link to the other thread where there was more response: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...on-t-disengage The final responses are the solutions i summarized for you.

with a stock clutch, I couldn't tell you what it could be, my suggestions is to re-adjust the cables (completely), as per the bentley manual. lift up on the shroud around the gear leaver to get to the base of the shifter there you will find two holes that you will have to line up. Find a clip or (i used a nail) but make sure it is the right diameter for the hole. If not the shifter will move and not be perfectly aligned to the two holes (one on the shifter and one stationary on the base) now that that is in place. Release the cables on the transmission and place it in neutral. Then reattach the cables to the shift linkage on the trans such that the shifter virtually doesn't move then you release the nail or what ever you used to hold it in place. I had to adjust the cables slightly as I couldn't grab first but I made sure to do it very small increments. Good luck!