How do you install a clutch cable in a 1968 vw bug?

Answer 1

1. Put the back of the car on jackstands. I like to take off the left rear tire at this point; you can reach the clutch arm on the transmission through the wheelwell if you do.

2. Reach through the wheelwell and feel around for the clutch arm--it's the only arm on the transmission, and it's got a cable coming out of it going toward the front of the car. You'll find either a big wingnut or two hex nuts jammed together on the cable; these are the adjusters. Whichever you find, remove them.

3. Open the hood and unhook the throttle cable from the carb.

4. Go into the cabin and remove the pedal cluster. Pull it out and you'll find one of two things: that the cable end broke, or that the arm that pulls it broke.

If the cable broke, pull it all the way out of the car. Get a new one and paint it. When the paint dries, put a little axle grease on it. Hold it in your left hand and put your left index finger CAREFULLY into the hole the pedal cluster goes into, feeling around. Eventually you'll find the end of a tube that doesn't have the throttle cable sticking out of it. Push the clutch cable into this hole.

If the arm broke, it's held into the pedal cluster with a bolt sticking out the side of it. Undo the bolt, remove the arm (since it's probably rusted in, you'll probably have to tap it out with a hammer), grease the shaft on a new one, stick it in where the old one was and replace the bolt you took out. I would recommend changing the clutch cable at the same time; this job is a big enough pain you don't want to do it repeatedly.

And as the Bentley Manual says, installation is the reverse of removal.