Can you drive it ?  I'm not sure what you mean that it grinds and sputters when in gear.  Is the car standing still or makes this noise while driving. If I could drive it I could tell you what it is. Does it "jump" out of gear (any gear) ?  I can repair it if its not to far gone. Sometime its cheaper to replace the whole thing. There are some "stuff" that cost more than the price of a replacement. I can tell you that if I could drive it. Where are you? You can call me if you want to where I could pick your brain a little more.  423-894-3374.

If it is hard to put into gear and grinds as you're putting it into gear it may be as simple as need for a clutch adjustment or replacement. Is there a lot of free play in the pedal? Have you checked the oil level? I'd be happy to come along with the Godfather to look at it, deferring to his expertise, of course.

Fantastic news gentlemen, I switched the battery out and she is purring once again.  I have a love affair with the Ghia's but I am mechanically challenged to say the least.  I would greatly appreciate if we could schedule a meet and greet between yourself (yourselves) and Karmann. My schedule fluctuates (gotta love the world of retail), but Sundays are always a good day for me and I usually get one other day off as well.  You can reach me at 941-661-5689.
Cheers,
Scott

Quote from: Ret.Bugtech on June 11, 2011, 01:11:28 PM

Can you drive it ?  I can tell you that if I could drive it.

Quote from: ghia-tine on June 11, 2011, 04:18:08 PM

  It was running whenn i parked it at the house a couple months ago.  Last time i tried to start it though, I had lights but it didnt turn over. 

Quote from: Ret.Bugtech on June 12, 2011, 12:37:20 PM

It would take about 5 min. to find whats going on but it has to run.

Quote from: ghia-tine on June 13, 2011, 09:32:43 AM

Fantastic news gentlemen, I switched the battery out and she is purring once again. 

Well there you have it.  You now can repair a transmission/clutch with a new battery .Wow !!!!!!     Way to go 

I think the old man is losing it...

You can call me if you want to where I could pick your brain a little more.  423-894-3374.

You can reach me at 941-661-5689.

He is the godfather. You do the legwork and he helps you out. If you sit around waiting for this old man to call you, you might wait forever! But it was a good thing to let him know which number will be calling you- he screens all his calls and an out of town number would probably get passed on.

what?   

As for the broken pedal, about halfway down on this page (under August 2003), there is a picture of the broken pedal and the new replacement. This is the "infamous Glenn" from thesamba. I have referenced before. He is the original owner with over 460,000 miles on his bug 
http://www.glenn-ring.com/resto/resto10.html

Quote from: Anthony on June 13, 2011, 04:38:12 PM

Okay, so we're back to the point where we can test the transmission. I'm with you now, Nick!

Never broke a clutch pedal, but I broke off a brake pedal at Road Atlanta! I guess if the pedal broke at the cable hook you'd have no resistance at all-it would be pretty obvious. Of course, a broken cable would feel the same.

I'm talking about the pedal itself. They will crack where the pedal is pined on to the shaft. You can mash on the pedal and it bends not letting the clutch release making it plumb hard to shift or getting in gear at all.

Had one of those not that long ago.. the Notch that Russ had bought.  Dude thought the clutch was failing, but turned out it was just a bad pedal.  Half of the movement of the pedal was the flexing at the crack.