Don, we went back to the stock adjusting rod but it did need to be adjusted all the way to its full length to get less than an inch of play in the pedal. Not even enough threads left to put on the outer nut! I suggested at least double-nutting the inner nut to keep it from turning. I don't think that's happened yet though.
Leftcoast just stopped by. A few things:
Heard knocking while engine was running. Not tapping or rattling, but knocking. From underneath we couldn't tell where it was coming from. The loud muffler didn't help matters.
Peeked in thru the torn boot on the clutch fork arm. Could see that the clip was not in right. It was at an angle. When we poked at it with a screwdriver it disappeared. Probably fell down to the bottom of the bell housing.
We backed off the nut on the clutch adjustment rod, and removed the return spring from the arm. I wanted to see how much the arm moved around with that clip missing. It was a little loose but not as bad as I would've expected. I think between the pressure of the pressure plate fingers and that return spring, the arm is generally held up against the ball. He said the clutch was working, so this wasn't actually causing a major problem. Could cause some noise though.
With the engine running, one of us held onto the clutch fork arm to feel if that's where the knocking was coming from. Tried this with the clutch pedal up and down. Did not feel the knocking in that arm.
He suggested low tranny fluid. It probably is low but I pointed out that nothing in the tranny is moving when it's running in neutral. But that led us to think we'd better check the motor oil.
So we opened the doghouse cover. Now you could tell the knocking was coming from the engine. I touched a screwdriver to the head and could feel the knocking.
One wingnut missing on the air cleaner. Would have caused some rattling but not knocking. Put a new one on it.
Checked the oil—3 quarts low! We know the engine leaks a lot of oil. Added 3 quarts of oil. Still knocked. My theory now is that, being so low on oil, the hydraulic lifters have lost some of their juice, so the get spongy, leaving a gap between the rods and the rocker arms. He said the engine has been missing lately too. Spongy lifters could cause that as well, right? It was late, so I suggested he just drive it for a while, which should allow the oil to work its way back into the lifters. I know if I don't drive my Vanagon for a few weeks, the oil drains out of the lifters because they are horizontal in the VW opposing-cylinder setup. The shop told me the knocking is nothing to worry about and it does always go away after driving a few miles. Hopefully that will be the case for Leftcoast as well.