Greetings all,
After reading Art Kelly's post about driving a VW sans clutch, I have to
relate my story about my VW Bug clutchless summer.
Ah, the days of our youth...
It was senior year of high school, I was driving a '66 Bug. Clutch
cable gave up the ghost. Being the normal teenager, I needed my wheels,
and quickly adapted to driving without the clutch. From a dead stop, I
shut down the motor, put it in first, when it was time to go, hit the
key and away we went.
Problem was there was always something better to do than replace the
clutch cable. I realized that you could start the car in the morning,
let it warm up a minute or two, shut it down, put it in reverse, start
it to pull out of the parking space, etc. My friends came to accept the
fact I really didn't need to use the clutch at all.
Drove it for a few months without a clutch cable. Fixed the cable when
the brake master cylinder started acting up. I put in a new master
cylinder and clutch cable the same day. Then, since I didn't adjust the
push rod from the brake pedal to the master cylinder correctly, the
brakes locked up on a trip to center city Philadelphia. I opened a
bleeder screw on a wheel cylinder to release the pressure in the system,
and viola! No brakes at all. Still drove it home by major downshifting
action and my buddy holding onto the one emergency brake cable that was
not broken wiht a vice grip and pulling for what he thought WAS his dear
life. Twice we approached intersections we could not stop for, so at
about 5 mph, quickly dump the clutch, pull it out of first and bang it
into reverse, hit the gas and release the clutch to stop.
The trans shifted as smooth on the day I sold the car as the day I
bought it. That was one amazing transmission. And, of course, good
technique!
Henry Frye
TR250's (with one blown transmission, DPO had lousy technique!)
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