<VV> Re: Driving without a clutch (some Corvair)

[Brown, David]

OK, I can't resist adding to this thread.  20 years ago, while in Saudi,
6 of us were screaming around the red dunes (1.5hrs outside of Riyadh)
in our Honda Odyssey dune buggies when we found a guy (actually a lame
brain idiot) who was a couple of miles off the highway, in the dunes,
stranded in his fairly new Nissan Pathfinder with, yep- a broken clutch
cable.  He had his family with 3 kids, plus 2 kids of friends and NO
spare water!  He had absolutely no concept of how to drive w/o a clutch.
It was around 120+ degrees out and they would have died if we hadn't
come along (one could walk maybe 1/2mile in that heat before
collapsing).  Anyway, to show this guy how stupid he was, we decided to
let our disabled buddy drive his Nissan out of there (our friend was a
paraplegic, drove his dune buggy with the hand controls and strapped his
legs down so they wouldn't flop around).  One of us picked him up &
placed him in the driver's seat stating only, "Brian will get you out of
here!"  Brian simply put it in gear, started it up & idled out about
100' before shutting it off again.  The guy was astounded it was so
easily accomplished.  He still couldn't figure out how to do it though &
one of us had to drive his car back to town for him.  Some people just
aren't meant to be responsible, I guess.

As a side note, I drove my 69 140 back from the St. Charles (Chicago)
convention to Houston the entire distance with virtually no clutch.
After the 1st 100 miles when it from a little clutch to no clutch, I
realized that the mechanic who installed my drivetrain was incorrect
when he said, "Oh, that's just the pilot shaft bushing being a little
tight- it will loosen up pretty soon.  After getting back home, the
answer was found- clutch disc installed backwards!  My starter was just
about shot, but boy could I shift a late model Saginaw smoothly w/o a
clutch!!!
Dave
Corvair Houston

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Dr. James Waddell
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 12:24 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Re: Driving without a clutch



>In a message dated 5/1/2006 8:30:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
>pp2 at 6007.us
>writes:
>
> > Shifting without a clutch is something you just have to learn. To 
> > shift from any gear to neutral, let mostly off the gas so the car is

> > neither accellerating nor decelerating and pull back to neutral. To 
> > shift up, take your foot off the gas and let the engine slow. At the

> > right speed it will just slip into gear. Once all the way in, 
> > accellerate. The
> learning process
> > will be noisy.
> >
>Nice instructions - it's not difficult.