<VV> Clutchless Shifting

[Byron Comp]

Back in 1969 I purchased one of those IH Scouts that were a metallic blue and gray/silver tutone combo and had a 6 cyl. & 3 speed tranny. I moved that year from MD to Newburgh, NY and "enjoyed" one of the coldest, snowyest winters I can ever remember. What made it especially memorable was that the metal fork in which the swedged end of the clutch cable up under the dash resided never got smoothed out in production and within about 3k miles it wore through the cable right behind the swedged-on ball. It was such a pervasive problem for IH and their supplier(s) that they were on a 1 month backlog of orders for replacements. So I spent most of the month of Jan., 1970 driving in the snow and ice w/o a clutch. I actually got pretty adept at it. I knew nothing then about damaging synchros and over the next 75k miles, even using that Scout to plow snow in PA, I never had a minutes problem with the tranny.

Byron (Still waiting for the engine shop to finish "repairing" my engine) Comp
'64 Monza Vert - now sitting engineless in FL while I've moved back to PA
Williamsport, PA


>
>Message: 7
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:49:03 -0700
>From: "Charles Lee" <chaz at properproper.com>
>Subject: <VV> Clutchless shifting - clutches are for amateurs ;>}~?
>To: "'Matt Nall'" <patiomatt at aol.com>,    <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
>Message-ID: <00cf01cd179e$6e62e920$4b28bb60$@com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"
>
>Never did this regularly with a Corvair, but when I started a 700 mile trip
>at 4 AM from Chapel Hill  (NC) to NYC, my Audi's clutch cable broke.
>
>I stalled her, and to limp it (uphill) back into the driveway, I tried to
>crank it uphill (did that once before to save a "state towing fee" and,
>yeah, not a good idea, but I wanted to get it out of the road) ~ but to my
>surprise, she started! ~ in gear !
>
>Long story short, I decided to see if I could get her to my friend's place
>to fix it, and it was so easy to shift, I decided to try for NY.
>
>Guess what? I made it all the way, with only a bit of judicious "pacing" to
>"bounce" through a few toll booths (exact change in hand), and even managed
>Southern State Pkwy rush hour traffic.
>
>Put about another 10K on her before I decided to opt for a new cable (which
>despite Audi's $500 estimate, took less than an hour)
>
>I think Matt said it best, that it takes a bit of judicious familiarity with
>the RPMs, and I don't know what damage it did to synchros, but it got me
>where I was going, so all was good.
>
>I could do with my Corvair, but I wouldn't ~ I love my Corvair (even the one
>that I'm "restoring"), but my Audi, not so much (although she served me
>well.)
>
>Charlie