Ed Pawlowski wrote:


"Jim Yanik" wrote

good reason to drive stick shift.
it's a really rare failure when you can't put in the clutch.

Happened on my '62 Corvair. Engine mount broke and slackened the clutch
cable. I still managed to shift gears and drive the car home, just
could not come to a stop. Yes, kiddies, it is possible to shift both
up and down and not use the clutch. It is one of those things you have
to practice, just like shifting into neutral in an emergency.

At a job with a brand new van, 3 on the floor, the clutch was a real
SOB. It was so bad that my knee started giving me pain. I tested
others and none of them were so difficult to disengage the clutch but
the dealer and my boss denied anything was wrong. OK, so I used the
clutch to stop and start only. From gear to gear did it without the
clutch. After some time something happened to first gear. Couldn't get
it into first until it came to a full stop, and then sometimes had to go
to another gear and back to first. It ended up going into the tranny
shop at least 5 times and they never could fix the problem. Everything
looked good, synchronizers looked like new but they changed it anyway.
Still never worked right... for the other employees that used the clutch
anyway. For me I could still go from 2nd to 1st without the clutch.