British traffic signal lights

"Pooh Bear" > wrote in message
...

> If you fancy a real test of ability try driving a car with a
non-functioning clutch ! It's
> do-able ( just ).

I've had several cars that were very easy to shift without using the clutch
('78 Ford Fiesta, Mark III Sprite, Jensen-Healey, Audi Coupe). And one that
was impossible for me to shift without the clutch (Plymouth Reliant). Guess
which one I had to drive 130 miles without a functioning clutch? While
attending a wedding in Petersburg Virginia, the clutch cable in my
practically new Plymouth Reliant broke. I could easily crank the car off in
first with the strater, but no amount of practice ever let me shift it into
another gear once it was moving. Fortunately I was staying in a Motel that
was almost directly on a long downhill ramp to I-85 South. When the time
came to head home (on a Sunday), I moved the car to the top of the ramp in
first, made sure it was warmed up, and cut it off. Then I placed the
transmission in fourth gear and with a couple of freinds pushing (and
laughing) I cranked the starter with the car pointed downhill. The car fired
up and I chugged down the ramp gaining speed. I easily merged with traffic.
I managed to drive around 125 miles without needing to stop. On the
outskirts of Raleigh I came to light that had just turned yellow. The car in
front of me decided he needed to stop. I passed him on the shoulder and got
through the intersection. About 1 mile from my goal (the Plymouth dealer), I
got caught at an intersection where I had to stop and I killed the engine. I
placed the car in second gear and cranked it off to make the final mile. The
car had a damn good starter. Too bad the rest was crap (but nice driving
crap). In the 11 months that I owned the car I think I visted the dealer 12
times. They had a great shop. They fixed everything right the first time and
I never had the same thing break twice. But I got tired of having new things
break every month. Too bad, it was a comfortable and fuel efficient car.

Ed

In article >,
Pooh Bear > wrote:
>
>If you fancy a real test of ability try driving a car with a non-functioning clutch ! It's
>do-able ( just ).

I started on Jeep with synchromesh. Never, ever, got it into reverse!
Fortunately, I moved on to cars in a few weeks.
--

Surendar Jeyadev

The 1 in the email address is fake

Surendar Jeyadev wrote:
> In article >,
> Pooh Bear > wrote:
> >
> >If you fancy a real test of ability try driving a car with a non-functioning clutch ! It's
> >do-able ( just ).
>
> I started on Jeep with synchromesh. Never, ever, got it into reverse!
> Fortunately, I moved on to cars in a few weeks.

In a vehicle with a balky reverse - let the car come to a full stop in
a forward gear (clutch disengaged) before putting it into neutral.
This will stop all the gears/shafts inside the tranny. If you can't
get it into reverse then, let the clutch slip ever so slightly to move
the input shaft around a little, as soon as the gears line up it will
drop right in. This method has never failed me even with the balkiest
of transmissions.

Now what is difficult is shifting an old column-shift three speed into
second when the linkage is all worn and sloppy (I can tell you a trick
to make that easy too, if anyone cares <G>)

nate