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Mon Jan 05, 2004 1:07 pm

It happen first in my old 70 bus one day the cable snapped. I had to start the bus in first gear and slam shift from there on. I had to drive like 10 miles home in traffic. Not fun.
Then it happened an few year ago in my Oval only it half broke which IMO is worse because you think you can push it hard enough and it will work but nope. Again I was in traffic and slam shifting it home. I have gotten good a slam shifting. No more grinding. :shock: Hum... that reminds me. I better check the one in my 69. I have never looked at it before.

How many of you have had to slam shift yours home?

Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:02 pm

Had the same problem but it was caused to a bent bowden tube and the wing nut was loosening. It was in my 67bug, I had to drive from downtown longbeach in traffic to the northside which is about 8 miles i could only get it in to second and slam it in to the other gears from there it sucked, when it was in second I had to keep the brake on cause it was trying to shoot off and eventually had to turn the car off everytime I came to a stop. Got it home and fixed it

Mon Jan 12, 2004 10:46 am

When I was 18 my 67 beetle had some rusty floorpans. One day the clutch cable went, only it wasn't the clutch cable. The little metal stop behind the pedals that keeps them from coming back too far fell through the floor, so the clutch pedal pulled back so far the cable popped off the hook in the hump. I called my dad, an old hat at these problems, who proceeded to "powershift" the bug home. He's a great guy.

Mon Jan 12, 2004 2:57 pm

Best I've been able to do so far is shift from first to second without the clutch. I was amazed when I did it. But it takes a lot of practice. One nice day when I'm in a big parking lot with nothing to do...

Tue Jan 13, 2004 4:24 am

I'm afraid to that I am going to fry my tansmission. I don't want to be somewhere trying it and then have it crap out on me. I think I will just wait untill the day I am forced to slam shift it.
nik

Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:37 pm

yeah, that happened to me...i was going to a show and the clutch was getting funny and it was kinda hard to shift so when i got there a friend checked it out and discovered that my cable was fraying. he gave me a lesson on dry shifting in case i ever needed to, but i picked up a new cable at the show the next day(oh yea, i think i ended up with a flat tire that day too) and some great guys helped me out to get everything fixed up so i could drive home( if i recall, putting the cable in was an absolute bitch) i dont know if you guys are on here but thanks a bundle chris m. and matt c. :D

Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:39 pm

Last summer i had to drive 10 miles home when the hook on my clutch pedal broke. It's not that bad, unless you have to stop and start.

Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:53 am

its funner drivin when your clutch fork breaks.

Tue Mar 09, 2004 9:55 pm

Mine just broke about a week ago, there was like two threads of the cable still together, and my hook was almost gone, wasn't a good time... I was so scared to drive it like that, you just have the feeling that something real bad is going to happen...

Mon Mar 15, 2004 2:10 am

Just a couple weeks ago I had to slam shift my girlfriends 72 bus home over a bunch of hills.

Tue Mar 30, 2004 10:31 pm

79SuperVert wrote: Best I've been able to do so far is shift from first to second without the clutch. I was amazed when I did it. But it takes a lot of practice. One nice day when I'm in a big parking lot with nothing to do...

Thats usually the hardest one to get.
I drive trucks at work sometimes when the delivery guys bail out. They are big international's with 7 speed boxes in them. after the truck is moving I can bang every gear upshifting and downshifting with it. It's really quite fun, and I suppose it saves clutch.

Wed Mar 31, 2004 4:56 am

70 140 wrote: It's really quite fun, and I suppose it saves clutch.
And if you do it wrong it eats the gears :D

Fri Apr 02, 2004 12:55 am

Glenn wrote: Last summer i had to drive 10 miles homem when the hook on my clutch pedal broke. It's not that bad, unless you have to stop and start.

after about 6 months of a KEP stage 1 pressure plate, my clutch pedal underneath the brake pedal developed a stress fracture and eventually bent completly over. i was at work and shoved in the clutch to start the car and the starter almost drove my car right through the wall of my office building in first gear.

Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:58 pm

i remeber when my bro went to pull apart the assembly to fix it cause it wasnt shifting good everything was fine

then he noticed that the peddle it self had a cracked and was only half way but that was causing it not to go in all the way weird that one was
no one had ever seen that one

Mon Apr 05, 2004 2:48 pm

I've broken several. I converted my first baja to RHD (not really sure why) back in the early/mid eighties and did the one I have now about 12 years ago. For some reason I never went to a hydraulic clutch so I've had to make my own cables. I've got it figured out how to route the cable but it was a lot of trial and error along the way. Needless to say I'm a bit of an expert on clutchless shifting (not by choice). I'm also pretty good at broken accelerator cable driving too.

Fri May 07, 2004 2:51 pm

My cable busted, was slam shifting home then bam, no shifting. Busted the hockey stick in my tranny. Nothing like yanking the tranny to replace a $15 dollar part.

Tue May 11, 2004 7:36 am

Broke a clutch cable too a few years back as I was going to a semiformal affair. I was fortunate to be very near a VW store so I got a new cable there and installed it by the roadside (I always carry a complete tool kit in the car just for occasions like this). Got it working well in 30 minutes. The only hitch was my being a little late and having to explain to my friends why I had greasy hands for such an occasion. Since that incident I now always carry spare cables in the car for the clutch, accelerator, handbrake, also a spare distributor, coil, lots of fuses, fuel pump, oil filter (I use a pump with built-in oil filter fitting.), fresh engine oil, and a towing rope. Oh yeah, I forgot to include my spare complete pedal assembly.

Fri May 28, 2004 12:53 pm

That's never happened to me, how exactly do you shift with no clutch? Sounds like fun...and can you even start it without the clutch? Maybe i'm too young, but i'm sure it will happen eventually :D

Fri May 28, 2004 12:55 pm

btw, everyone bow to me for i'm an administrator! :shock: oops

Fri May 28, 2004 6:05 pm

No, you don't BOW to administrators, you bombard them with shit that's wrong with their forum!

as for no clutch, my dad had to do that in my beetle once. Fortunately, I haven't, but I know that I can shift with no clutch. I've done it a few times, without grinding once!