Driving with no clutch cable is fun.

[Bobs67vwagen]

I agree, no need to slam gears. In the early 80s I was living in Fullerton, CA and I went to look at a 67 sunroof squarebacks for sale in Huntington beach about 30 to 35 miles away. The owner told me on the phone that the clutch was not working. I looked at it, liked it. Bought it and drove it home trying to time the shifts as the rpms came down. Not a lot of fun in traffic as you have to try and keep rolling, but it can be done. Bob

[oprn]

I just found this thread, wow guys! "Slam shift, Bang shift"! Not in my car... ever! There is no need for that! As several have pointed out, with a little finesse you can shift all day long without even a tooth tick if you practice a little. Like 63 vwnotch says, it's all in the timing.

There is a sweet spot on the gas peddle where the engine is neither driving the car or holding back. You can feel it by putting a bit of pressure on the shifter. When you hit it the transmission will just slip out of gear smooth as butter.

Now you need to slowly let off the gas peddle and with the same light pressure on the gear shift, feel for the same sweet spot as the RPMs come down against the next gear. When you hit that magic speed the transmission will slip into the that gear, again, as smooth as butter and off you go.

If you miss it... you lose! Might have to start over from a stop but in the higher gears you have time to try a couple of times before you lose too much momentum.

Now that you know how, get out there and practice, a lot! Get good at it, show off to your friends! If you are doing it right they can be sitting next to you and have no idea that you are not using the clutch. You will have to point it out to them!

I have done this in every standard shift vehicle I have ever owned. About 10 of them and they were not all VWs. It works on any standard transmission.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[63 vwnotch]

had a jeep with hydraulic clutch burn against exhaust... same dealio, start off at the light in 1st but never had to slam shift, all in timing baby smooth as silk... drove it a whole day like that until my hose came in... good times

[y2kbaja]

Not a clutch cable but hydraulic clutch on my Class 9 race car. I didn't have the jamb nut on and lost the adjusting nut = no clutch. I looked over the entire car and all my parts bags and no 5/16 fine thread nuts. Finished the lap with no clutch which included hills and the need for all 4 gears but made it to the pits for repairs.

[VWAdam]

When I was 15 and learning to drive and I got the hang of driving a manual, my dad taught me to roll start and drive with no clutch because he said "one day your clutch cable will break and I'm not going to come get you."
Fast forward a few years and I was leaving class at a community college, the cable snapped as I was backing out of my parking space. Dad was home so I called him and told him. His response was "And what do want me to do?" I told him to come with the tow bar because I had to go through a lot of traffic to even get to the highway. He then goes "Well you want to get home don't you?" Click. and he hung up the phone
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All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.

'59 Euro Beetle ragtop
'63 Standard Microbus

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[madmike]

Draging this one from the ashes,, Good to hear your tales of the clutch peddle stuck on the floor
70 bus 200 miles from home,just got off the freeway,to take the backroads ,and bang cable breaks,,shit,, had to hit about five intersections with lights crap got caught by two or three, good old battery & starter got me us back to the freeway,I figured less 'stops the better' what a buzz kill that was,,got home on time
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'Black Ice'Drag Buggy 'Turbo'
Rail Buggy 1915 turbo
76 Drag/Street bug 2180cc 'Turbo' 11:85 @113 mph"If I go any faster I'll burn up the Hamster" ,gets 28 mpg. also 10/09/22 11.90 @115 mph
"If I'm ever on Life Support,UNPLUG Me, Then Plug me back In see if that Works"

[angela]

happened in my 1st bug when i was 16. i got a ride home, my bf at the time took it to his house to fix the next day. the 2nd time was in my 65. i had read before how to drive w/out in my idiots manual, so i figured i'd try it. luckily i had just gotten a new battery earlier in the week. i think i drove her like that for 2-3 days before i got a chance to replace the cable. i kinda liked it.

[berniedd1]

[justmeandmycar(s)]

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!
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Beware of Drive-By Bayonetteings!!

'66 Bug
'74 Bug
'71 Westy Poptop

[Thearn]

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

[Thearn]

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

[berniedd1]

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.

[Low_Slow]

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.

[BigElipso]

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.

[Friedpotatoes]

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
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56- Wolfsburg Single Cab
57- Oval Window Bug (Agave Green)

[HamburgerBrad]

[jeremyrockjock]

[70 140]

[OG Velvet]

Just a couple weeks ago I had to slam shift my girlfriends 72 bus home over a bunch of hills.
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'67 13 Window
'77 Westy
'69 Sunroof Beetle
'65 Honda Dream

[Kel Dub]

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...