"Dad...I want to work on cars !!! " was: Resting on the shifter

[VINCELYONS@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-04-18 00:14:57 EDT, you responded to:

<< >Going over the owners manual of my A4 1.8TQ, I noticed a paragraph
 >in there that says to not keep your hand on the "stick", as this 
 >would cause premature wear of the clutch.  How true is this statement?
 >
 with:
 I was the author of a rather bawdy post regarding this not more than a
 month ago.  In short, it can wear out the shift linkage bushings
 pre-maturely, and caused undo pressure on the synchros and gears in general.
 
 The result is a shifter that will pop out of gear from time to time, and
 sloppy shifting.  Not pretty.  It seems to affect 5th and 3rd first (or
 whatever your cruising gears are).
 
 Learn to put it somewhere else.  It's a tough habit to break.  
  >>

"...Dad,  I don't want to go to college I want to work on cars..."
I'll always regret those words... 

Back in '73 when I first started working for a car dealer... It's
was a VW store... They turned all new recruits loose in the
parking lot without warning them, and sent us out with the 
simple instruction "...move that green car out back then move 
the yellow one back there too ...
You know how to drive don't you?" You then of course 
returned to a chorus of belly laughs at the "dumb kid"...

Invariably, the green and yellow cars were M9 Auto-sticks...
They used a vacuum operated clutch and the switch was
a spring loaded contact under the gear shift knob... Broke
me of that habbit real quick... just as in the old Benson &
Hedges commercial, beatle winshields were real close and
when your face slaps up against it, well... it's not very
comfortable...

Vince Lyons