Double Declutching (comic relief, mechanical abuse)

[Audial@aol.com]

Well, we once drove our '81 5000 five speed about 4k mi. in suburbia with no
clutch whatsoever.  

It was valueless to fix it (you had to see the rest of the car) so we just
kept driving it on the starter motor and the synchros.  I was amazed how long
they lasted.  

If you had an ear for the engine, shifting up/down was no problem.  The real
issue was coming to a full stop.  Then you had to engage 1st and use the
starter to get the whole kaboodle rolling again (unless you were on a
downhill).  Yes, cranking the car at stoplights was occasionally
embarrassing.  Not to mention the futility of developing  the useless skill
that was required to judge stopping distance not based on your actual ability
to stop, but rather the likelihood that the engine would die in first gear
before you could get moving again. This was all partially compensated by the
fact that people couldn't believe it  worked...and then we took off like
banshees.

We put about five miles on the starter, in total.

Of course, with four people, a hill, and a full tank and trunk, that poor
starter worked awfully hard to motivate the I-5.

What ultimately killed that car was not mechanical failure, but a guy making
an illegal U-Turn out of a one-way street.  His car got the worst of it, with
a cracked engine block and a destroyed battery.  The Audi wobbled back to the
driveway, bruised and broken, clutchless,  still spinning (noisily),
transmission intact.  

I'm convinced we could have lasted another six months without a clutch had it
not been for his negligence and impatience.   We still got $850 for the car
from a guy who needed the rims and the other (unbroken) bits.

Cheers!

Alex
'86 5KCSTQ