Help! On the road with a dying clutch!

[Carwcw@aol.com]

Today is day one of my cross-country trip in my new '87 5kcstq. Things were
going great until after our dinner stop. I got in, turned the key while
depressing the clutch (I think I had it in neutral), and the car made a funny
noise instead of the starter turning. I didn't give it too much thought, and I
can't recall the exact sound, unfortunately. Then I turned again and it
started fine, but I couldn't get the shifter into reverse. And I couldn't get
it into first, or second, or.... anything.

I wasn't sure what I'd lost in the clutch or hydraulics, but I figured the
clutch pedal was going to do me little good. I pushed the car back so that it
would be pointed in the right direction, and I prepared to drive it w/o the
clutch, just putting it in 1st before turning the ignition. (Ugly, but I've
done it before on a car when the master went out. It's the starting and
stopping that's so bad.)

Before doing so, I decided to start it up again in neutral, just for the heck
of it. And then I could actually use the clutch and get it in gear--but it
makes a loose rattling noise when you depress the clutch. Not a confidence-
inspiring sound. In this condition, I drove it 1/4 mile or so to the nearest
motel, where I'm now staying, in Needles, CA, a small town near the Arizona
border along I-40. It's roughly 500 miles back to Palo Alto, and Las Vegas is
the closest big city, ~90 miles away (and in the wrong direction).

What happened? The clutch was quite stiff before, compared to other 5kcstq's
I've driven, and it is slightly lighter now, and it makes that rattling noise.
It seems to drive fine still, for now at least.

I am considering ordering the necessary parts tomorrow and having them shipped
to some shop in Albuquerque, if they need to be ordered. Albuquerque is about
500 miles from here, and we were planning to stay there tomorrow night anyway.
But, it may be too optimistic (and risky) to try to make it that far like
this, though it would be all interstate driving. You wouldn't have to have an
Audi-knowledgeable shop do the clutch job, would you? I would think that
that's one 5kcstq system that's not much different than that of other cars.

A huge TIA.

- Wallace White
  '87 5kcstq, 139k 

P.S. I'm using carwcw@aol.com for the road trip, instead of my usual address.