Re: Emergency driving - Without clutch I've come across a situation of clutch hydraulic failure in my W123 Mercedes Benz, the flexi pipe connecting the master cylinder to the slave cylinder developed a crack which went unnoticed and it finally ripped apart. it was so bad i couldn't shift into any gear with the engine running even after pumping the clutch repeatedly, all it did was spew fluid all over the carpet. so then i decided to leave the car until its late enough for traffic to clear, and i returned with my dad to fetch the car at 1 AM. Yes, i Could not sleep as i was thinking of different ways to get the car home safely, so i had to drag my dad out of bed and took him along. We tried rowing the car with my dad's but the rope just wouldn't hold as it was too old. Now, i had no other option but to do things the hard way, i slot it into 1st with the engine off and then cranked the starter and got the car to move, in about 2 cranks the engine would start running and we had movement. I'd get the car to about 1500 rpms and shifted to 2nd smoothly, i shifted upto 3rd gear and kept moving at a good pace. But then, i knew there were a couple of working traffic lights even at this hour at the bypass road so i had to do stop. i simply took it off gear and coasted to the traffic light and stopped and switched off the engine. and when the lights went green i simply repeated the crank and move method and this time it was much effortless as the engine was warm so it fired up in just one crank. i managed to get home safely and the next day fitted a good flexi pipe and bled the clutch. the pipe was about 400 rupees and 250ml of fluid and i only took 20 mins to fit the pipe and with my dad pumping the clutch, I bled it and the car was up and running in just 30 mins. Job done!! |