[sudev]

@iFule : You hit the formula by hit and trial. What moved you to try it was that you were stranded with little or no hope of assistance. That is why the thread was started.

Your experience also throws up confirmation that gears boxes with synchro do not spoil all that easily. After all you drove almost 200kms??

[ukderebail]

To be frank i am afraid to try it on my car this experiment, but i have tried and succeeded in a two wheeler. Just start the vehicle on neutral and push the vehicle forward and jump on to the vehicle and engage the second gear, because first gear will give jerks. But at signal points one has to engage first gear to keep the vehicle in control. It is really funny but practical experience to ensure that one reaches the garage to fix the problem.

[architect]

Have driven my Bajaj Super and my Bajaj Pulsar multiple times without clutch (clutch cable breakage is something most bikers are familiar with). In my scooter, I also often had to deal with one of the gear shifter cables snapping (up-shift or down-shift).

Without a tacho, I could shift gears simply by trying what Sudev said, gentle pressure on the shifter and waiting for the "sweet spot". Typically upshifting in this manner is much easier than downshifting. Have driven my bike on 2nd - 3rd gear multiple times in Delhi traffic like this.

With the car, there are two additional problems: starting the car and basically a much bigger potential repair bill. But then, as pointed out so many times, this is a thread for emergencies! Stranded somewhere I would rather drive for 200 km on 2nd / 3rd gear than think of saving a gearbox component.

Question to professors: Most truck and bus drivers seem to shift without using clutch pedal (old DTC buses included). So is it because they KNOW the sweet spot?

[sudev]

Not a professor by any stretch of imagination but answer is yes. The sweet spot is when two rotating gears have same revolutions and all it takes to engage them is a little push.

[sudev]

Last week drove from Apollo Hospital Okhla Delhi to Badkhal Chowk Faridabad during day traffic without using the clutch. This included stop at Toll Naka enroute and three traffic signals.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by sudev

Simple!! try it. And repeat for next and next gear.

@sudev: Old habits die hard. Had to do what your thread advises, a few times in the good old Morris8/Amby/Premier days - and had to do the same today.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

...near INA Market on the Barapullah Road, about 11-12 km from home, at 3:30 PM. Drove home on 1st & 2nd gears through traffic - the how of it is eminently described in sudev's thread.

[sudev]

@SS-T : Yes your ordeal in ownership thread. Hope this came in handy.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by sudev

@SS-T : Yes your ordeal in ownership thread. Hope this came in handy.

Thank you. I completely agreed with your posts regarding how to do this (and I am equally adept at doing it too), hence I had not added anything to the thread earlier!

[anandpadhye]

Finally, last week, the clutch cable of my 11 years old Suzuki Fiero snapped while on the way to office. Walked around in the radius of 1 km - no local mechanic wanted to give it a try saying Fiero clutch cable is not available, etc. I even asked them to replace it with some other jugaad cable from Bajaj, etc but they all were acting as if Fiero was manufactured on Mars...

FInally, I tried pulling the snapped end of the cable with left hand - just impossible.

Then traced the cable to the other end where it was connected to the spring loaded lever on the top of gear-box. I pushed the lever by hand and i could change to neutral. So decided to operate the clutch directly using this lever - with my right foot. In a couple of attempts, got a hang of how much accelarator input would be required to get off in to 1st without stalling (operating the lever by foot meant I could not slip the clutch) and finally mastered it - made it to office in 1st and second.

After this drama, I was looking at various bikes in the parking - many HH bikes have this clutch lever mounted on the rear vertical wall of the GB. Thank god Fiero was better designed - suits emergency mechanical operation.

Throughout the act, it never occured to me that I could try to match the revs and change gears without clutch!

Cheers!

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

In a couple of attempts, got a hang of how much accelarator input would be required to get off in to 1st without stalling (operating the lever by foot meant I could not slip the clutch) and finally mastered it - made it to office in 1st and second.

The best way to start off in a bike without clutch is to manually "dhakka start"

After which you don't ever need the clutch, whatever be it, unless you are crawling at dead speeds.

[sudev]

Much more easier in bikes to change gears without clutch because of sequential nature of shifter. At one point - long long time back when I was in college - this method of shifting was especially employed when "drag" racing with others since that meant only changing up. Oh miss driving "Yezdi"

[headers]

Originally Posted by sudev

Much more easier in bikes to change gears without clutch because of sequential nature of shifter. At one point - long long time back when I was in college - this method of shifting was especially employed when "drag" racing with others since that meant only changing up. Oh miss driving "Yezdi"

But yezdi has an automatic cam operated clutch..so no worries even if one does not use the hand lever..

[anujatwork]

Amazing thread, I must say!

My Baleno's clutch wire snapped day before yesterday, fortunately at home. While I didn't have to scurry to find a rescue crane but I needed to somehow drive it to MSSD (Naraina), about 15 KM from my place. I don't like to let road-side mechanics peep into my cars' hoods!

As usual I peeped into Team-BHP threads and found the one I was looking for. I found out from MSSD that they open at 7:30 AM to accept cars. Min temp in Delhi was 2 deg C but I woke up at 6:30 AM and warmed up the engine in neutral for 5 minutes. Once done, I cranked the engine in 2nd gear & drove in 2nd all the way in a very low rev. Thanks to less traffic & timing halt-avoidance with a precision seen only in rocket-lift-offs, I reached my destination despite multiple signals/crossings/bullock carts without a single halt!

Kudos to you guys for how-to-do-it!

P.S.: Not sure what a reasonable towing charge is but Rs 100 what I would have spent as fuel, someone mentioned Rs 1500 as towing charge for the same distance.

P.S.2: M-O-S does not have the capability to tow sedans. They offer to do it only for hatches by tying it to their ECCO/VERSA. Stated by M-O-S guy himself.

[vsathyap]

Brilliant thread! I'd like to add my experience to this thread too. Sometime back, after driving through horrible city traffic for over 1.5 hours, my left leg was feeling very heavy and lazy. While changing gears from 1st to 2nd in B2B traffic, I realized I had done something and my car didn't punish me for it. I was surprised that day when this happened and had forgotten all about it but, reading this thread thread brought back that moment of "oh wow.. interesting..!!" back to my mind.

OK - here's what happened. I had slotted the gear lever from 1st to neutral (by fully pressing the clutch as usual) and as it was constant B2B traffic, I was just coasting on neutral and didn't have the patience or the energy to shift gears frequently over and over. So, am coasting in neutral around 10-15 kmph and suddenly the traffic ahead cleared. Without realizing, I had slotted into second and was moving ahead by stepping on the gas - and I had not used the clutch to engage the 2 gear. I realized this the very next second as I was trying to adjust the elastic of the socks I had worn that time and my fingers were still trying to move the elastic around my left leg. I was like WOAH!!! How did that happen!?!?

I just realized after reading this thread that I had indeed slotted into 2nd from Neutral and didn't really have to use the clutch! The thread brought back some memories indeed!

[audioholic]

When our Omni had a fried clutch, it was just being used to move the car from stand still. If you get the revvs right, you do not need the clutch to upshift. Practised this before finally getting the clutch changed, and now the car is sold. Downshifting is an issue, but if revvs are low, fourth to third and third to second is quite efforless. Downshifting to first caused some grinding noise. In the other gears, no noise at all.