Hey Eric,

Shifting without a clutch, forget standstill, is obvious in theory but takes practice in reality .

I had to stop twice on a fairly busy road at the beginning of trip back home as I missed shift. Stop, engine off, get in first, starter crank start…

But after that I got it. For reasons I’ll assume the worn syncros, up shifting trickier than down.

Alistair 

> On May 5, 2021, at 6:26 PM, Eric Caron <ericcaron96@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Wow!
> 
> I want the ability to shift without a clutch. 
> 
> Oh hell, I just want the ability to drive!
> 
> These vans, and yours in particular have great karma.
> 
> This is a good time of year to get the work done. Warmer, and motivation to have it up again for main part of summer.
> 
> Keep us posted.
> Eric Caron 
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 5, 2021, at 8:53 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA> wrote:
>> 
>> Driving to work, new shop further away than old one, clutch pedal suddenly did not depress. Hard, firm.
>> 
>> Made it to work without clutch. The clutch lever at trans is full down, won’t stay up. It’s either fork inside broken or clutch springs themselves hooped.
>> 
>> Got back home at end of work day with my wife running interference and back up in her truck :-)
>> 
>> I’ll be dropping trans and engine together this weekend. 
>> 
>> It’s actually a blessing in disguise. I have done nothing about new engine and now is a good time forced on me.
>> 
>> Plus I can restore all the nagging worn out things… like shift rod leaking a bit on trans, clean up tranny, maybe drop gas tank ( Syncro ) and do all the usual stuff on that .
>> 
>> And either go over the engine fully and keep, or new engine ( if some local leads come thru)
>> 
>> This van has always been reliable and when it does fail it does so in a fashion where I can either do an on the road fix, or it’s happened near home.
>> 
>> Alistair 
>