Subject:
                                         Clutchless in California
                                         Time: 10:07 AM      Date:
12/12/95

Called at work yesterday morning by wife:  Stranded at kid's school parking
lot,  clutch suddenly stopped working.  Made arrangements for her and vanagon.
 We are in the midst of our first real winter storm, it is pouring rain and
very windy and is projected to last all week.  Had the van towed to dealer,
couldn't imagine working on it in the street or drive way in this weather,
even if it was just a bad clutch master or slave cylinder.

5 minutes after I hang up, phone rings from #1 son now living in LA.  "Dad -
need advice, my car's clutch doesn't work".    So his car is at a shop -
diagnosis, needs new clutch. ('87 Integra, about 70K miles)

Got a phone call from dealer's shop about the van just now.  Aside from no
power at the shop due to the storm, they believe that something in the clutch
broke, and have to drop the tranny to "look and see".  Current estimate is
$360 to Remove and Replace, possibly another  $290 parts for clutch and stuff.

Now - rumor has it that trouble comes in "3s".  Out in the rain in the company
parking lot sits an '86 used BMW that I bought this August wilth 125K miles on
the original clutch - - I wonder how long before . . . . . . .Marvelous
vehicle to drive, not too bad to do simple maintenance on, but if that's the
original clutch, I have no illusions about it's near term longevity.

Wet and windy in the San Francisco Bay area, with a leaky Patio cover roof
(again for 10 yrs in a row), walting for a brief break in the weather to try
and stop the leak again. . . . .
Harvey

  "AARRRGGHHHH!"