A good friend of mine in So. Cal has over 290K on his
86 GL Vanagon.  It is all original except for new
heads at about 140K.  His van is still going very
strong and still takes him to all the various art
shows hauling his potery and all the desert campout
trips.  He does not baby it but he does not push it
too beyond its limits (like trying to cruz at 80MPH on
US395 on the way to Bishop).

Cheers,

Joel Cort
with an 89 Syncro with 100675 miles on the original
clutch.

--- Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM> wrote:
> I have 162k+ on the original clutch in my Jetta TD.
> I always let is idle in neutral, and never
> accelerate hard until the clutch
> is fully engaged...or is it DIS-engaged??? Either
> way, when leaving a stop,
> I accelerate gently until the crank speed and input
> shaft speed are equal,
> then I nail it to the floor until I change gears. I
> don't downshift/clutch
> brake very often, and when I do, I match the speed
> with the throttle before
> releasing the clutch.
>
> G. Matthew Bulley
> Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
> www.bulley-hewlett.com
> Cary, NC USA
> 888.468.4880 tollfree
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   Austin [SMTP:austins@IX.NETCOM.COM]
> Sent:   Tuesday, June 29, 1999 9:34 PM
> To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject:        Re: Clutch Use/NEW THREAD??
>
> At 12:40 PM 6/29/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >I've been reading the traffic regarding pressure on
> the clutch pedal while
> >in idle, and I offer the following.
> >
> >I am the original owner of a 1973 Ghia Vert. It has
> ~95K on the ORIGINAL
> >clutch (all components). I do drive conservatively,
> and have always
> >"tapped" the transmission into neutral upon coming
> to a stop.......
> >
> >Mick
> >
>
> This is my entry for longest clutch life on the
> list;  '77 Rabbit that
> taught 5 (five!) teenagers to drive in 135K miles.
> At that point rebuilt
> the engine so clutch was replaced while the engine
> was out - Friction
> Materials told me the clutch disc wasn't even half
> gone!
>
> Austin
>

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