Mick,

The fact that your Ghia's clutch and tranny are still intact is a testament
to the okayness of slipping the car out of gear when not under load.  As
long as it's done properly, it shouldn't be a problem.

There are a lot of big truck drivers out there that rarely use the clutch
outside of putting their trucks in gear when the truck is standing still.
All subsequent moving shifts are done clutchless.  Not a bad skill for
anyone to learn, so that you can get yourself home when your clutch's cable
breaks or the hydraulic clutch goes kaput.

Cheers,
Doug

 Mick Owens <owens@UH.EDU> 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. By "tapped",
>I mean easing up on the accelerator pedal and just tapping  the gear shift
>lever into neutral without depressing the clutch pedal at all. I don't
>really know it this has contributed to clutch component longevity or not,
>but it seems logical to me that the less one uses a moving part, the longer
>it may last.
>
>Does anyone have a comment on this practice of tapping into neutral without
>depressing the clutch pedal?