Clutching at a straw
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No clutch fluid so I had to use water
ONE OF the modifications I have made to my vehicle, which although frowned upon at the time by its maker has certainly cured the rash of cooling-system troubles it suffered from new, is the addition of a four-gallon header tank.
But although it was done for the purpose described above, it also, on a baking summer day last year, served another purpose for which, even in my wildest dreams, it was never intended to do, l was running back from the West Country on a July Saturday afternoon, and as usual the Exeter by-pass was solid with traffic. On my way up from Hayle I had made one or two horrible gear shifts which, I had told myself, were because I had had a very long and hard week, and was quite naturally tired and therefore not quite on the ball.
After about 15 minutes of creeping up on the by-pass, however, I realised that slowly but very surely my clutch operation was failing.
When it got to the point where I could no longer engage a gear from standstill I plonked myself firmly in the middle of the carriageway and let a gap open up ahead of me I then stopped the engine, engaged the crawler gear, pushed out the next-to-useless clutch, and gave the starter a firm push.
Reluctantly the engine turned and fired and I let the motor trickle along still holding the centre of the carriageway so that thoughtless car drivers would not block my margin of movement.
I managed to keep going for about a mile until a vacant spot on a lay-by appeared and I poked the poor old girl into it.
A quick check around the mechanism showed me that I should have looked at it earlier in the week, for it was obvious there was a fluid leak which was some days old.
By the time I had -Shanks Ponied" to the nearest garage
to buy some fluid, it was early evening and all I had been able to get were two small 4oz car-size tins. I used up the best part of the fluid by the time I had got it through and bled the system.
The leak was from the
clutch slave cylinder, and after a friendly motorist had sat with his foot on the pedal for me, I could see very well that the rubbers in the cylinder must be in a bad state, for now the fluid was coming out very fast. -Well let's get on,I thought, "no use sitting here looking at It.
After another 35 minutes of the by-pass I managed to get to the end. The new motorway might prove an embarrassment if we packed up in a traffic jam I thought, so I elected to shoot off through Honiton and take my chance up the A303.
It was now 8.45 pm and I was driving -Scammell style" without using the clutch for rolling gear changes. That way I would conserve my precious fluid and with luck have sufficient clutch movements left to get me back to Essex.
There's a quote from somewhere which goes something like "the best laid plans of mice and men,and that's what happened to me, for. 16 miles west of Andover at just after 10.30 traffic came to a standstill for nearly half an
hour and them moved in fits and starts.
Halfway through the blockage — it was a caravan with a collapsed hub — I was in trouble again, and despite topping up with my last drop of fluid soon lost my clutch completely.
I employed my previous technique to keep moving past the obstruction and once clear, found a quiet spot to park.
Saturday night at 11 pm is not the best time to try to raise a repair agent, and anyway I was a long way from a 'phone and short of cash. The principle of hydraulics is that you cannot compress liquids. It does not matter what the liquid is it will always occupy the same volume of space.
In a clutch operating kit therefore, as your left foot presses down the pedal,causing the piston to move along the master cylinder, the fluid in it will be displaced along the pipe to the slave and force the piston in it to move along against the clutch operating lever.
My problem was that I had insufficient liquid to compress. well hydraulic fluid anyway. My fluid reservoir held just about 12oz of fluid, just over half a pint. My header tank held 640oz, four gallons, and working on the basis that a master and slave cylinder would cost a lot less than either calling out a breakdown unit or replacing a damaged gearbox, I proceeded to connect a syphon pipe from the header tank filler into the top of the fluid reservoir by means of yards of black plastic tape.
Well of course it did not work quite like it does when filled with hydraulic'fluid, but work it did for long enough to get me home in the early hours of Sunday. And, at the end of the journey I had used about two gallons of water out of the header tank.
A repair kit for both master and slave cylinders was all that was needed to put us back in operation. But even if I had had to buy new units it would have been cheaper by far than getting someone out to me.