I could have Googled how a clutch actually works, but I
decided just to wing it. When a manual drive car is in gear and moving, the
clutch is engaged. A plate is against another plate (it’s either the flywheel
or somehow attached to the flywheel). So these two plates are engaged with each
other, they turn the flywheel. The flywheel is then magically and mysteriously
attached to the transmission(or the other way around) and something or nuther
turns the axle. The axle,through the differential turns the wheels. The wheels
touch the pavement and make the car go forward (or backward as the case may be).
The “girl” I was dating in 1975 had just reached “girlfriend”
status. We had been friends for over a year, but had decided to be out with our
feelings for each other. My car at the time, which looking back, is my favorite car
of all the cars I’ve owned. Anyway, that’s not a complete sentence. My car at
the time was a yellow 1973 Mercury Capri. The
Capri was a “German built” American car. With its twin cam engine and four on
the floor, it would fly. Those twin cams emitted a high whine that made it sound real cool when accelerating. And that German built stereo system was the most
balanced stereo of any car I’ve owned. I
so enjoyed driving that car. And since
my friend had reached girlfriend status, I decided to let her drive it too. She
was a good driver and I wasn’t concerned about her crashing my car, but she had
a very bad habit. She rode the clutch!
Now back to my mechanical expertise.
When you depress the clutch pedal those two plates separate and they
disengage and the car coasts to a stop. So when you “mash the clutch”
pedal you’re actually separating the clutch from the flywheel. As I said above,
when you let the clutch pedal out, the plates engage and the car moves. This is why you depress the pedal to disengage the engine when you're changing gears. When
you’re stopped on a slight incline (or a severe incline), you have two choices with
what to do with the clutch. The first choice, and the best one is to depress the
clutch pedal (which disengages the clutch), depress the brake (which stops the
car from rolling into the car behind you or back down the hill) and let the
engine idle.The tricky part is when you move your
brake foot from the brake to the accelerator at the same time, the car starts rolling backwards; you gradually release
the clutch pedal at the exact same time you're pressing the accelerator with the brake foot. Beginners will either stall the engine, burn the tires or actually roll into the car behind them. It’s more of an art
than a science. The other option, which is too horrible to consider, is to “ride
the clutch”. To “ride the clutch”
instead of doing the right thing you leave the pedal out about halfway and let
the clutch and the accelerator hold the car instead of the brake. One thing that happens fairly soon (which should
be an indication that it’s not a good idea) is that you will smell the clutch “burning”.
The first couple of times my girlfriend “rode the clutch” I gently told her
that she needed to fully depress the clutch pedal and hold the car with the
brake and not the clutch. She either
didn’t understand what I was saying or just ignored me since at the next
opportunity she was still “riding the clutch” !!
Since I was now secure in our relationship, I yelled “Please stop riding
the clutch!!” Both of us were shocked by
my response.
So did she stop riding the clutch? I remember that was among
the last times she “road the clutch.” And
was that our last date? If she’ll have
me for four more weeks, we will celebrate our forty third anniversary. A big
part of the secret to such a long and happy relationship is that every car
since the Capri has had an automatic transmission. I could tell you how that works, but I’ll
spare you that explanation. For the record, I understand that now many manual transmission cars have a feature that doesn't allow the car to roll backwards. Where's the fun in that !?
