My 3.0/6 convertsion sthas run perfectly this year and I've haven't had to do anything other than fill the tank and check the oil. It's down to the last days of the season so I've been driving every chance I can get. I had to get a MRI on my back in downtown Toronto, my appointment was at 2am this morning, since no traffic I took the 914. Done at just before 4am, I get back in the teen for the hour+ drive home almost to the highway and ....
BAM!!!!
Clutch pedel right to the floor.

4am, no way am I calling a flatbed, I'd be lucky if I got home before 9am. So can you short shift a 914? Yes you can, but it's not really happy about it. It wouldn't go into 4th so I had to use 5th (flipped HB) and drive 90 mph all the way home. Luckily it was all highway and no cops were around.

Also found out the little Oyddssy 680 will start the /6 in 2nd.

I'm beat....6am... time for bed.

The P-car is a jealous mistress. You need to pay more attention to her

Hope your back is ok. Make your son do all the heavy lifting around the shop. That's why we have 'em

Glad you were able to make it and hope your MRI turns out good.

So when I started reading this, I thought for certain you mistyped AM for PM, but then realized you didn’t. Healthcare appointments in NC are only during business hours. I’m guessing healthcare in Canada is way different?

At least at that time AM you could do the lug down to no stop stop sign roll throughs without anyone around and no one was around to see the starter motor in gear start out.

Been there done that at least once.

A good PC 680 is an amazing battery!!

BTDT, probably twice. Once it was at 5PM on a Friday, so no chance of finding parts. I assume you have a spare on hand.

Can't start a modern stick in gear anymore but can shift through the gears easily.
914 ? starts in gear just fine.....finding up or down shifts ? ....that can get messy.

I call that the 914 Love... The car came to your rescue and made it home. Hope your MRI turns out okay.

Yep happened to me on the 2013 WCR. Fortunately I had a few friends with me.

Hope your MRI goes well, Mark - and thanks for the post - it'll help if I get stuck in the mountains with no clutch - they call 'em hills here, but I grew up in the delta (NOLA), so they're still twisty mountain roads to me!

Hey Mark - I hope the MRI does not reveal any structural issues. It is a bitch to have back problems. I took a baseball bat to the low back in San Francisco in 1983. Thank God I was in excellent physical condition at the time. I was back on the job within 6 weeks. They wanted to do surgery but I have been able to get by without surgery thus far.

My twin-brother just had an MRI last week and is now in the process of getting his 3rd back surgery approved and this time they will fuse 3 lower disks. The worst part- they go through the front to do this.....I am hoping they can get it approved and scheduled for the first part of December as the recovery, following a 5 day hospital "vacation" is then going to be about 4 months. I am going to make sure his Will, Trust and DPA Advanced Medical Directive are all in place prior to the surgery.

Your mad 914 driving skills got you home, sans clutch no less!

Some diagnostic centers are open for imaging at all hours of the night. I had an appointment for one last year at 11:00 PM

Hope the findings indicate that a good outcome is possible, Mark.

I posted from a tablet and I was dead tired.

This was at a hospital, most big centers have to have at least one MRI running 24/7, so appointments can be 24/7 as well. Last year at this time I couldn't walk without a walker, L4-5, lifting too many engines in my youth. I got a CT guided shot and it patched me up, this was just a follow up.

The drive was great till the clutch excitement, chilly with no heat, dark, overcast but dry, almost no traffic. Toronto's Don Valley Parkway is usually a parking lot, but with no traffic it's a cool winding highway into the bright lights of the city.
I've gone through a few cables, I once drove my bus 2.5 hours home from a show with no clutch, my bug was flat bedded a couple years ago as the starter wasn't strong enough.
I did have a spare in the 914 but I wasn't going to change the cable, it was flatbed or grind them time.

Still daylight in Canukistan at 2am this time of year.

Hope you back get better Mark.

I had a similar issue lasting almost all of 2019. A spine surgeon took care of a double side severely pinched sciatic nerve condition and spinal stenosis (L4/L5) back in February of 2020, just before 'covid' placed a damper on elective surgeries.

On the table for 1.5 hours, the procedure only left a 1" scar and I felt immediate relief. In less than two months, I was back to doing normal chores, including a home remodel project.

They can do some awesome spinal repairs these days.

My first car 57 Baja Bug lost clutch cables all the time before I figured out a solution. Luckily that car could go up/down through the gears without problem which was nice out in the boonies.
It also had a motor by the great Lee Leighton that would fire right up in 1st. I wouldn't want that to happen in my current 914....
I have had many a OMG in the night radiological visit by appt here in Cali so it depends on the provider I suppose.
Well wishes with the vertebral issues.

Now I have the Drowning Pool song in my head...which isn't necessarily a bad thing...

(R.I.P. Dave Williams)

We'll see but that may well be the last run for the year anyways, we have a few flakes falling here, they'll start salting soon.

You're welcome...at least it wasn't Barney..."I love you, you love me"....

Well, that was unneccesary...

BTDT!

Lost clutch actuation on my 85 Vanagon on I15 in the middle of the California desert when moving from Utah one time in the days before cell phone coverage in that area.

I was just a kid but knew the theory and figured it out. Starting in 1st and rev matched shifts for the win.

Another one of those things they should teach in drivers ed.... along with driving a manual in the first place

My dad has us all beat on these stories, in his '84 vanagon for about 5 years he drove it to Acapulco, 4600 km or 2900 miles each way. Going through the mountains his whole shiftier broke off, suddenly he was surrounded by an army convoy with guns telling him he couldn't stay there. In broken engilish/spanish he managed to explain the issue, the lieutenant barked some orders, they jammed a screwdriver in the shifter stub and drove him down the mountain.

He got the shifter welded for a couple bucks, the next year he burned out his brakes on the same mountain, fixed for $25 USD, tools in sheds, lift was a hole in the ground and the guy made the pads. I inspected the work and left it on. Next year fuel pump and getting stuck in some Buttfuch town for a week was the last driving to Mexico trip for him.
Not bad for a guy in his early/mid-70's, he had a serviced campground site on the ocean just north of the city.

My 914 season is done, we got an inch of snow last night, no rush on the cable now.