10-4 on the bad day....

last week i was driving up a hill on my way to work. of course i was running late for a meeting on campus. hit the clutch to shift into 2nd and felt a snap and then the clutch wouldn't release. after the appropriate x-rated incantations, managed to pull the right right hand lane and take a handy side street to get out of traffic, found a circle to drive around and then had to time a left hand turn across 3 lanes without stopping for the sign. did i mention that i was still in 1st gear this whole time ( about 3K rpm). finally got home and managed to time it into the garage and killed it just in time to keep it from hitting the workbench at the end.

by that time i was 15 min late for a 60min meeting. jumped on my bike rode out the driveway to find that it would shift out of top gear. and since there were three long "steep" hills and i would make it for the last 5 mins of the meeting, i decided that the jeep gods were trying to tell me something. so to appease them i went back home to phone that i would miss the meeting and be "working" at home that morning aka.. check out zed.

looked underneath and discovered frame bracket for the clutch control lever tube had bend and finally snapped. (so THAT'S why the clutch suddenly needed adjusting this past winter....

it apparently had been also been welded before across the bolt hole.

wound up heating up a 1/8 x 1" length of steel so i could bend it in the right shape. drilled it. and put it in.

at least it was more fun than the meeting was going to be.... and at least it didn't happen when i was doing some solo "mini mudding" across town the evening before.

 

I feel for you. My jeep is still driveable, just looks like hell!

 

Yeeeooouch!!! :evil:

 

It's amazing how things can snowball. Glad it all worked out

 

Any day I'm @ work makes it a bad day. Would rather be under the jeeps

Glad you had an easy fix.

I need more

 

That bracket there is broken.

Oh wait, I see you mentioned that. Glad it was an easy fix and you were able to time everything just right. I know how hard it is when you are in traffic, stuck in gear, and have no clutch pedal.

 

actually that pretty much describes some of the days i've had at work latelyR)

better now though. and the the fabbed bracket works smooth (omg.. hope i didn't jinx it....

 

Quick, find some wood to knock on.....Oh, nevermind. It never works for me. I have even tried knocking on wood with a sledge hammer and it still never works. Sometimes, I have the worst luck of anybody I know.

 

Sounds all too familiar. I had the same bracket break on me about 10 miles from home. It was pretty fun shifting without the clutch, just had to turn it off at the stoplights.
I ordered a new bracket and had a big washer welded on to the new one to beef it up a little.

 

yup, loosing the clutch and learning how to shift on the fly was one of my more interesting days... loosing brakes in the middle of downtown atl and getting back home in one peice was also an interesting experience.

good to see ya got it under control.