[maf 914]

JP,

Your clutch cable failure reminds me of mine. I was about two miles from home approaching a stop sign at a tee intersection. As I pushed in the clutch to shift into first I felt or heard a bang and the clutch pedal let go. I guessed clutch cable and it was. I pushed the car off the road and walked to a house nearby where the resident kindly allowed me to use the phone to arrange a tow with my sister's van. It didn't occur to me that the cable end and trunion had parted company. We got the car home where I replaced the broken cable with my spare cable and trunion. I drove back to the intersection, looked around and found the cable end with lock nuts and trunion lying in the road, a little pitted from being run over and ground into the pavement, but still usable.

I had a spare cable and trunion due to past experience. The first failure I experienced was a gradual failure of the original equipment trunion that came on the car. It was made from what appeared to be a nylon plastic, and the ears that mate to the clutch arm distorted until they failed, conveniently in my driveway! The car was about three years old at the time. The replacement trunion was metal as have been the ones I have bought since. I guess they wisely gave up on the plastic version.

The clutch cable, trunion and lock nuts are must-have spares, along with a throttle cable.

Mike