AZ climate, I guess.
Possibly you never noticed in AZ temperatures. The water evaporated before it emulsified.
Distilled water might have helped preserve the aluminum block, too.
I think they usually stayed upright. Just lucky if there was nothing in the way.
IIRC, back in the 1960s. Not a fully centrifugal clutch, but very light springs, assisted by bob weights. Idling, you could push it out with one finger. Revving, it got tighter. Problem was, the springs got weak, and it would actually stay disengaged idling.
The one I saw was a home market 2CV, in France, about 1970.
I remember those. Infinitely variable transmission using vee belts and expanding pulleys. Well, Holland is pretty flat :-)
Ah! The joys of our youth! It's funny now, but I don't recall that it was amusing then ;-)
...Jim Thompson
Apparently they were only fitted on the few manufactured in Slough (UK), about 1953 onwards.
Paul Burke
I had a Citroen Ami 6 with that. The Ami was the same chassis and (600cc) engine as the 2CV, but with a heavier, estate-car type body. We called it the Clockwork Rat.
Once my sister-in-law was driving it, and she forgot about the unusual gearchange gate arrangement in the summer queue to turn right to Chatsworth House. She pushed it into gear straight forwards, jackrabbited the clutch, the car took off backwards- and with that clutch it was virtually unstallable. About three miles of queue behind us did likewise in a great hurry.
That was about 3 months before the carburetter caught fire.
Paul Burke
Especially when you found out where it's been.
...Kiss my ars[enic]!
Tim
-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:
Hello John,
Oh yes. Didn't you hate that "ka-cloink" sound when the bowden wire to the clutch went?
The worst I had in my Citroen 2CV was when shifting one-two- thr....whoopsa, there was the engine revving up and the whole stick coming out of the dash. In the middle of rush hour traffic. Luckily fixing that car rarely took more than some scrap wire and a few minutes.
Shortly after that I picked up a hitchhiker and when he saw a bent welding rod coming out of the dash instead of the usual stick his face turned pale.
The synchromesh in a lot of those types of cars tended to vanish over time. I guess the cost reducers figured that you'd be able to shift without after a few years of practice. So they might those rings kind of smallish.
Regards, Joerg
With AMIs like that, who needs ennemis?
A l'eau, c'est l'heure.
Paul Burke
Un petit d'un petit s'étonne aux Halles ... (;-)
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