Episode#60: The first time I changed a clutch was in the street in front of my in-laws house

 When I met Carol Ann her brother law Jimmy drove a small pick up truck that was branded under the name Datsun. This was many years before Nissan bought out Datsun. It was a cool little truck, it was small and easy to get around town in. His was a 1973 white truck with a cute little 4 speed standard shift transmission and was a solid little truck and I really liked it. Growing up all my dad drove was the half ton Ford truck with a full 8' long bed. The first one I remember was a light blue1967 with a standard shift known as a 3 on a tree. That being the shifter was on the steering column an with no air conditioner. The next one he bought was in 1972 which was blue and white and was an automatic transmission and it did have air conditioning. 

In 1976 I bought a 1972 Datsun pickup from a friend of Jimmy's that looked almost identical except it was red in color and Larry had taken off the factory 14" rear tires and replaced them with 15" Firestone Super All Traction (or mud grips as they were called then) tires. These larger wheels and much higher profile tires raised the rear of the truck some, which was kind of the style long before the 'low rider' look was popular.

The look and the longevity of the tires on the rear was one thing, but the other was the taller tires had a negative effect on the accuracy of the speedometer. When it showed I was traveling at 55 mph I was actually going about 62 mph. The other thing was the premature wear on the clutch plate and throw-out bearing which completely went out.

I did not have the money to replace it right away and had to save for the expense for a couple of weeks and I certainly did not have the money to pay a mechanic to replace it, so I had to figure out how to do this on my own and without the help of YOUTUBE. 

During this time I babied it as much as I could by slowing down long before red lights so not having to start from 1st gear and shifting the transmission by timing the engine speed (shifting without using the clutch) and it lasted longer than I thought it might but the last week or so I had to start it in gear. Thankfully the truck was small and light weight or it would not have lasted that long. 

When I had saved the money I ordered the parts and they came in to the auto parts store the next day. Next I drive to Tom and Mary's house and pull up with the right side tires on the curb and the left side in the street so I have room to work under the truck without having to jack it up and secure it with blocks

I had to borrow the tools to do this work as everything on a Datsun is metric and I had no metric tools, but I got it tore down and back together that day. Probably much longer than it should have, but at the end of the day I drove that truck home with a new clutch and did it myself.

A couple of cool memories about this truck:

We lived in the country in a mobile home that my grandparents bought and was on my parents property. Paw Paw died in June of 1976 and Granny moved to an assisted living facility in Denton later that summer and we moved in to that home. This mobile home sat about a quarter mile down the gravel rode from my folks house. I taught Carol Ann how to drive a standard shift transmission in this little pickup. After showing her the basics, she made countless trips up and down that gravel road by herself until she was proficient at shifting it.

A year or so later after Carol Ann learned how to drive and shift this little pickup we had a very cold and wet winter and had ice a couple of times. One day we had an ice storm hit while we were at work and on our way home we have a difficult hill to to drive up to get home. As I am driving us home that day the back end of this little pickup kept sliding off the road. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I got out and Carol slid over behind the steering wheel. As she eased it into gear, I held the back end of the truck from sliding into the ditch and we made it up the hill and on home without any other issue. 

I know this sounds hard to believe, this is the way it happened. The little pick up was so light weight especially the back end, all I needed to do was to keep the rear tires from sliding off the highway. On this day I was really glad I had taught her how to drive this little compact truck.