Clutch what am I doing wrong?

I may be wrong, and am quite often........

It used to be that NO throttle was necessary when releasing the clutch....

However, you MUST be in the proper gear !!!

Maybe that has all changed, if so.........

NEVERMIND !!!!!

 

condo cruiser said it good --about the twist---
just pretend you are pulling your foot off of a landmine------nice and slow--then once you are moving --you can get on the throttle

 

Yep! and if you do it wrong..... BOOM!!!!!

 

hmmmm thats giving me a good traing idea les---too many clutch screw ups and it blows off your left foot--and you get stuck driving an automatic

 

The problem is that with this truck there IS no movement except backwards. If you take your foot off of the clutch at all, the truck stalls or rolls backwards in third gear. Sometimes even when hitting the throttle at the same time the truck stalls.

Also note that I was not the only one having the issue. There was another student that was having the same issue. So I am beginning to wonder if it is in fact the truck having mechanical issues?

 

Where is your right foot? It should ALWAYS be on the brake. If you're rolling backwards you have bigger problems than stalling the truck. They wont flunk you out of school for stalling a truck, they will instantly kick you out of school if you roll backwards and hit another vehicle.

You do NOT feed the truck the fuel pedal until the clutch is engaged.

This vaguely reminds me of my truck school days way back when. They had an old International cab over with a Detroit. If ya stalled the motor you could actually get the engine to run backwards. Seen it happen, was way cool looking. Black smoke from the air filter and it sucked in through the stacks.

Knightlock, keep the faith, you'll figure it out. Believe it or not about a year from now you'll look back and be able to laugh about your current troubles. Clutching becomes seconds nature after a while.

 

Well guess what...

I went to the school today and discovered that I was right! The truck IS having mechanical issues. In fact it has been put "out of service."

I talked to the mechanic at the school and they decided to check the truck out and found out that the truck is having problems as a result it is no longer on the road at this point.

 

Trust me my foot under normal circumstances would ALWAYS be over the break. The problem was that the clutch would not catch (which they have discovered was in fact a mechanical issue with the truck.)

 

There is no need to throttle it when taking off, if you are in the right gear. If your instructor is trying to get you to take your foot off the brake, jab the throttle and ease out the clutch at the same time? You are just working too hard.

Here is the best way to do it. Put the transmission in the right gear. (make sure you are in low range) With your right foot on the break, holding the truck in place, ease you clutch up until you FEEL it start pulling. While it is pulling, let off of the brake. When you do this, start easing up on the clutch and the truck will start pulling away from the stop.

Most of the time the students are killing it because they don't trust that huge diesel engine to be able to pull itself away from a stop without gassing it.

Trust me, it will be more than happy to idle itself from a stop if you trust it will do it. I hope this helps.

Is there a chance that this truck has a hydraulic clutch like the Volvo's do? I taught in a Volvo that seemed to have a very limited clutch "window" and after looking it over had to add some brake fluid to it and bleed the slave cylinder. After that it worked perfect.

 

That was the first thing that had me thinking that there was an issue with the truck. The instructor was telling me to hit the throttle as I was taking my foot off of the clutch. But like I said they took that truck out of service for mechanical problems so I would think that solves the issue.