OK, heres a weird one.

Riding with my friend in my old car: 82 245T, M46 trans. We get to the end of my street and POP, clutch pedal hits the floor.

We'd just been talking about the firewall starting to crack on this car... I'd had trouble getting a good clutch adjustment out of it back when I owned it. I had a tremendously stiff original clutch cable, so replaced it with a new FCP one, made by PEX or some such no-name euro aftermarket brand, and probably made in Mexico... anyway it installed fine and worked fine but I did have trouble with the length, chalked it up to the clutch being worn out.

After a later clutch replacement (non-intercooled car, intercooled power, small clutch = fried!) the adjustment seemed correct and the clutch felt good anyway.

But of course the firewall was weak at the "usual spot" at the top cable entry. No big deal, he was planning to reinforce it or if needed, replace the black sheetmetal panel (ugh!).

But today, just as we're driving, it breaks, we bang into first and drive to the stop sign, turn it off and then bump-start it on the starter once the road is clear, and drive back to my house. What we didn't realize immediately is that the cable broke, and the big weight/bottom cable retainer fell off out the bottom of the car, probably got dragged a couple hundred feet, then fell off.

We found it later, and it had been run over and split in half, damn the luck. So we got a new cable, no problem and we NEED the cast retainer/C-shaped piece for the bottom end of the cable. Would like to find it somewhere locally, as none of our junkyards are open Sundays and the same with the shops.

Has anyone got one of these on a junk 240 manual trans car anywhere in southern New England? We'll drive and pick it up! Thanks!
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::: Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 92 244 M47 211K ::: 90 745GL M47 273K ::: 88 245DL AW70 190K ::: 84 242DL Project ::: 70 VW Bus ::: 70 VW Pickup Project ::: 71 VW Notchback :::