Oh No, Not the Throwout Bearing!

 2023

I was on my way back down to Baja and had just drove into Ensenada. It was early in the morning when I pulled over to look at a big swell that was running.  The waves were breaking over the jetty that protects the shipyard from the ocean.  I have never seen waves big enough to be washing into the shipyard.  Anyway I happen to call my wife Roberta to tell her about the waves when she said that we have a problem back home.  She said we had a leaky hot water heater.  I was all packed and on my way for a 2 month surf trip and now I needed to turn around and head back home. 

Just before I took off for this surf trip there was a slight sound coming from the clutch area. I figured it wasn't sounding too serious and I would address the sound when I got back from this trip.  As I was heading back towards the border the noise kept getting a little more suspect.  Then it would go silent for most of the way back.  When I got to the border in Tijuana the noise started up again then would disappear  but each time it showed up it was when I used the clutch and eventually it began getting louder and louder.  Anyone who has ever been in line at the border knows it is inch by inch to the US border stall. Each time you move with a manual transmission as everyone who has one knows you have to push the clutch in to move the car and by the time you get to the border if you don't have a cramp in your clutch leg you are lucky because that leg close to 500 plus times depending on how far you are in line from the US side.

Well I was 2 1/2 hours of pushing my clutch pedal and by the time I got to the border the noise coming from the clutch  was sounding pretty bad.  I finally made it to the border then onto my house which is 25 miles from the border.  I pull into my driveway and shut off the engine. The next day I'm under Big Red and getting ready to take off the clutch inspection cover. When I take off the cover the bearings from the throwout bearing come falling out onto the ground!  If I hadn't called my wife and waited a few hours more I would never have made it back across the border.  I would more than likely have been stranded a few hundred miles in Baja with no way to fix Big Red!  As it was, it took few days to get the part and another couple of days to complete fixing the problem.  More than one thing needed to be fixed. It wound up that I needed to fabricate a few parts.  So it was a good thing I happen to make that call in Ensenada to my wife.