> There was a show on just recently that told the story of a group of people who lived in central northern Australia. They would travel around by finding cars that people had dumped in the bush, satisfied that they would never run again, and fixing them without tools of any kind.
> In the show, they replaced the clutch of a car with one made of WOOD !
>
> One car's gear box slowly disintegrated while they were driving, so they only had 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to drive with.... then 3rd and 4th then.... reverse ! They completed the last couple of hundred kilometres in reverse ! If that's not enginuity, I don't know what is.


did you actually SEE this wooden-clutched car? I can't think of any way that a car would go more than 5 feet on a wooden clutch. The wood would splinter and disintegrate under the load of the engine. I certainly don't believe they did it with NO tools whatsoever. Having replaced the clutch in my car, I can tell you that a ratchet is the absolute bare minimum you'd need for the job. Most clutches are held in by bolts that, due to their exposed position, have rusted, which makes it impossible to get 'em off without also using at the least a breaker bar and a Thor hammer (and really, airtools are sometimes necessary). . .Also, how'd they make the wooden clutch disc without a knife to carve it?

I think maybe the show was exaggerating a bit ;)