1971 Squareback, strange (or not) starting issue

[whc03grady]

So it's very cold here and the car turned over slowly, but wouldn't start. I didn't think much of it, given the temperature. But I did notice a little lurch at the first crank. I thought, "hmm", and pressed in the clutch on the next try. And it starts. But as I let off on the clutch, it moves the car forward a little and stalls it out again. Yes, the gearshift lever is in neutral (septuple-checked).
Que paso?

[Highlander]

Clutch must somehow be dragging. Maybe temp related?

[ruckman101]

Was the emergency brake on? Brake shoes rusted to drums?


neal

[vdubyah73]

How cold? Very low teens and lower it could be just the drag of cold oil in the tranny. Really. Remember the input shaft spins even in neutral. How hard does it try to move? Does it just kinda wanna move? Or does it really have a mission and it's gonna move, damn it. The drag of the cold gear oil can and does make for hard starting. Even cold motor oil can make for hard starting. It'll crank over slowly, battery isn't efficient, cold gear oil, even cold intake air, FI needs about 10 volts to work. All this working against the infernal combustion magic needed to obtain mobility

[Amskeptic]

So it's very cold here

Read your owner's manual. When temperatures drop below -13*f you can put automatic transmission oil in your manual transaxle. Definitely get some 70-80 gear oil if you are running 85-90 or 85-140 currently. This is true for both your Squareback and your bus since we don't know which one you are talking about here since you refuse to follow the Technical Forum PROTOCOL . . .
Crablin

[whc03grady]

So it's very cold here

Read your owner's manual. When temperatures drop below -13*f you can put automatic transmission oil in your manual transaxle. Definitely get some 70-80 gear oil if you are running 85-90 or 85-140 currently. This is true for both your Squareback and your bus since we don't know which one you are talking about here since you refuse to follow the Technical Forum PROTOCOL . . .
Crablin

It is/was the Squareback. I didn't follow the protocol because I, uh, figured the question had universal interest. (Yeah. That sounds right.)

So I let it warm up a little with the pedal in and it got to the point where I could let it out and it didn't move or stall. When it did move, vdubyah73, it tried to move, like get on down the road. In neutral! That's some seriously thick oil, but that had to've been what it was.

Temps were in the -teens, -20s F. Care to come help me change that transaxle grease, Colin?