Manual transmission Fan Club and BS thread (All Generations Welcome)

Also, today I had a super embarrassing/sorry poor truck moment-

On the highway, traffic slowed me down, downshifted to fifth, traffic slowed down a bit more but I just pushed clutch in and braked a hair, was going maybe 25-30, saw the lane next to me open up, used blinker, downshifted to 4th and punched it OH GOD THAT WAS 2ND, I'M SO SORRY TRUCK, as I wheel chirp and high rev it (no rev limiter bounce quite yet, so no engine explosion lol) but it was pretty novice lol. I think my brain was like, ok lets hit 4th for a second and well see if we need 3rd or not and my body was like HIT 2ND AND PUNCH IT. Sigh.

 

I did something like that in my Miata once. coming down,a steep hill to a stop sign, I downshifted to first instead of third. Motor spun to high heaven and I exploded the clutch. It was still under warranty and though the dealer said the never had seen anything like that before, they never asked how it happened, and I certainly didn't offer the info. they replaced it, no questions. poor motor must have spun to 12,000rpm for a second but never caused any problems.

 

Yeah luckily I was going slow enough the nothing broke, but it went from about 1.5k rpms to about 4.5k with the quickness. For a split second only and then I hammered the clutch back in and had to talk the truck out of ejecto-seating me out

 

You can do more of a clutch in, apply throttle to raise to the proper position and hold, but that is a bit more complicated and a pretty slow procedure.

For rev matching, you let off throttle and push clutch in (as if you would be upshifting), but now as you are moving the shifter to your next desired gear you "blip" the throttle. Just means tapping the throttle enough to raise the RPM's to the next gear's desired RPM for your speed. As the RPM hits the desired value you should have the clutch at the bite point and releasing (obviously make sure the shifter is already fully in the next gear before releasing the clutch). It is more forgiving to slightly overshoot the RPM and catch it on it falling back down than it is to undershoot and have it make up the difference. But don't overshoot too much and release too quickly or you will really notice it.

The entire process should take maybe a couple or few seconds at most.

It takes a lot of practice to get it right and a 4x4 truck does not have as much forgiveness in it compared to a sports car. If you aren't perfect on it you will notice it, but when it is perfect it will feel smooth as butter.

Now heel toe downshifting is really helpful if you are coming say downhill in 3rd gear to a red light and the light turns green. You want to make a right turn and the turn is kind of tight so you need to slow down quite a bit. Taking the turn in 3rd would leave you at too low of an RPM by the time you were ready to accelerate out of the turn so you want to go to 2nd. In this case you really need to brake but shift and rev match at the same time. You don't have three feet so you need to brake with the left corner of your foot and apply constant braking pressure. Then rev match as before, BUT for the rev match while applying braking pressure you roll the right side of your foot over to the gas to "blip" the throttle for the the rev match. Then ideally as soon as you enter the turn you are already in 2nd and can power through the turn with enough torque to get you going quickly once you come out of the turn. You'll want to heel toe a little faster than a typical rev match, if you wait too long you've been braking and now your required RPM's for the downshift keep dropping and dropping.

Get the concept of rev matching down first and then move on to heel toe. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that can demonstrate it visually. It feels really awkward at first if you aren't used to it so definitely do not practice it in traffic your first few times doing it. It isn't completely necessary but it really helps the driving experience, saves your clutch a bit longer, and makes for a lot faster, smoother driving.

 

Also, one fun fact, having a Stage 3 clutch means when I overshoot my rev match throttle blip, the truck thinks its race time and jumps forward. OEM clutches are more forgiving and will slip a hair more, so if I don't have the rpms perfect I get a lurch. You learn to get it right pretty quickly lol

 

I always respect a different viewpoint and absolutely yes I lived in a different century. I was born in 1949 which is actually closer in the calendar years to the 19 th century than the 20th and here we are in the 21st. So I have an abundance of experience over a long period of time. Anything I posted was well explained and relevant to past and current vehicles right up to my 2016 Tacoma. I wanted to share with newcomers to manual shifts the variety of transmissions in multiple vehicles over time and I was certain and exact about describing the need or lack of need to use different shifting methods. And I am correct. If you or anyone else misunderstood me I'm sorry. It was cruel and unnecessary to tell other posters to ignore my posts other than their length which I am yet to avoid as I don't know how to create paragraphs on this iPhone I'm using. Best wishes Dannyblues

 

Just think of the iPhone as a mini computer. There should be a "return" button on the keypad to the right of spacebar or an arrow that looks like it is going down and then taking a left (I have a Samsung, it has the arrow).

Just hit that twice and you can

Make

As

Many

New

Paragraphs

As

You

Want

 

If I read this correctly you downshift from six to five and blip gas with clutch in. I'm sure this is effective but a bad practice. Done correctly it should be shift from six to neutral. Let out clutch. Blip gas then depress clutch and shift down into five. I never rev with clutch in. It has to be a good blip because the rpms fall fast. This is called double clutching. I hope this information was helpful coming from a dinosaur born in 1949 with many years of experience in every kind of manual excluding the old twin stick Mack trucks. Dannyblues

 

Thanks so much. You are the only one who gave me this much needed info. My posts are so long I've been told readers fall to sleep or their eyes bleed. Dannyblues

 

And we already discussed there's no need for double clutching, what I explained works just fine and isn't hurtting a thing. You can rev all you want with the clutch pushed in and all you're doing is making noise.

 

Tried out some of these techniques last night. I like blipping the gas better than trying to double clutch. I'm trying to downshift without losing speed. Blipping the gas gave me a smoother result.

 

Forgive me if you just received a similar reply from me. But I suggest you never blip the throttle with the clutch in.

Instead to double clutch as follows: shift from six to neutral. Blip gas ( high enough because the rpms fall fast). Then shift down into fifth. It should be done as quickly as possible although the 2016 Tacoma I have is a slow shifting model. Long clutch travel. Long shifter travel.

I'm not being a know it all. It's just the double clutch method is proven safe effective way to downshift. It should be totally unnecessary with today's synchronized trannys, excluding first gear but can be useful at times.

I'm not disputing the effectiveness of your method but it's not good practice to rev the engine with the clutch in. Dannyblues

 

Please explain to me why its not good to rev the throttle with clutch pushed in. I literally see zero reason how thats bad. If you want to drive like a grandpa and double clutch so your shifts take 20 seconds to do, then by all means go for it. My method described damages nothing and matches revs just fine.

 

Could you please explain why?

 

Revving an engine with the clutch depressed won't hurt it. It is no different than taking off from a stop light, youll just slip the clutch more.

 

I'm not a mechanic but when I learned to drive you never revved the engine with the clutch disengaged. Why you have to ask a mechanic but I'm telling you it's not good for the drivetrain even in today's vehicles. I'll try to find out why and get back to you ok. If things have changed and I'm wrong I will post an apology but I sincerely doubt I'm wrong.

With today's synchronized trannys, excluding first gear there should be no need to double clutch or blip gas etc anyway. Dannyblues

 

Looking at the mechanical side of this--the only thing that it MIGHT hurt(which is doubtful just due to how quick this happens) would the the thrust surface/bearing on the crank... Otherwise it won't hurt the transmission one bit.