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

Well, it could be a subtle test. If she CAN drive your truck, she might be a KEEPER!

 

That is a solid point my friend. I guess I should just drop the few and start the search! Take it easy guys, I'm off to search the mall parking lot for a 10 that can not only handle stick... but stick in a Tacoma!

 

I married my wife for four reasons..

1. She was a traditional bowhunter...
2. She was better looking than a guy like me could hope for.
3. Her truck was a manual. Albeit a Ford at the time.
4. She could handle a stick well...this is very different than number 3...

The Ford part almost ruined the deal, but we have been a 100% Toyota family ever since we got married

 

Search the off road area and skip the mall, otherwise you're going to have to compete with the money between "shopping" and "modding".

 

Glad to hear you two were able to work through such a travesty... Very fortunate that she was able to get help to get past her problems... always good to hear a happy ending.
Where I'm from its 99% Ford junkies... just lining the street... I am trying to open up a rehab... cuz this is so sad :/

 

I'm sorry, what is sans clutch and floating gears? Is that shifting without the clutch? If so, why would it be an issue?

 

Every clutch feels a little bit different (even in two identical vehicles) possible he was operating on muscle memory and that caused it. Never know.

 

I do it from 5th to 6th if I am not accelerating very quickly. In my opinion it is totally fine as long as your not grinding anything and it drops right in without an aggressive change in engine speed. I.e. at 55 to 60 I'll drop to 6th without using the clutch.
I can do it from 4 to 5, or 3 to 4 also but I occasionally will have a bit more trouble getting it to drop in clean so I tend to use the clutch most of the time.

 

I use my clutch to start and downshift. Depends on what mood I'm in, and the occasion. I never used it when I had my old Nissan z so the habit carried over when I got my truck. Easier in the truck with the Rev hang. I just wasn't sure if you guys knew any reason not to with these new transmissions.

 

If you perfectly match revs with your target gear the shifter will fall into place without the clutch. When upshifting like this you simply get to the right speed let rpms fall in neutral and let the shifter fall into gear. When down shifting you shift to neutral first and do a tiny rev to make it fall into place at the right rpm. I do this all the time in my Opel, but I typically only use it occasionally in my Taco.

 

My understanding is that it's never a good idea to float shift a synchronized transmission. Reason being the syncros will allow you to get it into gear even if your speed match isn't perfect, and causing increased wear on them.

 

The gear will grind unless you are perfect even with synchros. I really don’t recommend learning it on a new pickup now that I think about it. It was fine to learn on my Opel because it will cost me like $50 to replace my transmission again myself in that.
Floating gears does save you clutch, but in return it does damage your sychros and gears unless you are 100% perfect each time. I’m good at it, but I am human. Its one of those things that people can do all the time for 200,000 with no issue, but others will trash their trans doing all the time. I just do it for fun occasionally.

 

My part time job is driving a dump truck with an Eaton Fuller 8LL transmission. I float gears all the time but thats because it's not synchronized. I've done it in the Tacoma just to see if I could, and it's possible but a huge pain in the butt. It's harder to "play" with the throttle and get smooth consistent shifts.

I really don't see an advantage to floating gears in these trucks.

But I'm biased. After spending 8 hours in a dump truck, pushing a clutch and never missing a gear is a dream.

 

Thanks so much for the response - good to hear I’m not the only one. Does your truck do this only on the first serious engagement too? When mine does this it doesn’t have to be “cold” - the overnight temp could be in the 70’s and it will still behave this way. I’ve never had a clutch behave this way over maybe 10 different cars/trucks, so I’m thinking I should try to get it more carefully looked at.

 

Mine does this too, as have other M/Ts I've owned. Sometimes the first engagement is rough and the truck shakes.

It may be more to do with moisture/oxidation than temperature, not sure. As others have said, once you get it warmed up and "cleaned off" everything is fine.

 

Brakes will do this, too.

 

Just wanned to get in on pg 420.

Peace!

 

Taught my wife how to drive manual in my '17 Sport recently. Thought you guys would appreciate this.

Rule number 1 has always been to never try and teach someone you are in a relationship with how to drive three pedals. It can get very frustrating and lead to "social complications".

She didn't want to wait on one of my friends so we went ahead and gave it a try. I gave her a very serious lecture first on why this is one of the few times she would have to take ALL of my instructions seriously and pay close attention. After all, I certainly didn't learn how to drive stick on a brand new $30k+ vehicle.

She did great! In retrospect, teaching her myself led to me teaching her how I wanted her to drive my truck versus someone else. No chance to pick up any bad habits. We live in the Appalachian mountains and the hill assist feature on my Sport really came in handy while she got some practice on hills.

Now she drives the Taco like a champ. Not clutch happy or anything. She has also now driven a 99 4Runner 5MT and a 92 Silverado 5MT and did great.

Wouldn't have believed I could have done this without WWIII but all is well.