Friday anti Manual Transmission thread.

I would have been in 4 lo but I had to make a 3 point turn on an incline to turn around… it would have bound up….

Maybe this is more of a PSA. I love the manual it’s much enjoyable most of the time, but not today. Today sucked

 

I understand. Mine isn't my first manual, have had many manuals through the years. But a couple weeks into ownership I went to back up a slight incline in my yard to unload a grill from the bed. Truck barley made it up and not without riding the clutch some. I was like WTF is this?? I posted here about it and was informed of the 2lo mod. Haven't done it and probably won't....... but it should NOT be necessary to have to do a mod like that. It's quite sad really.

 

Fwiw the Tacoma has a "Parking Brake Assist" that fully engages the parking brake even if lightly pulled. You might have been fighting the parking brake some.

 

I had the old 71 FJ with a 3 on the floor, first vehicle, first and reverse were not synchronized. I was climbing a big ass cinder hill and ran out of momentum. I had one chance at reverse and when I went to stab in there the gear shift bounced back at me like a racketball. Some how, some way, those old brakes took off just enough speed and I was able to keep it on all 4 out of gear back down the hill. On the way up the latch, only one worked, to the underseat tool kit had come undone and I was holding on the steering wheel for dear life.

 

I will gladly swap my autotragic trans for your manual trans.

 

First gear in these trucks won't easily engage unless you are moving at no more than a walking speed.

There is no mechanical lock out, the syncromesh just isn't capable of spinning the gear up to mesh at higher speeds.

First gear feeling "blocked" even when stopped isn't an uncommon complaint with these trucks. The gearbox seems to take quite a while to break in and it shifts smoother as it does.

I saw an instant improvement when I changed the factory fill for Motorcraft XT-M5-QS at 30K, it meets Toyota specifications. The Motorcraft fluid has quite a reputation for "fixing" brand new balky shifting transmissions with sports car drivers.

https://www.motorcraft.com/us/en_us...ull-synthetic-manual-transmission-fluids.html

Rock Auto had the best price when I purchased it.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/motorcraft,XTM5QS,transmission+fluid,13630

 

Mine doesn’t … and I wasn’t. The engine couldn’t overpower the backward forces of gravity and stalled out … I wasn’t going to rev above 3000 and completely fry the powertrain. This truck is babied mostly

 

Yea good points I think I’ll be doing a drain and refill at 10k. 5k miles on it currently, i hear it helps with the crunchy 2nd gear also.

i never had the first year blocked issue… even when rolling at 2-5 mph on flat ground. I mostly really like this transmission, it was just too much for the truck to handle. I can’t imagine doing the hill in reverse

 

You should get a 2nd gen, I can do 60 in second gear

 

But can you do a 22 degree hill at 15 mph in second ?

 

I had experienced occasional first gear blocking and also the "crunchy" second gear shift, I don't shift (or drive) very fast.

I changed to the Motorcraft at 30K. On the first trip around the block I was stunned at the improvement in smoothness, the transmission felt "slicker" for lack of a better word.

Previously I was frequently conscious of the syncromesh working when shifting, I could feel it in the stick, it wouldn't grind but you knew it was there, after the fluid change the sensation was gone.

 

I dont know, whats a hill, I live in S Ga

 

Sounds like you need a tune. The factory tune limits how much throttle you can give it in certain situations. It's especially evident in first gear, low speed, high load situations. It has happened to me numerous times when I use my truck to pull my 1800lb trailer and my first gen Tacoma, or 4 runner, or even my talon 1000x-4 before the Magnusson, and even after because they wouldn't fix the throttle issue either. The supercharger itself helped a lot, but their tune is hot garbage. Then yotawerx came through with a really nice and crisp tune for supercharged 3rd gens. Never looking back.

 

60 in 2nd gear?

Well, that's not as good as 1st gear but of course, I'm speaking of a motorcycle transmission and redline above 10K (or so) RPMs.

 

Sounds like you should let your wife drive next time

 

9 something in 3

 

this thread makes me hate my 5 spd now...

but only here on this thread

 

Your truck has the same system as mine. Not discounting the steepness of the hill. Just saying that the parking brake sucks for being used as an assist.

Try it out, stop and give the parking brake say 3 clicks, just slightly engaged. Now try and overpower it by driving away.

I don't know why Toyota put this dumb arse system on an "off road" truck

 

My truck just has the old fashioned cable handbrake, no funky electric assist.

 

Yea makes sense I tried that out a few times I let brake out when the clutch is already half way up… the engine literally just bogged and stalled… clutch couldn’t handle it either. I didn’t want to torture it any further and took the cuck move of backing down and trying at a far less steep part