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

Pretty sure I read somewhere that with the newer 16/17 manual 1st isnt synchronized. Maybe its in the FSM

 

1st is synchronized. Go try to shift into reverse while moving to see what non-synchronized is.

 

Manual tranny was the best part of my base rig. I miss the "hand shaker". I feel like my testosterone level dropped went I got my current Taco. But, it was bought at the end of G2 production....and there just weren't any 6-speeds left.

 

Is that a bench seat in a 2015?

 

Nope. That was my '13 base RC

 

Bring back the bench seat Toyota!

 

My cousin drove stick most of her life and has lived in San Francisco for like 15 years. Her last stick shift was a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta, which regardless of transmission was a total basketcase. My cousin bought a used 2010 Honda Civic LX coupe in December 2010, and that car is automatic.

FYI, the air-conditioner in the Honda has completely failed. My cousin says the condenser is shot...

 

If anything ever happens to my current Taco, I'm getting a handshaker...

I'll just transfer the stereo system, backup camera, and rims to the replacement Tacoma...

I still have my factory radio and the factory wheels, by the way...

 

@Plain Jane Taco

I wanted a stick shift Tacoma soooo bad!

Problem was I was 20 years old when my dad bought me my Taco, had just gotten my learner's permit, and didn't know how to drive stick...

I told my dad I'd be willing to learn, and kept bugging my dad to buy me a stick shift Tacoma. My primary argument was that the stick shift model was like $900 cheaper!

My dad thought a stick shift would be too distracting for a new driver, even more so one with Asperger's. My dad bought me a brand new truck with air-conditioning and an AM/FM CD player with an AUX input (the only two things I really cared about), so I dropped the matter...

Also, there were no 2WD regular cab 5-speeds in our area, not even PreRunners. They only had 5-speed 4x4s at dealers near us, and my dad did not want to spend the extra money for (or have the added future expense of) a 4x4.

Like I said... Brand spanking new regular cab Tacoma with A/C... Given to me by my dad no strings attached (The title is in my name AND I pay my own insurance, maintenance, etc). Now that my truck has intermittent wipers, I have nothing to complain about!

FYI I finally did learn how to drive stick at 25 years old and mastered it in like 20 minutes.

Like I said, if something happens to my Tacoma, I'll seek out a mint 2009-2014 regular cab 5-speed and buy it with the insurance money...

Current value of my Taco is almost $12,000!

 

My current rig is the only automatic I've ever owned. And I've owned my share of vehicles in my nearly 49 years walking this planet.

 

Is it ok to shift gears in 4Lo. I tried shifting to 2nd yesterday and heard a scary sound and said F that.

 

Yes, you have to slow your shift down tho, you can't just slam it into second. you should be moving pretty slow when you make the shift to second in 4lo as it is close is ratio to 1st in 2hi. shifting from second to 3rd will be smoother.

 

Excellent.

 

Have another question. I am experiencing a very quiet noise when I press my clutch pedal to change gears. It sounds like a very quiet whistle of smooth metal or ceramic gently rubbing. It started right after I drove through a very bumpy dirt parking lot at low speed in 1st gear. I'm certain I did not have this noise before driving through that bumpy patch of dirt.

 

This was drawn out over the course of about 2 years, beginning in about 2012. My uncle who taught me how to drive stick in his beloved 1991 Toyota pickup was initially extremely hesitant to let me behind the wheel of his prized possession. He was convinced I'd break something. had a valid driver's license and insurance. My uncle had insurance. I didn't think I'd trash the clutch. What did I have to lose?

Also, another uncle of mine who's been driving manual transmission vehicles most of his life told me one important thing to remember about mastering the art of the third pedal. The key when driving a vehicle with a synchronized manual transmission is to remove your right foot from the accelerator pedal, depress the clutch pedal quickly with your left foot, shift gears, and release the clutch pedal slowly, then depress the accelerator with your right foot.

Basically, depress clutch pedal quickly but release it slowly. I mastered this almost immediately! The other uncle's oldest son (my cousin) got it backwards. In 2003, both my uncle (related to me by marriage) and my uncle's mother (cousins' grandmother; not related to me) attempted to teach my cousin how to drive stick in my uncle's then-new 2002 Nissan Frontier, right after my cousin got his license at the age of 17. He kept stalling the damn thing!

How I learned to drive stick in about 20 minutes:

My uncle (dad's younger brother with the 1991 Toyota) moved permanently to Myrtle Beach in 2013, and we drove down to visit them in August 2014. We were all laying on the beach near the condo my parents rented for the week, and I finally convinced my uncle to give me a chance. My uncle had recently put a brand new clutch in the truck, and my dad had to promise to pay for all parts and labor associated with replacing the clutch if I broke it.

A day or two later when we went over to his house for dinner, he taught me how to drive stick. I held off on having even a sip of beer beforehand (my uncle said no drinking if I was gonna drive his truck even around the block, at least not until after the lesson; I don't blame him, though he was at least halfway through his first beer by the time my lesson began).

First, my uncle drove and had me watch from the passenger seat. His only instructions were to keep looking at his feet when she shifted, and to listen to the sounds the truck was making. It was hot outside, even though it was evening (South Carolina in August; Did you expect anything else?), but my uncle insisted that the windows be rolled down and the A/C remain off so I could listen to the truck.

While my uncle was driving, he showed me how to go clutchless (I still haven't tried this), and also showed me how "NOT" to drive. My uncle is so good at driving stick, and a 5-speed Toyota pickup is so easy to handle, that even when my uncle purposely tried to shift improperly nothing happened; Translation: No Toyota pickups were harmed during this lesson, in part or in whole.

My uncle's house is located on a "circular" (rectangular) street with two roads into and out of the neighborhood. I drove only on the circle/rectangle.

After driving around the circle/rectangle two or three times, my uncle stopped the truck in front of his house, shut off the engine, and asked if I was ready to switch places. I said yes, and we swapped seats. I put on my seatbelt, pushed in the clutch, and and started the engine.

I may or may not have stalled the truck the first time, but if I did I quickly got it restarted and got going smoothly. There were a few moments where the engine started revving a bit high because I either released the clutch too quickly or didn't shift soon enough, but once I actually got moving I never once stalled the truck. Obviously, it's a 5-speed, but in a residential neighborhood, I didn't need to shift that high. I think I went up to third gear.

Once you're actually moving, shifting is easy. My uncle was worried I'd be grinding gears, and I was too, but not once did I ever do that. Downshifting when coming to a stop is obviously quite easy to do. I just pushed in the clutch in, bumped it into to neutral, hit the brake pedal, and eased to a gentle stop. Getting going from a dead stop was where I struggled initially. Like I said, I mastered the basic operation of a manual transmission in minutes and did fine when upshifting and downshifting while the truck was in motion, but I stalled again when I tried to accelerate from the stop sign. I finally managed to get going on the second or third try, and again, once I got going I was GOING.

Every vehicle is different, as is every clutch, but I got a "feel" for that 1991 Toyota pickup and it's clutch practically from the moment I turned the key for the first time. Also, keep in mind this was a no-frills base model 1991 Toyota pickup. No power steering, no power brakes, and no tachometer. The only reason it had air-conditioning is because my uncle got a complete A/C system from a wrecked 1994 pickup and installed it in the 1991. The only option this truck had from the factory was an AM/FM radio. My uncle ripped out the factory stereo and put a killer sound system in too. However, the A/C and the radio remained off while the windows were kept down, because I uncle wanted me to listen to the engine.

I took the Toyota around the block three or four times, maybe five times, and eventually it go to the point where I didn't stall from a dead stop.

On about the third lap, my uncle looks over at me from the passenger seat and says something like "You did it! You're driving stick buddy!"

My uncle literally went from "You'd better not fuck up my clutch!" to "You're a fucking natural! I'd let you borrow my truck whenever you to visit!"

I've seen my uncle plenty in the nearly three years since he taught me how to drive stick, but unfortunately I haven't been to Myrtle Beach since August 2014, and when he comes up to Pennsylvania he takes either his Porsche or his Honda Element. However, I have driven stick a couple times since then...

 

First time was sometime in November or December 2014, when we went down to Virginia to visit my aunt and uncle for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. My dad's younger brother hadn't taught me reverse yet, and I talked my mom's brother-in-law into letting me back the aforementioned 2002 Frontier into the driveway. The driveway is deceivingly sloped, and I stalled the truck like 5 times attempting to back it up before giving up...

About a year and a half later, I got my chance to drive stick again...

My dad's boss had a 2002 Saturn SL2 with a 5-speed stick that he used purely as a commuter vehicle since he lives in Delaware and works in Pennsylvania (my dad's boss bought our 2004 Honda Odyssey). A bunch of my dad's coworkers came over for a party, and my dad bought me a round trip Uber to Doylestown and back to get me out of the house. The Uber that picked me up was a semi-retired limo company owner who picked me up in his 2011 Lincoln Town Car (with like 250K miles on it!), so I got to arrive in style. I went to the bar where I worked, got quite buzzed, then met up with some coworkers and headed over to another bar where I got well past the legal limit. I went to my boss's house, walked her dog, and then had the Uber pick me up there. I got picked up by an older guy in a Prius C.

The next morning I woke up without a hangover, and caught my dad's boss (who'd spent the night since he lives out-of-state) as he was walking out to the door. I asked politely if I could take the Saturn around the block to "see I've still got it," and he said. We were in the middle of a record heat wave, and even though it was like 9:30am it was pretty bleeping hot. My dad's boss had bought this Saturn for next to nothing on CL (in like 2014?) and back then it at had very high miles. Now, it was 14 years old and had over 200K miles. As far as my dad's boss knew, it had the original clutch. The Saturn was absolutely mint, and the A/C was ICE COLD. It was a base model; crank windows, manual locks, no cruise control. However, it did have A/C obviously, and a tilt wheel, as well as a CD player. What else do you really need? I would have replaced the factory stereo with one that has a USB port, but other than that the car was fine!

I took it around the block, stalled it once, but for the most part handled it like I drove stick regularly. I even backed it into my own driveway and only stalled once!

 

You won't learn what non-synchronized is by doing that with the 3rd gen 6 M/T.

No grind whatsoever if you shift to reverse while going forward. Fully synchronized gearbox.

Frank

 

Yes. I run in 4lo alot. I will take it as high as 4th often. Slow shifts is key or you will grind gears.

 

I've never had a problem with a resurfaced flywheel. If the flywheel isn't damaged, cracks and/or temper colors from heat due to slipping clutch I'd reuse it with resurfacing.

I'd expect a quality aftermarket flywheel (Marlin, Centerforce, etc.) to be as good as an OEM flywheel. I would not use clutch parts from autozone or o'reilly's or similar stores, I've had bad experiences with low cost parts.

 

We'll I'll be dipped, synchro reverse too? Had no idea.