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

With my speed shifter it made reverse even hard to get into. I have to give it a hard push over and up to get it in, but I know I'll never accidentally slip it in IYKWIM. I asked the wife to move my truck once, she couldn't get it in reverse and gave up lol. And she's not a little weak thang lol

 

Maybe you should get a different shift knob. Just saying.

 

Also I'm pretty sure if you're moving above a certain speed the truck straight up won't let you go into reverse. Yeah you can pop it over and get the camera to turn on and beep, but the trans won't let you shift you into the reverse gear.

 

Question for those more experienced. When shifting the lower gears, I need to give it a bit of gas for a smooth shift. 1st to 2nd being the hardest usually.

I read that accelerating when the clutch hasn't been fully released will cause premature wearing, which makes sense, but I can't seem to shift smoothly when I only use the clutch. It always jolts or bucks, no matter how slowly I let it out. Am I missing something? Does anyone else give it some gas during gear changes? I can't imagine how much wear it would potentially cause, especially since I tend to gas it onnly near the end of the friction point.

 

I find when shifting 1st to 2nd, it's smoother above 3k rpms. Sometimes I hit a sweet spot where I can shift without the clutch.

 

You are probably engaging the clutch before the revs drop .

 

^this. It basically comes down to personal experience with the vehicle. You'll learn innately when you can let the clutch out at what speed and what rpms in which gear. My 1 to 2 shift sucks, if I'm trying to get going a little bit and not slam the clutch, I'll gun it up to like 4.5k in 1st, and then have to wait til about 2k to let go of the clutch in second to avoid and bucking. Downshifting I just push the clutch, blip the throttle a couple hundred up and then let out the clutch...depending on if I'm trying to go fast or just downshifting for a hill or something

 

I find on my 3rd Gen the smoothest 1-2 shift is to get to around 4 grand and quickly shift to 2nd before the RPMs have a chance to drop, I think its the lack of torque that causes that dead spot or jerking from falling too low in the Revs in lower gears.

 

I have a 4 banger and if I drive it like a truck (shift slow and don't wind it up past 2500) you can't hardly feel the shift. My gripe is starting from a dead stop... I have owned maybe 20 vehicles with manuals and this is the first one that I have "KILLED" more than once starting out from a stop, pisses me off.

 

Picked up my new Taco yesterday. I was leaning toward the 6MT from the get go, but this thread was helpful in confirming my gut feeling. Thanks for the help.
BTW, she is Inferno, not Red...pics do not do Inferno justice, imo.

 

why? do you have a problem with my shift knob? cus i don't.

 

You made your shift knob sound like it was heavy and affecting your shifts in your previous post.

 

Made it to the end of this thread. Here's a photo for you all as reward.

 

These are the minimum road speeds I like to be at to shift to the corresponding gear and what RPM the Engine will drop to for a good shift in my experience. This is all for flat level roads, no traffic and no hard acceleration.

11mph > 2nd gear > 1100rpm
23mph > 3rd gear > 1300rpm
33mph > 4th gear > 1500rpm
47mph > 5th gear > 1800rpm
61mph > 6th gear > 2000rpm

 

If you read all some 200 and some odd pages, well done.

 

I too am having a little trouble with the lower gears. Not new to manuals either. 1-2 and 2-3 just can't make it smooth. I have been doing the same as you and was also feeling like I could be doing some potential harm/wearing on the clutch. I keep thinking that I'll get used to it. Maybe now I'm just to focused on it and it's all a mind game now

 

You're not letting the RPMs drop low enough. Be careful with rev hang and look at my last post to have an idea where to start shifting and when to re-engage clutch

 

Thanks. Will give it a shot. Appreciate the info.

 

truth, and learning the exact bite point on the clutch is a trick on this truck with its high pedal engagement. but I'm smooth as silk now that i let the rev hang drop and hold the pedal just at the bite point to let it out smoothly. strangely it was about 4 months to get it right.... not sure why it's been so tricky unlike basically every MT I've driven.

 

It's probably the spacing of the gears. 1st and 2nd are pretty far apart.