What have you done to improve your 6-speed manual?

VERY curious of what this does or if it actually helps anything?

http://www.marlincrawler.com/transmission/parts-upgrade/heavy-duty-shift-lever-ball-seats

 

I bought my first taco about a month ago. 6 spd manual and love it. I drove both and for me there is nothing better than a manual transmission. Have not done anything to it yet because of the money but want to follow this thread for ideas.
Stick with the stick. There is nothing better

 

Agreed. My last Honda was so smooth that more than once I forgot to use the clutch (grind!) simply because I momentarily forgot that it was a manual transmission.

The learning curve to this truck sucks. Once you get it, it's not bad. I still pretend I'm driving a crashbox though.

Best thing to improve this gearbox is keep the speed down. 6th gear shouldn't feel like it can tow small houses.

 

If I had been driving a 6 spd. for years and not a 5 spd. there would be no problem the gearing is made for towing it sure is nice in 6th at highway speeds with my camper instead of locking out the O/D. Apples and oranges they are cars with a lot smaller gears, FWD and a lot less weight try an GM truck with a 5 speed if you want to compere transmissions now there is a transmission that sucks. I will agree with you about the revs hanging but that has every thing to do with emissions and nothing to do with the transmission.

 

I test drove a 2011 FJ with TRD quick shifter and a 2012 Tacoma. The tacoma felt much smoother, but the quick shifter could have been making the difference.

 

I have a 2012 so something might have changed, however I have no complaints. I have owed an NSX and S2000, the S2000 usually wins "best gearbox ever made" competitions in those magazine comps. With that said, I have zero complaints about my truck's transmission. I do agree with the rev hang, total BS.
As far as your "4 gears between redlights" I don't mind at all. Reason being, I want that very short first gear for towing or offroading. Yeah 6th could be taller, but that is a minor issue. I don't do a lot of highway so it isn't that big of a deal.

 

Well if you owned an S2000, you do know what a good gearbox is. I am not sure if its that gearbox or some derivative of it that they put in their Si, RSX, TSX and TL, but that gearbox is magical.

What percentage of miles does an average Tacoma owner drive offroad or while towing? I'd venture a guess and say 10%. Afterall, if you wanted a serious offroader or tow truck, you would have bought a full size Ford or something of that nature. The Tacoma is a light family/passenger truck. Hence the ratios should be more suited to the 90% and not the 10%. I tow my bikes quite a bit. I offroad quite a bit. But that's less than 10% of the miles and the rest of the 90% of the time, the transmission is just stupid.

 

I've owned TL, Mazdaspeed 3 and S4 to name few, all with short shifters. My last experience though was '99 4Runner with URD short shifter. I must say that 2012 Tacoma box in stock form is superior to the 4Runner with URD shifter mod and exceeded my expectations. With heavy shift knob it becomes much smoother and the TRD shifter will likely to improve it even further.

 

No I bought my truck to tow and Toyota knows it's a truck I don't need a 5500+# pickup to tow a 3000# camper, log splitter, or flat bed trailer. Taco 20 MPG tops my VW diesel 50 MPG which one would you drive 20 miles to pick up groceries? I agree most people don't tow or go off road but they still want to be cool driving a truck for them they need an automatic but complaining because your truck does not shift like your Honda does not make much sense.

 

Hard to compare to the NSX. The NSX was entirely hand-built. Just to work on the line you'd need at least 10 years experience building Honda/Acura vehicles and pass months of additional training.

As for the S2000... that AISIN gearbox (also used in the Miata) originally was spec'd for 75w90 just like ours. Honda received a bunch of complaints and back spec'd it to 75w85. It still wasn't so good so eventually they started putting their MTF-2 into it, which is a thin friction modified fluid about the viscosity of ATF. Then it shifted like a dream.

Too bad our 1GRs make too much torque to do that with our Aisin boxes. Honda MTF shears to water viscosity very fast on 4 cylinders, I can't imagine what 278 lb-ft would do.

Toyota could have at least been nice and given us an external overdrive if they're going to put in a towing box. It's not hard to electronically lock out 4WD when an overdrive is locked in. Shoot, the shortened rear driveshaft would probably have cured their vibration problems at the same time.

 

read post 46 on page 3

 

You are so right if you are going to race your truck the gear ratios suck but then again if you are going to tow, go off road or haul 600# of bricks with your NSX then its gear box is going to suck. The Taco's 6th gear by the way is O/D it's .85 to 1. First gear in the truck is a granny gear for good reason it's to get loads moving after that there is not much difference in ratios even compared to the so called smooth shifting Honda's. Why did you guys buy a truck in the first place when you would rather be driving a car?

 

If you had to pull a boat out of the water on a steep ramp you wouldn't think they were messed up ... or got stuck in traffic on a hill pulling a load. The ratios aren't ideal for "street-only" use but if you've been off-roading for a couple of hours and hit the pavement again, you'll understand the why the engineers selected the ratios they did. It's not a car.

I do hate the rev-hang though ... I really wish someone would come up with an aftermarket flash mod to tone it down a little. I'd be the first in line to buy it.

 

When you buy something that garners the "Off Road" badge its should have some sort of offroad sense in it. and should be able to handle a place where dirt roads are the norm. I'm at 50/50 on my off roading. with that said I'm swapping the tranny eventually for added power capabilities and a dog box. the transmission sucks with the wheels spinning going around a corner in the dirt and trying to shift from second to third with rev hang and trying to maintain speed in the corner. the low first gear has helped me out more than a few times in sticky situations with my 2WD and locked.

 

The cure for rev-hang is to have a tuner that allows you to use a MAP tune...I have been on multiple car websites (especially my Si) that have this issue and that is the only solution I have seen...

 

I think all this comparing a truck transmission to a car transmission is stupid in my opinion. Not even close to the same vehicles (except they have seats and 4 tires), or meant to be used similarly. Comparing a truck to a car...

The rev hang. I didn't touch my truck for over 11,000 miles. It started to not rev hang as much. I recently had to pull the battery terminals to work on an ipod converter. After hooking the battery back up it rev hanged like crazy. I mean really bad! Then I remembered that is how it rev hanged between shifts when brand new. The computer eventually learns how you drive and the rev hang decreases. Now mine has to learn all over again.

 

The truck may not be geared well for everyday use, but however cumbersome it may be, it still works. If the truck was geared like a car, then it would be very difficult/ impossible to tow 6500 lbs. The low gear ratios work for daily use and for towing...higher gear ratios will work for daily use, but not so much for towing.

 

You haven't driven a Frontier 6 speed. Comparing a transmission to another is in fact the opposite of stupid. If you are such a fanboy that you refuse to believe a better transmission exists and is in fact fairly common, then good for you.

 

Asking "why did you buy a truck in the first place" is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. That assumes all trucks have the same tranny faults. Go drive a Frontier 6 speed and then we can have a non-fanboish conversation.

 

Guys, stop the pissing contest.

If you go back and read the entire thread (which I started)... I gathered 1 IMPORTANT point.. and I think we should leave it at that. It's this:

The 6-speed manual transmission is not everyone's favorite, but there are enough people that like it to prove that it's reliable and good enough for most. It's a safe bet. Done.