Tips for driving manual transmission?

[tudorXJ5sp]

LOL!

everytime I have to get into wifes truck, I try to turn key as I attempt to push down invisible clutch, & I usually make it half way or more down before my brain catches on its a stinking automatic.

the only gear patterns that get me are on a MGB, where R is beside 2nd, but without a lockout, so if your jammin' hard through the gears, & hit a tight corner & need to go to second, I will usually scrape (grind) reverse, & let go & then pull back to 2nd, where on a old air cooled VW, you have to push shift lever down to engage second, so you can jam away & not worry. I was test driving a souped up MGB recently, been a few years since I drove one, & debating on picking another up..... I still have my first one which is now a parts car, & have owned 6 during my lifetime.

one of my favorite shift patterns, is straight forward & back, 1-2-3-4 then to upshift you slam it forward,to third, then pull lockout to go to second, & if you release next shift is back to third, if you keep lockout pulled then you get to first. how sweet!!!!!!!! I may do this to my old 64 Impala, that I have owned since the late 1980's.

 

[xjwisconsin]

OP.. Are there deep shoulders on your gravel road? Such that you can drive perpendicular to them? Work on your clutch feel by running the front wheels up to the edge, first gear, learn to work the clutch gas to go up over them. If you can find a place to put your front bumper up against a FLAT solid object... get the bumper set against it, in first, slowly let the clutch out, no gas, see where you stall, learn your stall point, and what it takes to get there. Try the same on the gravel... pull up your e brake, slowly let out the clutch and with no gas, SEE on your tach where your engine stalls out. Listen to your engine. Your engin will tell you what you need to do.

 

[iwannadie]

A while back I converted my 87 supra from auto to manual and the first test drive was... Interesting.

The first car I ever drove was a neon with a manual transmission and I've been riding motorcycles(street) for years but I really had to learn again in my supra. I took it out to an empty parking lot at 2am(an hour before going to work) thinking that would be the best way to learn just tooling around at slow speeds stopping and starting. Not 5 minutes into it, a cop comes pulling up behind me and "pulls" me over.

He at first thought for sure I was drunk, I presented my licenses and tried to explain I had just swapped the transmission and was re-learning. He saw the motorcycle endorsement and said it didn't make sense I could ride a bike but not drive a stick so he proceeded to pull me out of the car for a sobriety test which I passed. He then thought it was funny I had to learn to drive a stick, I explained manipulating a clutch with your fingers is different than using your foot but he didn't seem interested. Not to mention the supra has loads of torque and mine is geared way way low so it is different than other cars I've shifted and a world away from my bike.

For the OP, don't worry about being fast, like others have said, focus on being smooth and the fast part will come later. Do a lot of practice stop and starts, even purposely stall out in an intersection with no cars around just so you know what it feels like and how to restart safely.

One big thing I notice that a lot of people do when driving stick. Coming to a red light I've been in cars with other people and they all seem to just shift to neutral and brake to stop with no down shifting. Maybe it's my motorcycle experience coming out but I like to be in an "escape gear". I never want to be stuck in neutral and have the need to accelerate suddenly. Downshift to the appropriate gear as your slowing down. I still like using my brakes for actual stopping but if I need to I can get right on the gas and go quickly without having to get out of neutral.

 

[souske]

Yeah, but you wont be dead if you get rear ended at a stoplight in an XJ.
Save the wear on your throwout bearing, and shift into neutral at lights.

I bet the OP has it down by now, thats why he hasnt been back.

 

[iwannadie]

Yeah, but you wont be dead if you get rear ended at a stoplight in an XJ.
Save the wear on your throwout bearing, and shift into neutral at lights.

I bet the OP has it down by now, thats why he hasnt been back.

I am talking about coming to a stop not when at a stop. Shifting in neutral 200 feet from a red light and staying in neutral to me makes no sense.

 

[GSequoia]

A while back I converted my 87 supra from auto to manual and the first test drive was... Interesting.

The first car I ever drove was a neon with a manual transmission and I've been riding motorcycles(street) for years but I really had to learn again in my supra. I took it out to an empty parking lot at 2am(an hour before going to work) thinking that would be the best way to learn just tooling around at slow speeds stopping and starting. Not 5 minutes into it, a cop comes pulling up behind me and "pulls" me over.

He at first thought for sure I was drunk, I presented my licenses and tried to explain I had just swapped the transmission and was re-learning. He saw the motorcycle endorsement and said it didn't make sense I could ride a bike but not drive a stick so he proceeded to pull me out of the car for a sobriety test which I passed. He then thought it was funny I had to learn to drive a stick, I explained manipulating a clutch with your fingers is different than using your foot but he didn't seem interested. Not to mention the supra has loads of torque and mine is geared way way low so it is different than other cars I've shifted and a world away from my bike.

For the OP, don't worry about being fast, like others have said, focus on being smooth and the fast part will come later. Do a lot of practice stop and starts, even purposely stall out in an intersection with no cars around just so you know what it feels like and how to restart safely.

One big thing I notice that a lot of people do when driving stick. Coming to a red light I've been in cars with other people and they all seem to just shift to neutral and brake to stop with no down shifting. Maybe it's my motorcycle experience coming out but I like to be in an "escape gear". I never want to be stuck in neutral and have the need to accelerate suddenly. Downshift to the appropriate gear as your slowing down. I still like using my brakes for actual stopping but if I need to I can get right on the gas and go quickly without having to get out of neutral.

Gilbert, AZ - He figured you were a tweaker. :gee:



I've never had a problem with the hand to foot clutch swap. I learned how to drive a manual on a motorcycle and applied that to cars, never had a problem, the only issue is getting used to a new clutch (every clutch engages a bit differently).



The only manual I have now is this:

 

[iwannadie]

Ha, that would be more of the Apache Junction area, Gilbert is full of mormons really and I don't fit in to that part so I looked really out of place.

 

[souske]

Square headlights FTW!

 

[bigalpha]

I hated driving stick because I always had horribly underpowered cars.

 

[WebDog]

Oh so today I let my mom try driving my VW... Well she has not driven a stick in almost 10-12 years, she kept giving it gas and forgetting to let the clutch out all the way. She kept staling it also. Lets just say I quickly took over haha...

 

[TORX]

Two feet, three pedals, no brainer.

 

[souske]

Your supposed to pull the pin from the fire system before the race

 

[Darky]

I always kept mine in gear unless I had to reach for something. That's the way I was trained so that in case I had to move real quick, I could.

 

[WebDog]

I normally will just hold the clutch in, but if it is a long light or I know I won't be needing to move quickly ie drive though I'll sit in neutral.

 

[kastein]

I only keep the clutch in as long as it takes to change gears, my throwout bearing has been making an unhappy sound for a while and I want to nurse it along till the weather is nice enough to do major repairs without whining a lot about it.

If I saw a light go red I just throw it in neutral and brake, but if it is a stale light I engine brake through all gears in case it changes. Blame me learning to drive stick in a military truck with a very heavy clutch and input shaft and some nonsynchronized gears for that, if I stopped in neutral the input shaft would continue to spin for a minute or two and I would never get it back into gear in time if it went green while I was braking in neutral. That truck I always leave in first with the clutch in when stopping, it takes some getting used to.

 

[AnthonyZ28]

Yeah, but you wont be dead if you get rear ended at a stoplight in an XJ.
Save the wear on your throwout bearing, and shift into neutral at lights.

I bet the OP has it down by now, thats why he hasnt been back.

Actually no, I haven't been able to drive it due to the CPS going out. I'm actually scared I'll have to re-learn by the time I get it back. :/