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I will bet in the book recommended above it explains how to hold the gear shift knob. Do not grab it like a knife handle, as so many do. For shifts in the forward direction (toward the motor) you accomplish the shift by guiding the knob with the open palm of your hand. For shifts toward the back (2, 4, and R) use the ends of your fingers to guide the shift knob. Never force it. And NEVER hold onto it for support as you negotiate hairpin turns or you will bend the forks and can look forward to doing all this work over again very soon.
You can keep the clutch pedal in as long as you want. The main thing to learn is to preserve the reverse gear by the tips that KevinK published. For example, park so that you can leave the parking space in reverse gear, and start the car by just pushing the clutch in while in reverse - do not shift to neutral at any time (for example, to "warm up the transimssion"). The difficult shift into reverse is best accomplished at a dead stop or with VERY SLIGHT motion in reverse - sometime the gear will not easily engage. In those cases DO NOT FORCE IT - rather engage the clutch slightly which will move the gear enough to enable it to slide right in.
Something else that is helpful - when you know you are coming to a stop, shift to neutral, let the clutch out, then as you are rolling to a stop (less than 3 mph) in neutral engage the clutch and gently shift into first. You will be able to feel (by exerting slight constant pressure) when the gear will engage easily - don't force it.
Don't downshift to slow down - that is for morons who do not realise brakes are much cheaper and easier to replace than transmissions (but I guess you probably know that, right?). You can use gears when coming down a mountain to avoid overheating the brakes, however.
When just starting out, especially on cold mornings, second gear will be difficult to synchronize and you will sometimes hear a crunch. Make that shift very slowly and gently to avoid the problem most of the time. Not really possible to never get it, though.
Learn to minimize wear on the clutch and transmission by realizing that most shifts change the RPM by about 1000. This means you shift out of a gear, watch the RPMs fall, and shift back into the next gear and engage the clutch with minimal disturbance to the tach needle. In fact, it is possible (but not recommended) to shift without the clutch altogether if this technique is refined enough. Do the opposite (somewhat harder to perfect) when downshifting for turns - here you will have to use the accelerator to bump the RPMs up to match your road speed with the clutch engaged, then let out the clutch and (if done correctly) you will feel no change in movement of the car and the tach needle will not change. I see very few people do this correctly and it does take practice.
Change the fluid once a year - not because the fluid wears out, but rather to get rid of metal particles that will wear your bearings and gears over time.
Enjoy - only 8% of cars in America were sold with manual transmissions (compared to over 80% in Europe). It is a dying art here. I hope to teach it to my kids.
87 900t 125,000 and the original 5 speed
, Mon, 4 Jun 2001 22:06:43
, Mon, 4 Jun 2001 16:15:34
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