Another Generic n00b thread

Just sign up? Feel free to tell your fellow Standardshifters about yourself, your car or anything else.
User avatar
theholycow
Master Standardshifter
Posts: 16021
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:36 pm
Cars: '80 Buick LeSabre 4.1 5MT
Location: Glocester, RI
Contact:

Re: Another Generic n00b thread

Post by theholycow »

RomPirate wrote:HOWEVER sometimes I find myself revving it up to ~2k and letting the clutch out slowly until the car gets moving. This is pretty useful when I have to inch forward a bit pretty quickly. Bad to do?
I would guess that you're doing the right thing for your car. If you were driving a car with a reputation for having lots of torque at idle then I'd say no, but the Honda reputation is that you must rev it to get power.
I've been driving for 8 days today exactly, i'm guessing practice and time will smooth it out?
Yup.
Which leads me to another point... I've found that by NOT looking at the tach when shifting, I generally shift smoother... Sort of weird but its sort of a feeling ya know?
It's all about feeling. Everyone says to ignore the tach, cover it with a piece of paper if necessary; I don't agree, but the idea is the same -- don't depend on the tach for your shifts, depend on your own feeling. I like to use the tach to see what I just did, what kind of results my own feeling caused.
Pulling into my driveway concerns me the most about the clutch.
Tell us more about your driveway entrance. You have to stop uphill and then launch to get in?
1980 Buick LeSabre 4.1L 5MT

Put your car in your sig!

Learn to launch/FAQs/lugging/misused terms: meta-sig
watkins wrote:Humans have rear-biased AWD. Cows have 4WD
User avatar
RomPirate
Senior Standardshifter
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:34 am

Re: Another Generic n00b thread

Post by RomPirate »

i've been kinda MIA buuut:

I'm sure you've all had those "bad" driving days where you couldnt get your shifts smooth eh? Had one new years eve, im guessing the stress of so many things to do sorta threw me off. Anyone share the same? Shifts today were generally all smoother. MUCH better than the other day.

1->2 is much smoother than before.. Practice FTW!! Occasional jumpiness. Thinking about it TOO much gives weird shifts. Just doing it well works. Weird.

I've been daring enough to try some downshifts. Such a nice feeling when the car doesnt jerk... Feels like the greatest accomplishment in your life :D I figure I'd ask, over revs are obviously better (Done my share of searching :D ) but whats the overall wear and tear for being ~1000-1500 RPMS over the target? Any more worse than jerky 1-2 shifts?
Another small technical question. I've been doing
1) Off gas
2) Clutch in
3) Stab trottle
4) clutch out (catching it at the proper RPMs takes practice i know)
5) on gas once clutch is fully out

OR should 4 and 5 be together as I would for a upshift? (On gas as I release the clutch)

As for my driveway, well a picture is worth a million words :D
Image

Anyway my cars nose is pretty low (or the angle of the gutter and incline is so steep) so I have to approach the first incline pretty slow, almost to a stop to avoid scraping and damage. There is enough momentum to put the front wheels near the top of the first incline but at that point im going so slow that i'll stall if I dont clutch in. At this point (front wheels near top of incline) I handbrake, rev up to ~1500 and clutch out and release the hand brake. Theres a brick divider right in front of the final parking space so letting the clutch out fully would likely move me too fast. So what I do is while moving up quite quickly is to clutch in and brake. Then repeat the hand brake thing again. The parking spot is about ~22' but due to other other cars having to get around my car, I have to get close as possible.

The only thing that worries me a bit is slipping the clutch too much. I'm pretty much keeping a steady ~1500 rpms and releasing the clutch as needed to inch forward properly, sometimes upto 2.2k if I find myself concentrating on not hitting the wall and take my eyes off the tach. I've yet to smell anything bad (i've heard that when you smell burned clutch, you'll KNOW it). Am I just a little too paranoid? (whole thing takes about 25 seconds at most, but figure I'd ask)

Thanks :D
97 Prelude 5spd swap FTW! (Sold! :( )
07 Mazda MX-5 Sport (DEAD)
07 VW Rabbit
04 Mazdaspeed Miata (Sold!)
05 RX8 (Sold!)
95 Wrangler
Post Reply