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Hello from IA

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:19 pm
by bobklobb
New here, don't have it yet but at some point in the near (hopefully) future I'll have my grandpas 98 Dakota. Currently I have a 99 Saturn but it is an auto. I had a 89 Mustang 5 speed in high school for about 3 months before I got tired of parts breaking on it and it being somewhat unreliable.

I can get where I'm going with a stick, but I'll openly admit I don't really know how to smoothly downshift, I lived in a small enough town I never really had a reason to have to downshift other than putting it back in first at lights. Hopefully some practice with the truck will fix that. I could probably be a bit smoother on hills as well, but I couldn't really practice that well with that Mustang due to it having the gutless wonder NA 2.2L. About the only way to get that up more than a slight hill was to revbomb it and slip the **** out of the clutch and go. Should be able to get much better with the truck since it will actually have some torque.

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:19 pm
by tankinbeans
Hello Bob. Welcome to the boards.


Are you familiar with revmatching?

Say you're tooling along in 5th gear and would like to pass, but want extra power for whatever reason. Hypothetical number is 2,000 RPM in 5th at 50mph (pulling numbers out of thin air as I'm not familiar with the Dakota) and you want 4th gear; my experience is that for a given speed each gear will be around 500 RPM different. This means that at 50 mph you'll want to spin 2500 RPM.

To get there, while in 5th, without slipping the p*** out of your clutch:

1. Disengage clutch (pedal down)
2. Blip throttle to 2500
3. Reengage clutch (pedal up)
4. Complete whatever maneuver you were intending and continue driving as per normal.

You can also do this going into 3rd, but you'll of necessity need to blip higher. Eventually you'll be able to tell where exactly you need to be in the revrange.

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:32 pm
by bobklobb
I'm familiar with the theory, just haven't had the chance to practice it yet. Seems simple enough.

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 2:31 am
by potownrob
tankinbeans wrote: To get there, while in 5th, without slipping the p*** out of your clutch:

1. Disengage clutch (pedal down)
2. Blip throttle to 2500
3. Reengage clutch (pedal up)
4. Complete whatever maneuver you were intending and continue driving as per normal.
think you may have missed a step there tank :lol: :P :oops: 8)

//troll mode

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 3:11 am
by potownrob
Welcome to the SS Bob!! :D My name is Rob 8)

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 10:53 pm
by bobklobb
Little update, I'm still here, finally got the truck back to my dads. Waiting on my next check to get some parts for it, rear brake lines are shot so they have to be replaced before I can take it anywhere.

Re: Hello from IA

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:19 am
by potownrob
bobklobb wrote:Little update, I'm still here, finally got the truck back to my dads. Waiting on my next check to get some parts for it, rear brake lines are shot so they have to be replaced before I can take it anywhere.
Welcome back!! Let us know if you need help with anything!!