StandardShift.com

My wife's Cherokee will restart to run the HVAC if the shutdown is longer than a few minutes. No, I don't know what its criteria are for restarting, but suppose maybe Delta T triggers it, because I typically only notice it when the outside temperature is uncomfortably cold or hot. Voltage is defini...

There's a defeat button if it causes undesired behavior, or it's usually possible to finesse the system into the desired behavior. Our MDX has different thresholds in the pedals that trigger and release the brake hold (if active) and start/stop systems. Except on a steep downhill, I can stop with a ...

The DDI sure looks to me like it would invite confused drivers meeting other drivers head-on, especially when lane markings are obsucured by heavy rain, ice, or snow. On the other hand, I wasn't completely sold on the SPUI either, and I will now go slightly out of my way to use them rather than the ...

It's definitely still not in the Oklahoma driver manual. Maybe that's part of why so many make left turns by going clockwise.

Nice! Hey what about the Model T Ford? That had a two speed and I think no clutch, just bands, similar to an automatic transmission of at least recent years. I have no idea what these new-fangled auto trannies are like inside, its a big black box to me. Do they even have slush anymore? The Model T ...

Right on the money that, with the clutch disengaged the input shaft turns the clutch disc...Through the ratio of the selected gear, so if you build a lot of speed downhill with a gear inappropriate for the speed you wind up going selected, you can mechanically overrev the clutch. That's if you're lu...

Direct drive really isn't great in one respect. The most even gear wear is obtained when the numbers of gear teeth on each gear have no common factors. Common factors in the numbers of gear teeth lead to a reduction in the number of teeth on the other gear that mesh with a given tooth. Direct drive ...

Chronology probably has a lot to do with it. Before overdrive, direct drive was top gear. Early overdrive, direct drive was one gear down from top gear. Two overdrives have become pretty common in cars, but most trucks still have only one.

Even without the pan that's a tighter engine compartment than a Ranger. I definitely would not assume removing the pan would add enough airflow to warrant removing any coolers. It might even be counterproductive depending on how carefully the intended airflow path was tuned.

It depends on how the vehicle is set up. The six-speed in my Ram has the direct-drive cog on 5th.

That's probably part of it, and it's not as much flexibility of design as it is flexibility of installation. The more compact and self-contained package is more likely to be able to be reused if you then wind up hanging it with a different engine or in a different vehicle. There likely isn't as much...

I know the 240Z grille was rectangular, but it had a bumper running through the middle of it so you didn't really notice the bottom half of it. That gaping rectangular feature is incongruent with what to my eye is otherwise a tastefully styled little car.

All three of my manuals do, unless the Ram was converted by a previous owner. It's definitely an aftermarket clutch and I haven't been into it yet.

It's not about feeling sporty. It's about good user interface, much like a manual being sprung to the center gate so you have a set of gates accessed by left pressure, a set of gates accessed with no side pressure, and a set of gates accessed by right pressure. At the very least, familiarity lets yo...

Provided you have 40 grand or so to throw at it, the range isn't that limited anymore. Not the car for supercommuters, traveling salesmen, or road trips unless you can plan out a tourist trap every couple or few hundred miles that happens to be next to a charger, but with some adjustments, manageabl...