Firstly i'd like to say i've gotten lazy. I was gonna post the conversion with pics but i'm too lazy to take them to the walgreens to get developed. But I have alot of info to share so i'll post it someday.


Anyways, I want to say some things that I was going to save for my 5spd thread, but what the hell. I am in LOVE. The 5-speed TOTALLY blows away the auto. I mean, it's got soo much more power now and it's sheer bliss shifting through your own gears. Everybody gives me looks like "What the? A manual in a Maxima?? Sweet!". The auto made me feel like a woman but this tranny changes everything. HlH (harold) dyno'ed with the AUTO ECU and got a couple more HP and torque over the manual ECU so I will not be swapping. I also cleaned out my throttle body which probubly gave me like 5HP (mine was DIRTY).

With my new 5spd I can now roast my tires all the way through 1st gear. My car even pulls to the side because of all the power being put to the wheels. It's soooo cool. With my auto, I couldn't even get a squeek off the line. No joke. Me and a friend made a video of my max but I gotta get a video card and what not before I can load it on my comp.

We put in a pacesetter STS on the short/medium setting. The throws are really short but the shifter is very stiff and sometimes hard to get into gear. Anyone else experience this?

But there is one huge downside to all this new power. Well today I had put about 500 miles on my new clutch so I decided to shift at around 5k rpms to at least feel some of the power. Well I got a nice chirp of the tires BUT my car also pulled like mad to the side! This also happens when I am cruising and decide to floor it (without downshifting) at like 3-4k rpms and the car jerks to the side! It's kind of scary becuase it feels like someday i'll dump the clutch under too much power and my car will swerve out of control to the left or right side.

How the heck do you guys deal with this? It was never an issue with my auto. Do the RWD guys have this?

 

Sounds nice Craig, I can't believe you got more power out of the auto ECU (Damn Nissan engineers). I don't know if that much torque steer is normal for a Maxima but being FWD I can imagine it scary.
-Cyrus

 

Are you running a stock clutch. As for tq steer it is gonna get worse because more hp/tq is being put to the ground. Test drive a 3.5 VQ manual and it gets worse. As for RWD they dont have tq steer, but in powerful RWD cars they get power oversteer(i think thats the correct term).

 

Thanks Cyrus...I know go figure

Max, I have a dynomax (something like that) clutch assembly. Chaz says it grips better then stock. And what's power oversteer? Is that when their rears sway back and forth? This happens alot in my friends lightning.

 

U got it....The car would basically fishtail(oversteer). Take your buddies SS to a parking lot in some rain and tell him to floor it and u will know what Im talking about.

 

Ohh. Believe me, i've felt it already. More so in my other friends Lightning, but the SS did it too. It seems really dangerous..like if they decide to floor it on a little street with other cars they might ram into another car! One day the SVT guy decided to floor it ( i was behind him in my max) and his rear violently fishtailed back and forth. Thank God no one else was around!

Which would you rather be plagued with Max, power oversteer or our torque steer?

 

u need an alignemnt maybe?

 

Yea I do need an alignment, and new tires, BAD! The inside of my tires are all worn. Does alignment effect torque steer??

 

I prefer RWD and Oversteer. IMO RWD is better than FWD. My reasoning for this is if you lose traction on the drive wheels in a FWD car you lose your ability to steer. In a RWD car you can use the throttle and the steering wheel to make corrections. If you know how to drive a RWD car properly you can control it. RWD tends to make the car better balanced which aids handling. I went to a 1 day driving school a few years back and they taught us how to properly control oversteer and well as other driving situations. It was so much fun! The first thing the instructors said was "These arent your cars so drive as hard as you want"

 

Oh I agree hands down that RWD is better then FWD for performance and in most cases handling, but mainly I was just addressing oversteer and torque steer. You say that while our cars are spinning we have in-ability to control/steer the car, I was just about to ask about that it sucks.

Have you ever had any dangerous encounters with your torque steer? Don't laugh but I am seriously scared to downshift into 4th on the highway in fear I might lose control of the car!

 

I seriously doubt downshifting into fourth from fifth at a moderate speed will make you lose control. Our cars aren't that powerful! Maybe if you dropped gears, floored it, jerked the wheel real hard and pulled the e-brake I could see it happening. But, certainly not under normal driving conditions even with spirited driving.

 

Most of your torque steer is because of your rims and dropped suspension. With lower profile tires and a dropped suspension, the toe gets thrown off and the car is more prone to torque steer. My Max rarely torque steers unless I'm going WOT in a turn or if I'm on an uneven surface. Sometimes when I hit 2nd at the track, the tires spin and the car moves over a foot or two which is a little unnerving. All my old Hondas torque steered much worse than my Maxima. I damn near put my 90 CRX Si into walls and median when hitting 2 and 3 at WOT.


Dave

 

wow - so when you taking your baby to the track

 

Dave check your PM's

 

I see you have a '95 5spd with intake and downpipe...and you don't think our cars are NSX-S killers !?

 

Me? Well, legally I can't w/o my parents consent. I'm only 17 and in order to race at bithlo raceway you have to be 18 or have written permission by your parents. My mom says it's too dangerous and doesn't wanna hear about it. But me and my buddy with an Impala SS plan to go to bithlo to watch the races alot!

 

The torque steer happens also because the transmission is to the way left of the car, with a 3 foot drive shaft going to the right tire, its very unbalanced. My Quaife differential eliminated alot of my Torque steer, in the straight line and thru the corners. Its my favorite (and most expensive) mod yet, that I can't live without. With my new tires my car's handling has increased 20x. Subframe connects next, hopefully it'll get better.

 

<<<We put in a pacesetter STS on the short/medium setting. The throws are really short but the shifter is very stiff and sometimes hard to get into gear. Anyone else experience this? >>>

It's a fundamental of levers - shorter motion = less mechanical advantage = more effort, shifter throw is a compromise.

 

I've been driving a 5-spd SE for more than 4 years, not sure why someone would be WTF a manual in a Maxima. Never got that comment. I don't feel any pulling to any side, only drifting, but that has nothing to do with FWD or auto vs. manual.

 

Same here

 

You think sub-frame connectors will eliminate TQ-steer significantly? I also hear they will allow you to launch harder thus improving 0-60 and 1/4th times.

 

Well I don't think your car is nearly as hooked up as mine...is it? My car is loud, so you can tell if I am a manual when I shift and what not. Those 2 factors draw attention. Do you have an intake/downpipe/catback? Those will add alot of power when you are moving and make the car pull harder. When I shift is when my car will jolt to a side a bit, and when I am flooring it, it sort of sways to the side.


Wdave You are 100% right. Cbr2 was telling me his tranny in his porshe 944 turbo was in the rear of the car or something and theres only 1 link bar, and it's straight, so the shifts are as smooth as butter and extremely short. Nissan's assembly is a double barred plain jain type deal.