Man that is good to know. I think I know what your talking about, for example first gear...when we are moving and try to downshift into 1st gear it doesn't let us unless we are at a complete stop or going really slow...otherwise it doesn't go in our you gotta push really hard.

Thx mb1

 

I would think there would be some sort of safety to prevent you from doing that.

If you want to chirp just powershift the dam thing

Ant

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the reverse gear gets locked out. But just as a precaution, I just use Dave B's up/down shifting techniques and it works perfectly.

 

how i chirp second: floor to redline in first, push in clutch, blip throttle to keep revs around 6500, shifter in second, clutch out, gas on the floor. it doesnt work after i've been driving for a while...intake temp heats up and i lose power, or clutch heats up and doesnt grip as fast..i've chirped second from shifting as low as 3000rpm in first.
how i drive fast: first floored, clutch in, shifter into second, clutch out, gas on floor.

also, its near impossible for me to do nice 4-3 downshifts..dont know why, but its really tough for me(besides, if i'm cruising in 4th, i'm going slow enough to hit 2nd...i love the gearing in my max). i'm not too shabby at 5-4 or 5-3..5-3 is really fun on the highway, especially when you need to pass someone and choose not to change lanes into them because of slower moving traffic.
as far as the 2nd gear@55mph, whats wrong with that? just rev match and ride till redline..but then again, i have a VI.
*i'm not responsible for you or anyone else breaking their transmissions because of anything i've said*

 

The reason you can't hit the 4-3 well is probably because the way you hold the shifter. You need to have your palm open and wrapped around the rear of the shifter with your fingers pointed towards the glove box. Simply pushing straight up should be the natural motion of the gearbox. It should smooth as butter. If you still can't hit the shift smoothly, then the linkage bushings might be worn therefore causing the linkage to move around and be inaccurate.

Dave

 

then i'd say my linkage bushings are worn, my shifting is very very notchy (the STS doesn't exactly help it).
also, having 163K probably doesn't help, so the syncros are pretty worn (at least it lets me know what gear i'm in, no accidental 5-2 downshifts at 80 instead of 5-4)

 

Dave and everyone else:

When I am alone I can squeel into second gear. It's soo awesome and my car feels soo quick, but then when I get even one friend into the car I can only chirp. The car doesn't feel quick like it did either. One of my friends weighs around 210lbs., so he isn't exactly skinny. But I didn't know it would effect it that much? It seems for me at least the slightest weight change (ie more people) makes a major difference in car performance. Anyone else experience this?

 

sorry to ressurect this.. but..

I have to find out more about launching...

i can take off normally okay..

but say if i line up at the light with someone.. not saying i do this..

I tried to launch hard but ended up just sitting there roasting tires like crazy... what did I do wrong? Did I rev it up too high before the clutch grabbed? I guess i don't feel "the spot" where it grabs just yet.. I ended up spinning through 1st pretty bad and when i hit 2nd, car lagged.. i didn't really know what was going on and what my rpms were at this point because there was engines screaming all around me.. i just know that it was a crappy shift..

so tell me people..
say I'm at the track..
how could i try to get the best launch possible?

put it in 1st, press the clutch, rev it up to 1,500 - 2,000.. start letting the clutch out and as soon as it begins to grab just floor it?
I get a lot of wheelspin, my Goodyears do suck but still... anything else to look out for or consider? shifting points? ways of gripping the shifter?

thanks! i appreciate it!

 

Take it up to 1500 rpm, dump the clutch but keep the gas pedal where it is untill you feel the tired grab. I chirped 3rd with my Frankencar. Love it.

 

When I first got my car, it had the original clutch and 110,000 miles on it. I could chirp second pretty easily, and since then, I have replaced the trasmission and clutch, and can chirp second for like 10ft!

 

take off at 2.5k after it quits spinning stomp it, push in the clutch while holding the gas in and side step it(slide your foot off the side of the clutch)

 

you're talking about last night aren't you?

 

Don't ever dump the clutch on street tires because all you'll do is spin. When launching hard, the last thing you want is spin. First off you need to find the point at which the clutch begins to grab. You should be able to feel it in the clutch and the engine should sound like it's starting to get loaded. The car shouldn't move either. It takes practice, but you'll eventually find it. The reason you "load up" the drivetrain is to reduce the driveline slack that causes the initial spin. Dumping the clutch only makes things worse because you shock the drivetrain.

To race, stage your car at the start line, release the clutch until you're at the point of grab and bring the revs at to 2000-2500rpms. On the green, slowly the release the clutch and feed the car some gas. The second the car gets rolling, release the clutch quickly, and feed it gas. The goal is to keep the rpms above 3000. You may get a little spin (remmber that this a FWD car), but the spin shouldn't be too aggressive. When you feel the tires begin to grab, push the gas to the floor. It sounds like all this takes a lot of time, but really it should only take about 1.5 seconds to do all of this. It's all about feel. This will take some experimenting, but you should become fairly effective at a decent launch.

The reason your car would bog down on the 1-2 shift was because your tires were spinning hard in 1st which caused you to redline early therefore forcing an early shift, mph wise, into 2nd. Instead of entering 2nd at around 30-35mph, you hit 2nd at a low 20mph which will cause a bog because you dropped out of the powerband.

Wheelspin does not power. If that was case, my old 86 Accord LXi would have been running 12s by the amount of wheelspin I could get


Dave

 

Excellent explanation, hope you are taking notes Craig