Re: Clutchless shifting

[Phil Ethier <ethier@freenet.msp.mn.us>]

On Tue, 19 Sep 1995 AGBREITM@xtra.com wrote:

> I have a question with respect to shifting without a clutch.  When I am
> shifting gears I can always take the car out of gear but often have
> trouble gettting it into the next gear. I blip the throtle prior to shifting into
> the next gear.  Should I be revving up the engine so that when the
> gears/syncros align I can shift into the next gear?  

Yes.  When shifting down  a gear, the engine revs must be  raised to the 
level that is correct for that gear at the current road speed.  When the 
speeds are very nearly the same, the engagement dogs will slip together 
and you can then apply power.

Many racers who like to drive with one foot for the brake and one for the 
power use transmissions with undercut engagement dogs.  These have two 
advantages:

They are much easier to shift with no clutch.
They engage very positively and will not pop out of gear.

They have one disadvantage:

They add a lot of slop to the drive-train.  In cruising, they create an 
annoying back-and-forth motion in the car.  Since racers never cruise, 
this is not a big deal to them.

> Am I on my way to a
> new transmission with this little driving experiment 

The longer you take to learn to do it right, the more worn-out your 
synchromesh  will become.  If you "grind the gears", what is happening is 
the edges on the engaagement dogs are banging into each other, rounding 
each other off.  This can create the opposite of an undercut dog, and 
lead to a tranny that pops out of gear.perhaps you should do your 
learning on a rusty old Chevy.

Phil Ethier