[LikaRokBowTie]

The car will tell you when to shift grasshopper I grew up driving a manual, and listening to the car and feeling the car are just normal to me, so it's hard to explain how to drive a manual besides the obvious stuff. I'm a truck driver and I float gears which is not using a clutch in most scenarios, hell I even shifted gears on my motorcycle without clutching! So you're just gonna have to listen to your car and get the feel of it and you should be just fine.Good Luck

[Snakely]

Yeah, on my motorcycles its pretty easy to shift without the clutch.

in the SS its not hard to know When to shift, it is doing it well\smoothly that will take practice.

[wilbur_xmas]

Originally Posted by Jaxcam02

Try it in competition mode. I drive exclusively with the trac control and other nannies off because the computer really changes how the cars drive.

When i had my 18 SS 1LE i had the same issues you had and I was driving a built 2002 SS for 15 years prior. I didn't figure out how different the car drives with the nannies off until I got this ZL1 and started to experiment.

^This 100%. Or if you don't feel comfortable with no nannies at least put her in competition mode. By default there is tons of throttle lag and rev hang making the 1-2 shift especially annoying, even on my V6 that doesn't have skip shift. The difference between tour mode with all nannies on, and track or sport in competition mode is night and day. If I forget to switch to comp mode I almost stall since there is so much delay in the throttle.

[Snakely]

I've piddled around with Comp Mode, just to verify that it turned on really. But I'll give that a shot and see how it goes.

[seethruya]

Originally Posted by 95 imp

When I got my ride I hated the clutch, the tranny and the shifter.

I knew I was never going to like the stock shifter so out it went within the first week of ownership. $75 fix. That alone made a huge difference for me.

[enzia35]

How to get to Carnegie Hall...

[MR's 2SS]

Seethru... is that a Hurst? I dont see their name on the side there. I put Hurst shifters in all my old Vetts. You used to have this T handle to pull up with 2 fingers to get into reverse... Absolute crap.. had to go. The Hurst was a must back then. And I love the white knob....
But.... I read about putting it in and dropped the idea after the process involved having to pull a cross member and jack the tranny some....
Did you do that? And if so how was it to get done?

[MR's 2SS]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Double-clutching can alleviate some of the "cold transmission fluid" issues, particularly the first couple of 1-2 upshifts on a cold morning after an overnight "cold soak". Cold fluid puts the transmission's countershaft revs out of step with your normal shift timing.

It's an advanced technique that simply having synchromesh present doesn't remove all value from knowing. Actually, when you're in a hurry with some downshift, it ends up being somewhere in between 'single-clutch' and 'double clutch' as you probably aren't fully disengaging the clutch both times or fully engaging it when you blip the throttle.


Norm

I hear you. I do that without the double clutching though. I stop a second in neutral before sliding into second. It smooths it out for sure. I never tried double clutching a car. I learned to drive big trucks in the 70s by double clutching. After a couple months you learn to shift almost entirely without the clutch. But every tranny is different. Theres always a sticky gear that wants the clutch. I owned my trucks so I was very gentle with my shifting. You could do $3,000.00 of damage just for getting pissed off and jamming gears. I dont often get hit with the 1 to 4 but I do the same then. I have a stop sign 100 feet away from the turn into my development. So it gets me there every time. Im not winding up to 3 grand just as Im about to make a turn... and I also dont want to be in 4th. Its an annoyance and its bothering my wife a lot because shes a lot more gentle on the car. I might need to buy that inline resistor or whatever it is and defeat this crap once and for all.

[seethruya]

Originally Posted by MR's 2SS

Seethru... is that a Hurst? I dont see their name on the side there. I put Hurst shifters in all my old Vetts. You used to have this T handle to pull up with 2 fingers to get into reverse... Absolute crap.. had to go. The Hurst was a must back then. And I love the white knob....
But.... I read about putting it in and dropped the idea after the process involved having to pull a cross member and jack the tranny some....
Did you do that? And if so how was it to get done?

It’s not a Hurst shifter but the Barton adapter kit. After watching the video below, it took me about 30 minutes to take out the stock shifter and put in the adapter + hurst style shift knob. After 6 months, zero complaints. You would never know it’s an adapter kit. The adapter and shift knob are very high quality where most think it’s a hurst shifter at first glance.



You will need these two items.



https://bartonshifters.com/shop/ols/...t-knob-bcm-psk

https://bartonshifters.com/shop/ols/...t-knob-adapter

[MR's 2SS]

OK. Just a knob swap. I liked the idea of a Hurst short throw shifter until I looked at the process. Someone in here said it didnt make all that much difference... I dont know if its worth it. The shifting generally feels pretty good to me and needs a lot of break in before I make any decision.
I do prefer the white knob though. Looks so 60s...

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by MR's 2SS

I never tried double clutching a car.

Truth be told, I got started with double-clutching on downshifts in cars with small-displacement engines that hated to be 'lugged', and it just made sense there. Think sports cars and subcompact sedans here. It was some years later that I figured out that the input side of the transmission could slow down too far too fast in the cold and that it might make sense to give everything ahead of the synchros a rev kick to make their job somewhat easier.

I learned to drive big trucks in the 70s by double clutching. After a couple months you learn to shift almost entirely without the clutch.

I think I've heard that referred to as 'floating gears'. That's another neat little skill to have in your driving toolkit for emergency use in the event of clutch linkage or hydraulic line failure, even with synchromesh.


I hear you on skip-shift. Would definitely piss me off to have to drive differently than I otherwise would just to avoid it. And I'd be likely to encounter it between my house and the main roads.


Norm

[MR's 2SS]

I had a 1958 Dodge Power Wagon Panel truck. All original driveline with flathead 6 and a granny low 4 speed. 2 speed transfer case that would go about 2 MPH in first low range foot to the floor. Then the clutch fork broke in the trans. I drove with no working clutch for a month. I would start it up and warm up the engine. Then shut it down and slip it into first or reverse and start it up in gear and leave. To stop I slow down and then shut it down in first. The crank it up and go. Its easy if you have low enough gears. Ive had to do similar things with a tractor trailer too because of clutch cable failure in a cabover.

[JitteryJoe]

I wouldn't feel too bad, I've had hundreds of thousands of miles in 4 manuals before my LT1 and it is by far the hardest to drive smoothly. Not really sure why but possibly the throttle mapping. I've definitely noticed times where if hit the gas a certain way it "falls on its face" before going. It drives really good aggressively but definitely does some weird stuff sometimes when trying to drive normal.

[N Camarolina]

To the OP, there are a few simple things I'd suggest to make your learning easier.

1) Warm up the trans. The trans won't shift smoothly when you first start driving and the OEM fluid is cold. Drive for like a half mile or so in 2nd or 3rd gear at 1500 to 2500 RPM. Once warm, the shifts get much smoother

2) When starting from 0 mph, shift from 1st to 3rd. The 1st to 2nd is often notchy. Add in the the stupid OEM skip-shift function that blocks you from shifting from 1st to 2nd (to save gas) under certain situations, and odds are you aren't going to be able to smoothly shift from 1st to 2nd. I've been doing the 1-3 shift since I got the car 6 months ago and it works well every time.

3) Always set the auto rev match to "on," each time you start the car (the default on start up is "off"). It definitely helps smooth out the driveline engagement when you let the clutch out.