Re: Downshifting 101 (questions)

Don Bruder wrote:
In article <45ee0803$0$18929$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
pws <pwshelton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


earache@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:


Thanks man, this is interesting. I wonder if the technique in diagram
3 has any danger of going from 2-5?

Sure, but that won't be a problem unless you are entering a highway or need speed right then for any other reason.
Then you will need to do a quick pull into 3rd or 4th because a stock miata has about nothing as far as power in 5th at that rpm.


I just did a bunch of 2-3 shifts
in an ordinary way and they're getting pretty good, at least at a
normal speed. The Diagram 4 technique would likely have prevented my
3-2 mis-shift earlier.

It's up to you whether to try it or not. I probably would give it a shot if I was learning from scratch, but after this many years I doubt if it would help, and I don't miss shifts often.
Since you care and are practicing, it doesn't sound like you will have any trouble either. I really don't know if that technique page is of any use or not.


Please put my mind at ease about one thing, though:

THE CAR WON'T LET YOU SHIFT INTO REVERSE BY MISTAKE, RIGHT?

TIA & ZZ

No, but it will grind like crazy. I still haven't tried that one, but I have been in the car when someone did and it felt and sounded like the miata was about to fall apart.
You really almost have to try to hit reverse. Your biggest danger is the shift from redline-area rpm's in third to fourth and hitting second instead. The rev limiter won't save you there.

Pat


Then there was my fumble a couple-three years ago - On the freeway, but exiting via a nearly straight "ooze to the right" ramp. I'm at full freeway speed in a new (to me - just got it back on the road the afternoon before) Looking ahead, notice the light at the surface street ahead changing such that'd I'd be guaranteed a red light by the time I got there. Pulled out of 5th, going for 4th, and it feels a bit stiff. Pull back just a smidge harder, and it drops in - with a VERY out of place "thud" accompanied by a sort of whining noise, which turned into a rattling whir as the speed dropped, and I seem to have no clutch. WTF? Down from 4th to 3rd. That's when I realized I was pulling out of *2ND* to go to 3rd... Uh-oh... Blown shift. Still no clutch. By now, speed has dropped, and I've hit the light - make a left coasting, and get lucky - coast through the next 2 lights, and have just enough momentum to pull into the parking lot at work.

What have I killed? Step on the clutch, and all is good - no funny noises. Release the clutch, in any gear - NO motion. PERIOD. And LOTS of funny noises.

Tow it home. Drop the tranny. Out falls god's cat's own hairball. Clutch disk grenaded. Almost certainly due to over-rev and no flywheel/pressure-plate support as I went from 5th to 2nd while moving at 60+. Looked like somebody packed the bell-housing with hair and chunks of brake pad.

The *REAL* bitch? I'd just put that clutch in less than 24 hours previously as part of an engine transplant after buying the car and not liking how the engine it came with was behaving.

One new clutch disk (and a lot of cussing) later, all was well. In fact, that same car is still running fine on that clutch. Although I've swapped the transmission on it since then, due to the rear bearing on the countershaft dying. (That was an interesting one, too... Fortunately, I still had the good tranny from the wreck sitting in the garage)

Yikes! That couldn't have been any fun. I liked "god's cat's own hairball", that was funny.
What is your miata transmission doing in the garage? Do you have a wife or something? My spare transmission is in the laundry room, right next to the spare hood.
The hood is for sale on the local Craigslist, but the only response I have had is from someone in Pennsylvania who wants me to ship that large and fragile item across the country to them.

I suspect that Iva had a role in that e-mail. ;-)

I was thinking of selling the transmission, it is in excellent shape with 75K miles on it. The transmission on my '91 turbo is one of the few mechanical things that was not replaced and it is approaching 150,000 miles, though it still operates great, but your rear bearing countershaft comment has me thinking.
I am at least positive about the mileage and condition of this one versus hitting a salvage yard later.

I keep hemming and hawing about keeping the car, but if I do keep it, I guess it would only make sense to put the tranny from the '96 in there. I also have some other donor parts that I will hold onto if I keep the car; starter, ignition switch, alternator, etc.

Pat
.

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