im new to manual transmisisons. im gettin a little better with practice but still not no where near like you guys probably. anyways here is how i start out. when i wanna get my car moving (5spd 92 explorer) i push the clutch in, put it into first, and i slowly let out the clutch. i let out the clutch like this, i slowly let it out till i feel the car start to move, and then i will push it back in and do it again so the car gains more speed, then i finally let it out completely and get on the gas. other times i will let it out even more slowly and kind of keep it in the middle till the car gets up to a few mph then i will let the clutch out completely and give it gas. is this "riding the clutch" like i have read? or is the first technique right? either way it still takes me a while to get the car moving without stalling.

 

anyone? please

 

just press the clutch in, put it into gear and slowly release the cluth while at the same time giving it a little gas. it's not bad to have both pedals puched in at the same time while shifting. Just while youre driving you shouldn't have the clutch pushed in at all. that's considered riding the clutch.

 

It's ok to ride the clutch, keep in mind that when you launch the car properly your doing that at about 5K rpms.

 

I believe riding the clutch is pretty much sorta like when you're coasting and u have the clutch pressed in so the engine isnt engaged. Or when you come to a stop and ur holding the clutch in while the car is in gear waiting for a light to turn green. Correct me if im wrong (I drive a slushbox).

 

i just wanna make sure that im doin this right as im still new. i can shift easy and clean on any gear above 1st. i just cant get the car rollin quickly enough off the line at a red light. its like itll creep forward then a little more than i can finally engage the clutch completely and ride away. im tryin out a new way of doing it though, when the light changes green i rev it up to 1k and start lettin out the clutch slowly and i try to keep it exactly at 1k the whole tim(without the tach needle jumpin at all into any higher revs) till i can let out the clutch. is this ok? can i maybe do it at 1.5k or 2k? thanks a lot dudes

 

I doubt he is going to be launching his 92 explorer all that often....

As for your question... clutch goes in car goes into gear clutch comes out as gas goes in should be a smooth transition... might be jerky at first but you shouldn't need to push the clutch in a second time. Just give it a decent amount of gas as your letting the clutch out.

 

I always have the clutch in while I am rounding corners (coasting) or sitting at stop lights...is this a bad idea?

 

here is what im afraid of though. so that i wont have to push in the clutch more than once i need to add a decent ammount of gas. but how much is decent? cause i mean i thought i should put minimal ammount of gas so that the motor will spin a slowly as possible but now quite stall so that i wont wear out the clutch. is this true? or am i just a little paranoid since im stil new to it and the clutch can take more wear and tear than i would actaully expect?

 

hey, listen, no fear,man!!! Take it out to a parking lot and get to know your car. I just learned like 3 weeks ago when i traded my lancer for a ranger. EVERYONE stalls dont be afraid to do it. My friend who has driven a stick for 5 years still will stall every so often. Just learn the truck. Nothing u can read will replace time on the car learning. Stick with it! (stick haha haha.. ok ... no...I'll shut up now)

 

Yes, thats riding the clutch. Since you have the clutch down, why dont you start giving it gas and then releasing the clutch. Just dont think about the clutch. Drive with your gas, not the clutch and you should be ok.

overtime it will be. The clutch is rubbing aginst the flywheel i believe. You generally want to hold it in for no longer than 10 seconds.

 

wow i keep running into ur posts and duno how. basicaly eather way works perfectly fine your explorer is not putting out high hp to have to really worry about burning ur clutch. only way ull be doing that is if you hold the clutch lets say half way b4 it grabs and give it too much gas.

and for skahorn03 : you dont really want to be clutching around a corner.. because if something jumps out in front of you and u need power quickly ur going to most likely hit the gas b4 you put the car back in gear or b4 u let off the clutch and be smoking ur clutch. sitting at a stop light most stop lights are not 3 min stop lights so you should have no issues if ur sitting along time take it outa gear let off the clutch and watch the light turn yellow on the trafic that ur waiting to turn on or go thru then put it back into gear.

back to OCD: iv had explorers and other simular cars and unless ur rideing ur clutch or smokeing it more then your not you should have no issues i had a 94 ford ranger splash a little sports truck basicaly that i know for a fact the guy i bought it off of tryed raceing it and i could tell he burnt the clutch to nothing the truck had about 110k miles on it when i got it i could feel it start sliping about 140k miles and replaced it shortly after that..

and i hope your not trying to race people in ur explorer.. its just sad i know the kid i sold my jeep wrangler to trys to race pople in it its top heavy ( same thing with all jeep wranglers ) only has a 4banger in it putting around 140hp out hes almost rolled it on a few boneheaded moves trying to show off and i just hope ur not doing the same thing with ur car because he asked me the same questions and drives the same way on trying to start it as fast as possable blablabla

sorry for the rant i just dont want you comeing back on here saying that u were in a accedent or blew ur clutch or trannie out because u tryed to take a VW Bug off the line.

Drive safe.

 

about the racing comment in your post, i think im confusing you with my wording. by tryin to start off as fast as possible i mean; light turns green, and i wanna have the car moving with the clutch fully engaged within like 2 seconds so that the people behind me arent like "does this guy know its a green light?". i dont mean fast off the line as in peeling out. maybe that makes better sense, i dont know

 

practice somone else said it take ur car to a big empty parking lot have some fun learn to start and stop where theirs no chance of running into any thing and dont cut the wheel so u dont flip. then take what u figured out in the parking lot and work on hills basicaly hills take a little more gas and little slower off the clutch but at the same rate as starting on a flat doesnt quite make sence till you do it.

good luck


the first way with the allmost double clutching slowly to start rollin then clutching again to give gas not going to help u start any faster takes u longer to clutch twice then it would be to clutch once and give gas at the same time. not sure why u think clutching twice would be faster * unless u saw fast n furious * where hes like u were granny blabla bla and not double clutching double clutching is what truck drivers had to do back in the day its actually clutching once to take it outa gear and clutching again to put it back in gear. now days we have syncros so double clutching is no longer needed. and what he ment by double clutching should have been speed shifting where basicaly you leave ur foot on the gas clutch and shift at the same time with out letting up on gas. any way dont do that in ur car cuz u burn ur clutch if u do it wrong.

just work on slow off the clutch slow on the gas and speed the movements up and ull be ok.

 

In other words; Slow and smooth; smooth is fast.