Who doesn't know how to drive Manual transmission?

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

I think I at least drop the transmission into the neutral gate on every car every time I start it up, at least for the length of time it takes to buckle up, or for the engine to at least start dropping off the fast idle in cooler weather. Might as well let the car start getting ready to go while I'm finishing up my part.

I don't think the pump in an AT can be "off" in park, else there wouldn't be any fluid pressure or flow to operate the friction elements or circulate through the torque converter. As far as I know, 'Park' is still 'Neutral' plus the activation of a mechanical sprag that locks the output shaft. Norm

What I read is that of course the torque converter and pump are excited but none of the valves/pistons in the throttle body receive any fluid. so they are static. But that's my understanding from 30 years ago, so the new autos are probably different.

I know from experience that a truck with heavy gear oil can stall an engine when the clutch is released in neutral.
So I figure it can't hurt to get the fluids flowing.

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Chrysler Corp really did have their leaf spring technology down better than the competition. I think they used some kind of asymmetry in the way the leafs were assembled.

At first glance the right and left springs are identical. But when you measure them the right side leaves were thicker at the bottom of the stack then the left side.

Gussets welded into the bends on the frame rails separated a GTX from a Satellite.
All kinds of trick things the engineers did.

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Big part of it for me, too.

For rontammy's benefit, a day on a road course is kind of like a drive in the country. Only faster and with no worries of having to sit through roadside or station-house interviews with members of the law enforcement community.


Norm

Oh, God, the days are gone when if they couldn't catch you...
Now they have a camera recording your plate and the ticket is in the mail box.
They really want to take the fun out of driving. Although they get to do it.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by rontammy0

Ive beeen doing ok for 31 years...just like drag racing I dont have any autocross tracks of any kind close to me..the drag strip is around 2.5 hours away.

Calabogie looks like it's about 5 hours away from you. Too far without staying over, but still close enough to make a get-away weekend for two out of it without having an all-day drive on both ends of it.


Norm

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by rontammy0

Ive beeen doing ok for 31 years...just like drag racing I dont have any autocross tracks of any kind close to me..the drag strip is around 2.5 hours away.

What about this place? Google, which is short for God damn, says it's 2:42 from Alliston. With a drag strip and a road course and instructors.

http://www.shannonville.com/

Just like everything in life, trip #1 you will be the king. Trip2, you don't know shit. Trip 3, life is happy.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by CamaroFred

What I read is that of course the torque converter and pump are excited but none of the valves/pistons in the throttle body receive any fluid. so they are static. But that's my understanding from 30 years ago, so the new autos are probably different.

The control side has obviously changed from all-mechanical/hydraulic to electronic control, but the friction elements are still applied via fluid pressure and relaxed by the release of that pressure. It's probably still a good idea to at least let the pump circulate fluid through the torque converter even if the planetary gearsets aren't doing anything.

My Dad was a die-hard Dodge fan from the late 1950's up to about 2010, but not really into cars for the fun side of it all. But a good enough customer at the local Dodge dealer that the store owner let me borrow the AT section of the factory shop manual for some research I was doing for a school paper (and toying with a shifter idea). I think I still have the wet-copy somewhere, which has diagrams showing where pressure is directed for each gear.


A little more on the original topic, both my parents (and all of their contemporaries) drove stick or at least could, their generation having got their licenses during the 1930's. Dad and Mom went AT-only somewhere in their early to mid 40's when the shoebox Chevy's engine in Mom's car partially disassembled itself out on the road, but Dad was at least 60 when he drove the 1979 305/4MT Malibu I had at the time. After 15 years or so of near total AT driving, you'd have thought he'd been driving stick all along.


Norm

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

The control side has obviously changed from all-mechanical/hydraulic to electronic control, but the friction elements are still applied via fluid pressure and relaxed by the release of that pressure. It's probably still a good idea to at least let the pump circulate fluid through the torque converter even if the planetary gearsets aren't doing anything.

My Dad was a die-hard Dodge fan from the late 1950's up to about 2010, but not really into cars for the fun side of it all. But a good enough customer at the local Dodge dealer that the store owner let me borrow the AT section of the factory shop manual for some research I was doing for a school paper (and toying with a shifter idea). I think I still have the wet-copy somewhere, which has diagrams showing where pressure is directed for each gear.


A little more on the original topic, both my parents (and all of their contemporaries) drove stick or at least could, their generation having got their licenses during the 1930's. Dad and Mom went AT-only somewhere in their early to mid 40's when the shoebox Chevy's engine in Mom's car partially disassembled itself out on the road, but Dad was at least 60 when he drove the 1979 305/4MT Malibu I had at the time. After 15 years or so of near total AT driving, you'd have thought he'd been driving stick all along.


Norm

Like falling off a bicycle.

[JCunningham]

Sometimes i get kind of tired of it but I would not have bought this car in an auto. I bought this car because it is a V8 with a stick.

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by JCunningham

Sometimes i get kind of tired of it but I would not have bought this car in an auto. I bought this car because it is a V8 with a stick.

A dying breed, get 'em while you can.

[CamaroFred]

When we were young and rented an apartment. I called management that there was a water leak from the shower soaking everything on the bedroom closet floor.

While the maintenance crew did nothing but leave 3 cigarette butts in the toilet I did promptly receive a notice that all the bits and pieces of a TF 747 soaking in AT fluid in the tub had to go.
And the hemi block serving as an end table in the living room was a fire hazard.

[splashlog48]

Originally Posted by CamaroFred

When we were young and rented an apartment. I called management that there was a water leak from the shower soaking everything on the bedroom closet floor.

While the maintenance crew did nothing but leave 3 cigarette butts in the toilet I did promptly receive a notice that all the bits and pieces of a TF 747 soaking in AT fluid in the tub had to go.
And the hemi block serving as an end table in the living room was a fire hazard.

LMMFBO !!!!!!

[BlkCamaroVert]

Originally Posted by Texas_RS

Wife asked if I was tired of shifting gears in everyday driving, traffic etc , I don't have any problem with it and love it. She brought up how I didn't know how to drive a manual transmission until she taught me, which is true. In my defense, we were 16 years old at the time, and now both 27.

Just curious to see if there are anyone still, these days, that can drive a manual car?

Or do you know how, but just prefer an automatic instead?

I did when I had a Viper. Had no choice but it's basically like asking do you still like to play with dolls. An auto is faster and better. It's just childish to drive a stickshift these days.

[Corrado68]

Yup.

Almost as childish as buying a car from the Dinosaur era, sucking gas at 15mpg while the modern world sets a standard at 30mpg+

Aren't we all buying these cars because we are just children playing with our toys?

I am. And I'm not ashamed of it, LOL

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by BlkCamaroVert

I did when I had a Viper. Had no choice but it's basically like asking do you still like to play with dolls. An auto is faster and better. It's just childish to drive a stickshift these days.

I'm collecting social security and still playing with dolls.

My objective is to have as many childhoods as possible.

Originally Posted by Corrado68

Yup.

Almost as childish as buying a car from the Dinosaur era, sucking gas at 15mpg while the modern world sets a standard at 30mpg+

Aren't we all buying these cars because we are just children playing with our toys?

I am. And I'm not ashamed of it, LOL

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by BlkCamaroVert

I did when I had a Viper. Had no choice but it's basically like asking do you still like to play with dolls. An auto is faster and better. It's just childish to drive a stickshift these days.

Another retiree checking in . . . I'll take 'childish' over whatever 'maturity' you're trying to associate with preferring an automatic. I'll give you that the AT is faster, hell, I could have told you it would become the faster powertrain spec before it generally was. But not 'better', because that involves subjectives that can irritate some people as badly as others apparently comfort you.

Whatever childhood # I'm currently in (guessing maybe the third), I hope I never outgrow it. Kind of a nice place to be, and not conforming to expected norms (intentional) is part of that.


Norm

[13BRM2SSRS]

I've had several manual cars/truck and enjoyed them. Had a 94 Formula 6 speed and it was a blast. Would have preferred a manual when I got my 5th gen but got a great deal on the auto so couldn't pass it up! The paddles are fun to play with and I usually do a mix of sport mode and or paddles depending on were I'm driving.