Taught myself how to.....

[FordGuy100]

Shift without the clutch. I heard guys doing it on here, and was driving the other day and was like, what the hell lets give it a try. Its actually alot easier than I thought it would be. I can go from 2-3, and 3-4 pretty easily, and also from 4-3 though its a little harder to get the rpm's to match. Its pretty dang cool to be able to do . I have screwed up a couple of times, and ground the gears a little , but oh well its a learning curve.

 

[6 Nebraska IDIs]

With a T19? You're kidding right. I cant get any of our T19's around here to shift from 2-3, 3-4 yea but 2-3 none of them.

 

[82F100SWB]

That's strange... I pretty much only ever use the clutch in my truck to take off, floating the gears is not an issue, ever.

 

[FordGuy100]

With a T19? You're kidding right. I cant get any of our T19's around here to shift from 2-3, 3-4 yea but 2-3 none of them.

Yeah from 2-3 mine will do it, its harder to do than the 3-4, but its still managable.

 

[The Warden]

IMHO it's a very good idea to know how to float gears...with my T-19, I could float every gear going up and going down (except Neutral to 1st or Reverse at a dead stop ), and sometimes when my back/leg's hurting too much to push the clutch pedal down repeatedly, I'll even float gears with my ZF.

However, I've always been told that floating a syncro'ed tranny is very bad for the syncros...it'll make them wear down very quickly, especially with a ZF (and, to a smaller extent, with the T-19 as well). So...other than learning how to do it (and, maybe the occasional practice so you don't get too rusty), I wouldn't recommend floating gears except in an emergency.

That said, I drove my truck over 200 miles once, with a bad clutch slave cylinder (not holding any pressure and dumping fluid at a high rate)...I had to be very careful, but I was able to do it...fortunately, the starter had enough power to crank the engine with the truck in gear and the clutch released and people wonder why I advocate gear-reduction starters so strongly!!

 

[RLDSL]

Mind you, handy thing to know how to do if your clutch ever goes out and you're a long way from home, but don't make a habit of driving a sychro box that way unless you want to be rebuilding the thing soon.
If you ever tear one of the things apart you'll see what I'm talking about. you have these little soft metal rings with springs that basically allow some slop for the extra rings to wriggle the gear into position while you have the clutch held in so that the gear can engage without grinding, and when you float a synchro box without the clutch, you may think that you're doing a real **** job of shifting like a big truck driver with straight cut gears and no synchros, but, guess what, those synchros are getting one serious workout and one day they are going to say enough and lay down on you.

Most young guys hit that spot of learning to float gears, and if someone doesnt stop them, it isn't long before that get to pull the drain plug on their tranny on the truck that won't move and watch all those pretty shiny brass and chrome coloured flakes come out

Big trucks are a whole different story, no synchros. Using the clutch after takoff just gets in your way on those things, except to unload the gears on hills .

 

[FordGuy100]

Alright, looks like I wont be doing it anymore then. Thanks for the input on that guys, I would have kicked myself in the ass if my tranny went because of this. Though I am wanting to put in a ZF really badly, so how long would those syncros last......?

 

[tonkadoctor]

Alright, looks like I wont be doing it anymore then. Thanks for the input on that guys, I would have kicked myself in the ass if my tranny went because of this. Though I am wanting to put in a ZF really badly, so how long would those syncros last......?

Not long enough to save up your milk money for the ZF swap .

Just keep the knowledge learned for a rainy day when, not if, the clutch slave cylinder craps out. They always seem t have a way of going south AFTER you leave the house like in a grocery store parking lot after dark in the rain, waiting in a long line of cars to pick yer kid up at school and there is nowhere to get out of line to let them all past.....snatch it in gear, move 10', kick it out of gear, stop, repeat... (yea that was fun )

 

[oregon-mike]

Well, this is only pseudo related, but, back in my high school days I had a '75 Fiat (Fix It Again Tony) X/19 with a manual tranny. Slave cylinder went out on it, got the rebuild kit, honed & rebuilt it, lasted about 5 weeks tops. When it went out again I had to order a new slave cyl. It was on a slow boat from Italy to north Idaho I guess. Had to go 3-4 weeks of no clutch. Put 'er in neutral and turn off the ignition at stop lights (there were 2 in town), coasted through stop signs. Put 'er in 1'st, crank 'er over, start driving & shifting w/no clutch. Worked great.

I did not do any road trips to Spokane to cruise during this time however No idea if that old tranny had synchros or not, had to do what I had to do so I could get to school/football practice/work/home etc at the time.

For future reference though, how does one know if the tranny has synchros nowadays? Is it that all reasonably modern trannies (say, the last 25 years) have them?

 

[82F100SWB]

You probably won't hurt a 4 speed floating the gears in it of you don't grind 'em, I know I haven't hurt one in the last 13 years. But, I sure wouldn't do it with a ZF, their syncros are weak at best.

 

[RLDSL]

Most all car and light truck trannys since the 60's have had synchros, light truck tranny's are hit and mis before that depending on what they were put in.

 

[tonkadoctor]

For future reference though, how does one know if the tranny has synchros nowadays? Is it that all reasonably modern trannies (say, the last 25 years) have them?

About the only thing that doesn't have syncros are big rigs and some tractors. If you DON'T have to match engine rpms to the gear you are selecting to properly up or down shift (without just straight up slamming it into gear like you're drag racing), it has syncros.

Ever wonder why you can't downshift into first gear in pickup trannies with granny low...without grinding the gear or matching the engine rpm to the tranny to get it to go in while rolling..... the first gear isn't syncronized.

 

[yARIC008]

About the only thing that doesn't have syncros are big rigs and some tractors.

So is that why you have to double clutch a semi?

 

[89Firebird2.8]

Is the 1st gear in a ZF-5 a granny? It has a hell of a time going into first if the truck isn't moving.

 

[Agnem]

I blew my slave cylinder out once, and had to float them to get home. You learn to hate busy intersections.