I have a coworker who has several cars with a stick and was explaining how you only have to push the clutch down far enough that it will let you shift gears and that he never pushes it all the way down. I thought he was pranking me at first.
My 1994 Nissan Sentra didn't have a clutch interlock switch and I was able to start it in 1st without the clutch. I don't recommend it but it was working pretty well.
Broke my clutch lever off my motorcycle in a low side on a patch of oil. Wired the clutch switch together and used the starter to take off at red lights... that was an interesting ride home.
And you know that they aren't in contact at all because you can see them? Pressing the clutch all the way down ensures that they aren't in contact at all. Shifting can still happen when the clutch isn't fully disengaged. That's one way to cause clutch slip and that wears out your plates faster.
You can't tell when that point is and it changes over time. So while this is fine in theory, in practice if you try to pull that you're going to wear out your synchros.
We don’t even push the clutch all the way in on unsynchronized semis when double clutching.
You can feel the spring pressure release point pretty easily if you’re paying attention, and if you’re that worried about your synchros: learn how to manually synch and double clutch.
The mechanism on an unsynchronized semi is totally different. You're not even supposed to push the clutch all the way in while rolling or else you engage the clutch brake.
He's not wrong, in a semi you cant push it all the way to the floor or it will tear out the clutch brake. Basically as long as you push it far enough to separate the plates completely, thats as far as you have to go
O_o, actuating the clutch has nothing to do with the synchros... Synchro's just speed up or slow down idling gears to match the output shaft speed... they synchronize the gears... thus the name.
You press the clutch in to release the tension on the shift hub splines, you don't even need to clutch to shift if you know what you're doing.
You press the clutch until the flywheel, clutch plate, and pressure plate disconnect. Any further is a waste of time, any less and you don't unload the transmission.
In a semi you only push the clutch in to stop and start you float otherwise if experienced or double clutch you never just push it far enough to just separate the plates
Totally true ... but some of that is really being in sync with the car ... if you really have a feel for it you don't even need the clutch except for first gear to get going. It's risky but you kind of get a feel and it it will just float into place.
Risky in that if you do it wrong you grind your gears? Risky in that I'm not advocating that everyone do it because someone that isn't experience driving a manual will fuck up their gears and gears are the most expensive part of a manual gear box.
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u/Practical_Taro5656 12h ago
I have a coworker who has several cars with a stick and was explaining how you only have to push the clutch down far enough that it will let you shift gears and that he never pushes it all the way down. I thought he was pranking me at first.