Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General This gear thing is getting to me! PLEASE READ

Before I say this let me just say I'm a self-taught shifter and was never taught the fundamentals, so this may already be common knowledge or I may find out this is bad, either way someone is gonna learn something. I've experienced the same thing but if when shifting from 1st to 2nd don't push in the clutch until you've got the stick in neutral. It's tricky to get the timing down but obviously you've got to get the clutch in before shifting from neutral to second. Still gotta be gentle letting the clutch out to. Lurch gone.

While we are on the subject I have a question. I was told by someone more kwowledgeable than me that actually if you shift at the right points you don't need to depress the clutch at all. Needless to say I haven't experimented with this but is it true that there are sweet spots where no clutch is required to shift? Perhaps he was referring to specific types of gearboxes.

What you heard was true. It is possible to shift without the clutch at all, it you can match revs going int othe next gear. I can do this quite easily on my RX-7, just push the gear lever against the scyncr and it pops in when the engine speed matches. However, that is a cheap car with a good transmission. I've not tried it in the SVT yet, but don't think it's up to the task.

Can you say Throttle Hang!

i'm thinking that bruce o is correct. it does sound like throttle hanging problems since there are not many cars that have this clutch problem along with the throttle hanging.

it also makes me feel a lot better knowing that my clutch isn't messed up, but rather that just the way that it is.
spec 23

4.06 Final drive with the MTX (still very steep)

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I mentioned throttle hang in my first post too btw

i have a 2000 svt and i love the way it shifts if im traveling real slow (rush hour traffic) i fell the lurch your talking about but to me its no bad enough to warrent any change.... when moving all gears seem to just fall into place i mean to me there perfectly spaced and the clutch just works

either way if its really a bother to you try some of the fixes here or see if ford could help but to me its really not that big a deal

and about the clutchless shifting its actually quite easy and i do ocasionally in the svt (normally as im coasting to a stop slowly accelerating from my home)
To a stop: just pull it out of gear pull it towards the next gear blip the throttle and it will pop right in gear no grinding or anything
Accelerating: speed up pull it out of gear pull it towards the next gear wait a moment and it should pop right into place as you drive

now of course this is a personal driving method i dont recommend it to anyone i personally just use when im being lazy or if my left foot is comfortable as is.

Changing and Bleading the Brake/Clutch fluid might help the problem. Fluid goes bad after 40K miles. If fluid looks and smells fresh, add some if the level is low. Wouldn't hurt to have the Motor Mounts checked also as someone else has mentioned. They are prone to failure.

So you can pull it out of first without pushing the clutch??

I am also a self-taught stickshift driver.

-James

I wanna address the issue of the Redline dropping to around 5000 rpms. When the engine is cold the computer doesn't allow you to rev it that high. I have run into this 3-4 times.

That's a bad idea anyway. I would have never found that out. I stay below 4000rpm until the engine is at normal operating temperature.