Xenozx

hey I did something for the very first time (and I know its obviously not good) but I had put the car in N without pushing the clutch down. I actually did this twice because the first time I was like WTF and thought maybe I did push the clutch down, second time it still happend without touching the clutch.

Its very smooth and doesnt seem to require alot of power to take it out of gear with the clutch engaged, is this normal? Its obviously not good and I did not try to put it back into gear that way, but it did come out of gear pretty easily. Nothing jumped or jerked it felt pretty normal minus the very slight extra stiffness in the shifter.

Is this normal or is this a sign of a weak clutch or what?

any insight would be appriciated, and no I wont be doing it again. This is my first stick car, so I am trying to learn everything I can.

carbombss

i dunno my car has done it since tha day i got it an ive had no problems

Cobalt_Supercharged

Not a problem, just don't try to put it back into gear that way. Well you could if you know your car really well, but it isn't exactly safe/fool proof.

My Dad said he would only use the clutch to start and stop, when he was drove his car in High School.

MarcS

It is normal, putting it back in gear without a clutch from a stop is a 'no no'.

Shifting without the clutch while rolling can be done but is stressful on the drivetrain if not done exactly right. It's also hard on the syncromesh.

Xenozx

IC cause sometimes when your shifting fast or racing you may not have the clutch all the way down but the car still comes out of gear, so I guess that would back that up, I was just scared shitless like maybe my **** was slipping or something. Glad to know its normal, but IM going to try not to do it any more

Permafried-

This actually helped out one day more than I ever thought it would when I had to pretty much stop on a dime since some nimrod thought it was a good idea to pull RIGHT in front of me. I had no time to hit the clutch so I just pulled it out of gear into neutral while I was hammering on the brakes...I didn't really think about it until after I'd done it but I don't think it's all that bad for your tranny. In this instance I'd rather have put some possible extra strain on my tranny than plowing into the monkey ahead of me.

giovanhalen

If you are accelerating it will be hard to pull out of gear because the trans has torque on it, if you have no load on the trans it will pull out easy-normal. That is what a clutch does, by disconnecting the engine from the trans, torque is taken off and you can easily pull it out of gear.

BlackS/C

Yeah I did this 2 times before. The 2nd time was last week. The 1st was the day I got my car.

NJBLUESS

If you match your RPM's (engine to trans) you can shift up or down without the use of the clutch. Up shifts aren't to difficult, but down shifts can be tricky. When you Rev match your gears, they will just fall into place with slight pressure. I learned on an old iron 4 speed that I swapped into my Jeep.

05REDROCKET

i do it all the time it wont hurt it at all. theres no presure when you take it out but i wont put it in with out the clutch just to be safe.

Put name here

Its actually smoother to not use the clutch if you get the rpms right.
When i upshift i let the rpm drop 400-600 rpm and it usually slips in to 2nd with no effort. Same with 3rd 4th etc.

Downshifting is a little more involved but still easy. Just blip throttle and when rpm is higher than what the rpm will be at when you are in that gear and importantly at the right road speed it will pop in. Just be gentle and try to practice it in 3rd and 4th gears to start since its not as abrupt as lower gears. Remember that if your doing 60 mph and try to get the shifter into first it WONT go in! (unless you can rev the engine to 9000rpm) Your road speed is real important when clutches shifting.
5th has a wider gear spacing so let the rpm drop more before entering.

Another cool thing to try is not giving throttle when you are downshifting! Your road speed has to be real slow but youll be suprised going approx 15 mph (or something like that) you can put into gear with NO throttle when downshifting. Try 5th to 4th first. Its not really practical for reg driving or racing.

Upshifting: Let rpm drop then ease shifter into next gear. Dont take to long or it wont go in.
Downshifting: Rev throttle to or higher than the speed your engine will be at if you were to shift normally with the clutch and ease it into gear as rpm drops.

Ask a truck driver or race car driver...they do it every time they drive. Truckers want to save the clutch and their left leg. Race car drivers like the fact that the transition is smoother when you clutchless shift.

Try all this on an open road with no traffic. And if you have trouble with downshifting as most people do at first give it a good rev and GENTLY push against gate and it with go in when the tranny and engine finnaly rotate at the same speed. Remember if the rpm falls to far down you will have to rev again. Dont force anything and if you get an occational little grind (LITTLE) you wont hurt anything.