How much can the 5spd manual trans take? Is it a strong trans, or will it not take much abuse? What is not a good idea to do to them as far as driving goes? Im not sure which 5spd manual trans is in it, im guessing they only made one for 2000?

Also, I know that you can shift gears without using the clutch if you get the right rpms, but is that a good idea do do it alot? It seems to slide into each gear at a low rpm.

 

I believe it's the same as the 3.0L transmission (M5OD). IMO if you're worried about getting the most out of your clutch/reduce tranny wear- dont ride the clutch, dont dump the clutch, I wouldnt do a lot of clutchless shifting, and keep it in neutral at lights/coast to a stop in neutral. It'll take abuse just at the possible expense of a slave and eventually a new clutch..

 

I've noticed even with the 4cyl engine, it will bark the tires pretty good going into second.

 

i wish i could do that!

 

That's not to healthy for it though. The most underpowered 4 banger econo box car out there will break the tires loose on a power shift, but it will eventually break other things.

It's a serious shock to the drive line to do that. I am a firm believer it it won't rip the tires off from pure throttle, it's just going to hurt parts more making it do it. Not to mention, spinning ain't winning :)

 

personally i wouldnt race shift that trans at all its not hard to push the clutch in and it is better on it. besides that there pretty much you cant hurt it with a 4cyl

 

But with enough clutch drops and power shifts, it can put a serious pain on the input shaft, universals, and Ford isn't known for the strength of their shift forks either. It's not the motor that hurts it, it's the driver and the abuse factor.

 

well its definitely a truck so its not made to race anybody or gun it ALL the time. be careful with it and make it last for a while.

 

I dont do it much, but when I do, I use the clutch anyways. It dont just chirp the tires for a split second, it will actually bark them for like 1.5 seconds.


My old truck was a v8 and I couldn't get it to spin tires from take off, or anything.

 

There was something seriously wrong with it then lol, I have had 1.5 liter crapbox civic CX's boil em down next to me when I am in my fast car trying to pull the ricer goad into a race crap lol. And you can't get any weaker than that, I am pretty sure they make about 92 flywheel hp and pass the 1/4 in around 21ish seconds :)

I'm just saying man, it's not healthy for it. If you have the cash, then more power to you but if you don't feel like shelling out money to fix it, there is no reason to be doing it. I screw around with with Civic every now and then on the interstate and let them roast off but it will break loose in third at about 5000 rpms on throttle alone and roast them until it runs out of gear. That's not healthy, but there is no shock to it, it's just power overcoming traction, no clutch involved.

Reason I say that, it's my playtoy. If I break it, I have the Ranger which gets me to work and wherever else I need it to take me with no problems and the civic can sit in the garage for a month with a broken axle and it doesn't hurt me at all. If you are doing this stuff to you DD though and it breaks, it has to be fixed right then or you are out of a ride and that can get expensive.


But as always, it's your truck and I am just a faceless dude on the net talking to you so you can do what you want.

 

Yea I understand, I sure dont want to mess anything up, its just kind of a every now and then kinda thing......its kinda an addiction that once you start, its hard to stop. lol

 

ive had problems with my trans, my truck is a '93 4.0 s/c 4x4 and it only had 63,000 miles when i got it 3 years ago. at 80,000 i lost 2nd, it was getting hard to go into 2nd and was noisy while in 2nd , one day there was a noise and suddenly no 2nd gear. got a rebuilt unit and have put 20,000 miles on it. it now doesnt downshift into 4rth from 5th and doesnt like to go from 3rd to 2nd. occasionolly it grinds while going into 2nd, the 1st one went from oil leakage from shift rail plugs, was low on oil when i got it. this one i dont know, ive changed the oil in this trans 10 times since putting it in, it currently has mobil 1 atf synthetic in it. on the other hand my 1st ranger a '88 2wd 2.3 s/c had 203,000 on it when i traded it with no trans problems at all, and it didnt get its first fluid change until after 100,000 when i bought it. some trans are just duds i guess. too bad ive had 2 in a row in the same truck. was 1,100 for this rebuilt unit. not a fun thing to change out. (and it happend in feburay, in ohio, and i had a unheated drafty barn to work in)

 

I had a 2.3L 2003 manual and never hurt the trans itself, but powershifting puts added wear on the u-joint. I did however bend the original stock shifter. Bought a brand new one and was affraid of bending it again, so I switched to the hurst. Never had another problem after that, also the hurst is A-LOT less sloppy. Much more positive shifting.

 

Does the shifter itself and its peices(bushings, etc.) wear out at some point and need to be replaced? Cause my truck has 139k on it. The trans is still real solid.

 

I don't think the stock shifter will wear out, I just abused the first one I had and bent it. I replaced it and before I damaged it again, I replaced it with the hurst shifter. My only regrets are that I wish I installed the hurst shifter the day I bought the truck.

 

I love my hurst.. but the damn shifter arm wont stay tightened! I've tried both blue and red grades of loctite and it eventually loosens up.

 

^^^ Lol Rolf Omg Lol...

 

bwester04, I had that problem about 4 days after first installing my hurst shifter. Throw the cheap washers/nuts that they supply with the shifter in the garbage and go to you local hardware store. Get (2) regular lock washers for the (2) shifter arm bolts and get (2) ny-loc nuts also. Use them along with the loctite. I did the same and it never moved after 20,000 miles of use. I used the green loctite, medium strength wicking version.

 

Mine lost 4th gear alot like Racsans did. No warnings just one day I hit the gas to make a yellow and it 4th yelled (ground gears) at me for it. Next time I went to 4th there was nothing.

Racsan, where did you get your rebuilt from, hopefuly not Kormex on EBay.

 

it was a salvage place called milliron recycling, ive gotton alot of other things from them (like front-end parts for the taurus) i took the top plate off before i installed it and it looked good inside, much better than the original that had been run low on oil. im almost willing to put a auto in it, and im not a fan of slushboxes in trucks. as far as the loose hurst handle issue, i got longer bolts to fasten the lever on with and used nuts on the threads where they came through the shifter stub with, and used red loctite along with this. havent had any problems with mine loosing this way, i had heard of others having problems with looseining so i thought id try to keep it from happening. i do like the hurst, took forever to get it, was on backorder from jegs from mid-may until the end of august. if i had to choose a gear to lose, i wish it would be 5th, id drive it till the end of its days as a four-speed, once for experiments sake i drove it a week not using o/d to see what kind of difference it makes (fuel-economy wise) gas milage only dropped by 1, yes 1 mpg difference over the course of my weekly 120 mile commute.