First Time Manual Owner

Thanks for all the responses guys. Yeah, my plan is to basically leave the dealership and head back home and rip the stock clutch assist spring out first thing. I have a pretty long driveway so I'll probably do most of my familiarization training (i.e. embarrassing stalls) there. When you guys talk about the clutch having a break in period can you elaborate on that? How many miles? Proper break in? etc.

I've been driving stick for around 8 years now. Never had hill assist before the Stallion. Yes, hill assist will screw you up if it's on. With all my experience, didn't realize the car had hill assist when I got it. Not gonna lie, I stalled it. But I love hill assist now. I think it's a great feature.


Breaking in a clutch is just taking it easy for the first 1000 miles. Preferably, you want to do a lot of city driving so you can engage the clutch and disengage. This means not gunning it to redline, but instead shifting at 3k or 4k rpm. This is a bigger deal when the car is cold. Don't gun on a cold car.

Make sure when up- or especially downshifting not to miss the gear you're seeking. It takes a bit of practice to get used to the close, short-throw nature of the shifter, and I made a few mistakes early on until I got the feel for the shifter's play and spacing required to move from gear to gear. Doesn't take long.

Another thing I would suggest is that you give it plenty of gas when starting off. Much more likely that you will not give it enough gas at start, and that's when you will stall.

And the clutch assist spring......

chandlermaxwell said:

Thanks for all the responses guys. Yeah, my plan is to basically leave the dealership and head back home and rip the stock clutch assist spring out first thing. I have a pretty long driveway so I'll probably do most of my familiarization training (i.e. embarrassing stalls) there. When you guys talk about the clutch having a break in period can you elaborate on that? How many miles? Proper break in? etc.

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Be VERY careful taking that spring out. It's sort-of a twist while pulling back on it because of the mount it's attached to. Make sure your vice grips (alligator style) are locked in tight and stable. If you screw it up and your arm fatigues holding the clutch down, it'll compress on the mount and snap it. Then you're stuck either driving with no spring at all (totally fine) or paying SEVENTY dollars to Steeda for a reproduction mount.

The Mt-82 is fine. People don't like it because it's temperamental and the rear end is thumpy but it just is what it is. It's not junk.

I've found that the faster I push in the clutch, the more smooth my transition is when upshifting. That way the revs don't fall off too much and you can land in the smooth zone. Also I leave just a tiny bit of clutch travel before I get back on the throttle. Downshifting will always be annoyingly thumpy unless you rev match. A quick high rev blip of the throttle before releasing the clutch to keep the revs higher when the clutch engages.

The rear end will always thump going into 6th, but overall it's just a rough experience. I can do it totally smooth if I really try, but I generally only try when I have a passenger. My kids just have to suck it up. A few days ago my 11 year old daughter, after getting hit with the headrest yet again, said "can you learn to shift better? you're gonna give me a brain injury" LOL. I told her no...hahahaha.

And it's definitely mostly impossible to shift smoothly from 1-2 ad 2-3 for the first couple miles when cold. It is what it is. And what it is...is fun.

chandlermaxwell said:

Thanks for all the responses guys. Yeah, my plan is to basically leave the dealership and head back home and rip the stock clutch assist spring out first thing. I have a pretty long driveway so I'll probably do most of my familiarization training (i.e. embarrassing stalls) there. When you guys talk about the clutch having a break in period can you elaborate on that? How many miles? Proper break in? etc.

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I've driven stick since 1987. Every car I've ever owned, for 30 years.

Don't over-think this........just get out and drive. You're getting good advice here, but keep it simple. Just get out and drive and drive and drive. You're going to f-up driving the car home, so prepare yourself for that.

Just don't drive with your foot resting on the clutch pedal. Other than that, you'll figure it out pretty soon.

The only sure thing is that you'll never get the correct advice about driving stick on the internet. Just go do it.

...but yes. Turn off hill assist and forget it ever existed. All it does is help you stall.

As far as trying to run with no spring at all, you'll have to see if the pedal still engages the top of travel switch (the one that cancels cruise control). The Steeda Spring is the way to go. Heck, you could even find one with a lower K value somewhere. It's crossed my mind to try.

Out of all the manuals I've driven the Mustang is a little quirky to me, but then again its my first V8 manual. Do the lighter clutch spring as others have already mentioned, it does help with feel. I almost stalled the first time I drove an S550 and I've been driving manuals for over 30 years.

Let it warm up for about a mile in the morning. It really is a feel thing, you have to get used to it. There are a number of solutions to make the shifting more precise (trans mounting, entirely new shifters, etc) that will make it more fun to drive. I would suggest putting one of those at the top of your mod list. There are threads aplenty on M6G regarding that subject.

I still have hill assist on, I actually like it when going up my driveway with a grade. Either way it's a simple check box.

Go to youtube and search for driving a manual. There is even a guy in a mustang! I'm sure you can pick up a pointer ot two.
Just stay away from the fast and the furious videos!

Have someone video you driving the car home. Good, crisp video.

Then post it here.

TexasRebel said:

As far as trying to run with no spring at all, you'll have to see if the pedal still engages the top of travel switch (the one that cancels cruise control).

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The clutch assist spring helps you to push the clutch in easier. So the spring is compressed when you're not pressing the clutch. Removing it requires more force to push the clutch in. Which means that there is more force from the clutch to push it to the top of travel switch.

I removed mine soon after getting it and really prefer the no spring feel over the mushiness it had with the spring.

Mike's Mustang said:

The clutch assist spring helps you to push the clutch in easier. So the spring is compressed when you're not pressing the clutch. Removing it requires more force to push the clutch in. Which means that there is more force from the clutch to push it to the top of travel switch.

I removed mine soon after getting it and really prefer the no spring feel over the mushiness it had with the spring.

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The clutch assist spring is an over-center spring. It pushes the clutch pedal in both directions. For about an inch of travel it works against your foot until you get the spring to maximum compression (where both ends of the spring perch and the pedal pivot are coplanar). At this point all force exerted by the spring is acting directly into the pedal pivot. Push the pedal further and the spring pushes the pedal toward the floor.

This is why it takes so much feel out and is nearly impossible to operate smoothly.

By using a spring with a lower K value, the spring still reduces the weight of the pedal on the clutch master cylinder while the clutch is engaged, but the operator is more involved in disengaging the clutch (better feel).
Using no spring at all allows the weight of the pedal to rest on the clutch master cylinder (multiplied by the mechanical advantage of the class 2 lever, of course!)

One of the best ways, I have found, to teach manual shifting is to first find an empty, flat parking lot (not many places close on Sunday anymore but you can find one) and practice letting out the clutch, with no gas to get the feel for how the clutch engages to get the car moving....too quick and you will stall every time.....good practice and easy on the mechanicals (burned clutches are cheap to replace).

crs2879 said:

One of the best ways, I have found, to teach manual shifting is to first find an empty, flat parking lot (not many places close on Sunday anymore but you can find one) and practice letting out the clutch, with no gas to get the feel for how the clutch engages to get the car moving....too quick and you will stall every time.....good practice and easy on the mechanicals (burned clutches are cheap to replace).

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School parking lots are the best. Less kids than ever are riding the bus due to helicopter parenting so it seems like most schools built in the last 15-20 years have a full loop for dropoffs and some a specific loop for the buses to use. It's great for learning anything driving related. Pretty much never anything going on there on Sundays.

chandlermaxwell said:

Thanks for all the responses guys. Yeah, my plan is to basically leave the dealership and head back home and rip the stock clutch assist spring out first thing. I have a pretty long driveway so I'll probably do most of my familiarization training (i.e. embarrassing stalls) there. When you guys talk about the clutch having a break in period can you elaborate on that? How many miles? Proper break in? etc.

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It's a little like bedding in new brake pads except that there's no particular procedure for it except to drive it mostly normally where you aren't allowing much more slip than necessary to get going from a full stop.

Sometimes I think that 'fear of the unknown' is what's more responsible for apprehension going into picking up a brand-new MT car as your daily driver. You've done at least a little MT driving (that some people seem to have missed), so it's not entirely new to you. Yes, the friction point will be different, as will the clutch 'feel'. That's what you're getting used to with your practice. Go into this with a "damn right I can do this" attitude and you'll be fine.

You're already at some advantage compared to people like me, where you've already got the hang of driving on the street and in traffic down separately from having to learn the clutch and shifting at the same time. Dealing with two smaller mental loads separately should be at least a little easier than coping with one big one all at once.


That said, both of my kids - and now my oldest granddaughter - were all learning to drive stick while they were still on their learner's permits. In cars that did not have Hill Start Assist or any of the other assistances that people take for granted today, and they all came through it just fine (you should hear what the 20 y/o granddaughter has to say about other drivers in her age group!).

My wife was the only one to go through a brief period of automatic-only driving on the way to manual-only driving. About a year's worth, back in 1970-1971.

The above has been kind of a long way of explaining why I don't think you're going to have nearly as much trouble as some people are afraid you will. Have some confidence, man.


Norm

All this advice.... It makes me chuckle. Do this; don't do that... Just go drive it, my friend. People have been learning to drive sticks since before most if not all of us were born. The first one I tried to drive was an MGB. I had no clue. Put it in gear and dumped the clutch. It died. Oh? We >that< didn't work. I tried something different. Oh! That's better.

You don't need >any< advice! Especially from "Internet Experts." You can figure it out yourself! Just go do it!

Ironic, I know. Here I am giving internet advice... But still, I suggest you just dive right in. Y O U C A N D O I T ! ! ! !