Originally Posted By: jcwit
Never thought I'd go to an automatic, well I got old and my knees have failed me and an auto is all thats left.
You have a very good reason to go with an automatic. I don't fault you one bit, but would recommend a full manual valve body on that automatic and a performance shifter. Still, working the clutch is at least half the fun of the manual transmission.
Originally Posted By: Tornado Red
-- sometimes when I'm in 5th and I reach for the shift lever to upshift, and I end up putting it back in 5th.
Yep, I do that sometimes.
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
...But before you give up on standards, use MTL if you're specced for ATF or 70w80 and use MT90 if you're specced for 75w90.
Redline MTL did the trick for my '95 F150, was much better than Redline D4 ATF or anything else. Go too thick and you will clash gears as the syncros won't work right, also may burn up a bearing if you have any that are splash lubed, like in my transmission.
Originally Posted By: hpichris
The day manuals stop existing, is the day I quit living.
I won't go that far, but that will be the day I get into driving old restored vehicles. I could really get a kick out of having a three-on-the-tree shifted vehicle, like my '77 F100. I could shift that one left handed. If you replace worn linkage the three-on-the-tree is fine, but if it gets worn badly, you'll be doing the find-em-and-grind-em shift lever dance--ah the great memories, stopping on the side of the road to unjam the linkage after over 100,000 miles of wear.
Originally Posted By: ClarkB
I'm not quite sure what is so exciting about manually shifting gears that makes driving more enjoyable than letting an auto do it for you. It doesn't really makes sense to me that driving a shift-stick is more exciting when most people admit that driving a shift-stick is best done on the highway where you are not shifting all that much. If shifting is so much fun how come people don't like doing it in stop and go traffic?
A manual transmission makes you much more a part of the machine. I like the simplicity too. I am not particulary fond of driving a manual on the freeway because I do like rowing through the gears, so city driving is the best. Only time it's a pain in the neck is in a really bad back up and I don't recall many of those that really bothered me, mostly stop and go traffic is a hassle if something isn't working right, maybe your clutch is going out, or the slave cylinder is binding and it is a pain to work, but when the mechanicals are in order, I don't mind having to engage the clutch 5 times a minute for a hour long jam. Now in my '77 it was a different story, full manual linkage no power steering etc, and manual steering, I was in my 20s and was getting knee and elbow pain driving that thing towards the end of it's life.
Never thought I'd go to an automatic, well I got old and my knees have failed me and an auto is all thats left.
You have a very good reason to go with an automatic. I don't fault you one bit, but would recommend a full manual valve body on that automatic and a performance shifter. Still, working the clutch is at least half the fun of the manual transmission.
Originally Posted By: Tornado Red
-- sometimes when I'm in 5th and I reach for the shift lever to upshift, and I end up putting it back in 5th.
Yep, I do that sometimes.
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
...But before you give up on standards, use MTL if you're specced for ATF or 70w80 and use MT90 if you're specced for 75w90.
Redline MTL did the trick for my '95 F150, was much better than Redline D4 ATF or anything else. Go too thick and you will clash gears as the syncros won't work right, also may burn up a bearing if you have any that are splash lubed, like in my transmission.
Originally Posted By: hpichris
The day manuals stop existing, is the day I quit living.
I won't go that far, but that will be the day I get into driving old restored vehicles. I could really get a kick out of having a three-on-the-tree shifted vehicle, like my '77 F100. I could shift that one left handed. If you replace worn linkage the three-on-the-tree is fine, but if it gets worn badly, you'll be doing the find-em-and-grind-em shift lever dance--ah the great memories, stopping on the side of the road to unjam the linkage after over 100,000 miles of wear.
Originally Posted By: ClarkB
I'm not quite sure what is so exciting about manually shifting gears that makes driving more enjoyable than letting an auto do it for you. It doesn't really makes sense to me that driving a shift-stick is more exciting when most people admit that driving a shift-stick is best done on the highway where you are not shifting all that much. If shifting is so much fun how come people don't like doing it in stop and go traffic?
A manual transmission makes you much more a part of the machine. I like the simplicity too. I am not particulary fond of driving a manual on the freeway because I do like rowing through the gears, so city driving is the best. Only time it's a pain in the neck is in a really bad back up and I don't recall many of those that really bothered me, mostly stop and go traffic is a hassle if something isn't working right, maybe your clutch is going out, or the slave cylinder is binding and it is a pain to work, but when the mechanicals are in order, I don't mind having to engage the clutch 5 times a minute for a hour long jam. Now in my '77 it was a different story, full manual linkage no power steering etc, and manual steering, I was in my 20s and was getting knee and elbow pain driving that thing towards the end of it's life.
