What manual tranny did you cut your teeth on?

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I can't remember if I chimed in on this yet or not.

First manual transmission I attempted to drive was an S10 with a Datsun 710 diesel engine and manual gearbox. Very very picky little thing for a new guy. I hated sticks in a car for the longest time, which made no sense because I loved driving stick tractors.

Neat little truck though. Pulled off 35 mpg quite easily and the engine was in it's 3rd or 4th vehicle IIRC.
 
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63 Plymouth Valiant Signet. Three speed on the column. 1981. Had it out today on the 10 and around the outskirts of the city
 
I think I had replied some time ago but now that I think about it I learned on various tractors. A few old Ford ones in the 25-45 horse range and then up to the old Ford 7000. Then on to a few random cars. Old Subaru, some sort of first gen Cavalier, an old school bus and then buddies D100 with the slant six and three on the tree.
 
Boy, gotta really dig back in the memory banks on this one!

My first manuals were ...
'77 Dodge B100 van, 225 /6 and 3-on-the-tree (I believe it was the A230). Absolutely bulletproof.
'89 Ford Escort Pony, 1.9 CFI I-4 and 4-speed MTX-II. A lot more fun to drive than it should have been.

I'd love to have another manual these days, but they're so few and far between.
frown.gif
 
1995 Acura Integra GS-R which I'd just bought. I didn't know how to drive a stick and I couldn't find anyone to teach me. The first time I tried driving a stick was during a test drive of a 1995 Ford Probe GT with the Mazda internals from the sales guy trying to sell me one. His basic tip was let the clutch out slowly without the gas and it would start moving. I guess it kind of works for the novice but in the long run that's going to kill clutches. My next test was at the Acura dealer where they had a specific test drive vehicle. Apparently what they did was put them in test drive service for 5000 miles then sell them before they depreciate too much. I even managed to take it on the freeway without killing myself and the salesman. Later on I ended up test driving a Saturn SC2. And I really couldn't stand the dealer. He kept on telling me how great that thing was and laying it down thick. I mean - I got tired of hearing how great those plastic panels were and all the [censored] about how it was about as safe as a Volvo in a crash. In the end it had lousy NVH, especially the noise at freeway speeds.

I ended up buying it and asked the salesman for another lesson before I took it home. We headed to a parking lot that he recommended but he had an appointment and I ended up driving it home. I basically was on my own and for about a month I kept on stalling at lights. I also had problems with slight inclines in parking lots until I could figure out how to feather the clutch and just let it slip a bit.
 
Good for you. You'll get the nick of it in no time, if not already.

As far as your comment on wearing out the clutch by letting it out slowly without gas, not quite true. Duration at the friction point with higher than necessary rpm's wear out the clutch faster.
 
1987 VW Jetta GL 8v with a grindy second gear syncro.

Followed up by a 89 Thunderbird Super Coupe with a dual friction clutch.

The latest stick shift car I had was a 03 Saturn Ion.
 
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