re: shifting guidelines

[alfanut@xxxxxxxx]

>2) When the light turns green, never, ever, EVER just stomp on the
>   clutch and slam it into 1st.  Most Alfas only have 1/2 a synchro on
>   1st.  You get NO synchro action doing this.  Contrary to other
>   published views, you should also NEVER use 2nd gear to stop the
>   moving parts in the tranny before slecting 1st.  2nd gets enough
>   abuse as it is.  When the light turns green, step on the clutch, wait
>   a second, then select 4th, THEN select 1st.  The same applies to
>   Reverse.  Step on the clutch, wait 1 second, put it in 4th, THEN
>   select R.  If you do it this way, you'll never hear a crunch.  See
>   rule #1.

NEVER? Shite. I've been doing step 2 wrong all these years. I've decided
that its just too much hassle to get used to shifting over to 4th (instead
of just down to 2nd) before engaging first. God Forbid I should try to talk
my wife into learning that. She'd shoot me! I've found that you barely have
to engage second at all to get the effect of matching gear speeds
correctly. One does not have to shift all the way into 2nd or 4th. I
rebuilt my Duetto gearbox 6 years ago and it seems just fine still...

Otherwise Simon...Right on.

Michael Williams
Sacramento, California US of A
69 Duetto
84 GTV-6
73 Berlina (FOR SALE  see my web page)

http://www.rcip.com/michael

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