Downshifting Question
06-30-2010, 08:23 PM
#1
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Downshifting Question
I do a lot of driving in the 55-65mph range, and every once in a while I'll get stuck behind someone driving undesirably slow. I know about the trouble the 4T65 has with 4th gear. Quote from BillBoost37:
My question is, what exactly is the "proper" way to downshift manually in this car? Say I'm going about 60mph with the RPMs at about 1800-1900. Do I let off the gas first, shift down to third, and then get back on it? I just want to clarify how to do it because I can drive a manual trans just fine, I've just never tried it before in an automatic.
Thanks in advance.
One of the weakest links in our cars is the transmission. When you are on the highway and would like to be a little peppier or aggressive, don't let the transmission downshift to 3rd gear on it'* own. Pull it down a gear then give the car throttle. The reason for this is the 4th gear hub shaft is not a hardened part. By pulling it down before throttling you remove the moment of added torque from being applied to the 4th hub and save it'* splines for another day. When those splines wear out, you lose 4th gear.
Thanks in advance.
06-30-2010, 10:16 PM
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Yea just give it a little practice.. and itll be second nature. My last Bonneville i drove like a manual transmission. And it held up great. Drove it hard and got rid of it with 260,000 miles and it was drove for another 9 months till it was impounded.
07-01-2010, 05:58 AM
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Agreed! But with a column shift, it can be tricky sometimes. Iv'e accidently dumped mine into 2nd or first a few times. Quite the neck snapper!
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07-01-2010, 06:38 AM
#8
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I er uh..can't tell you guys... ok I can. Anything under 75mph in my car was pullable. Didn't punch out of 2nd until nearly 90mph. Built the motor to do that and the 3.29'* didn't help on the highway speeds..
07-01-2010, 09:16 PM
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So 1st up to 40,
2nd up to 90,
3rd ... hits the limiter...
4th ... hits it at lower rpm...
07-01-2010, 09:50 PM
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Well, I tried it today when there weren't any other cars around. Just simply pulled it down to third, sped up some, and put it back into Drive. There'* nothing to it. My shifter isn't on the column so I had no problems with pulling it too far.