MustangFanatic44

I havent heard to much on this subject on the s197s, i know its possible cause my boyfriend has done it a handful of times on my car.

He says he cant really explain how he does it, im just curious on how you knows when to actually shift.

i dont plan on floating the gears and risk something getting F'ed up and having to explain why my transmission is screwed up.

KLO

Are you talking about clutchless shifting? If so, it's just feel. I did it a few times but I don't remember the RPM's in which everything lines up to take it out of gear then again to put it up to the next gear. Once you run up the gear and are ready to shift just put a little pressure on the shifter like you're putting it in neutral. Watch the tach too so you know the RPM in which it happens. Just do the reverse to put it in gear. Your synchros won't like you the first few times you do it until you learn the RPM in which all this happens though.

Sp3kter

What do you mean by floating the gears?

marcuskeeler

Clutchless shifting is possible but the only way that's ever ever of use is if you've blown your clutch and you're in a locale or scenario where you simply have no other option than to either push or drive without a clutch.
Sure, we've all done it, just to scope it out, and in fact I have driven clutchless cars fair distances, but it's NOT recommendable, even if you can do it smoothly 90% of the time.

MustangFanatic44

clutchless shifting is what i mean, i call it floating gears.

marcuskeeler

There is no Magic RPM at which this happens, it's all about the relation between RPM, Gear & road speed.
If you shift without a clutch the trick is to have a good understanding of where the RPM's need to be in the specific gear you're aiming for at that road speed. Sometimes you have to blip the gas a little to get the RPM's up to the right point and sometimes you have to let them drop to intercept the sweet spot.
A gentle pressure on the gear shifter is all that's needed, when the three constituents come together, resistance on the shifter will fall away, and it will simply drop in.

marcuskeeler

How come you never did it, don't know how to do it in fact, but have a name for it? LOL

MustangFanatic44

boyfriend calls it floating the gears. some people call it clutchless shifting, i call it a good way to screw up your transmission.

i think i've done it only one time, well half way, just accidentally knocked it out of 3rd gear.

tx_zstang

I used to do it frequently on a Honda civic, many years ago. There were actually some marks on the tack close to the appropriate rpms.
I would get to the proper rpm, then let off the gas a little to take the torque off the driveline, and pop in in the next gear.

No, its not good for the tranny. But if a clutch cable breaks or some other malfunction, it's good to know you can do it to get going faster than say 1st gear.

socalwrench

To be honest, many truck drivers and race car drivers use this technique to save shifting time. However, both of them know at what RPM the gears line up at, so they mesh properly. If you're off by as little as 200 RPM, you can easily grind a gear. On a street car, don't do it. Tell your boyfriend to use the clutch.

If he's worried about dropping RPM during shifting or taking too long to shift, consider using the heel toe technique.