Help me!! Gear shifting question...

I am going to school, its a smaller school and today I got in a truck, which are older 7 speed. I kept on missing the gear and I tried to shift but had a hard time getting it to pop in to the higher gears. What are some reasons for this? Also we are required to clutch, no double clutching though.

 

I always just shifted when I heard the RPMs. I learned on old frieght shakers from Pepsi.

 

Upshifting without the clutch is easier then downshifting. 7 speed? What happened to 10 speeds? You have to use the clutch to pass your driving test. After that you start floating gears.

 

I had mostly old six speeds when I worked at Pepsi. Only a few 10 speed Macs at Sysco.

 

I get the impression that you’re trying to force it into gear. When people try to force it into gear, they attempt to jam it into gear. When that fails, they back the stick off a bit and try to jam it from a farther distance.

Feel. Light touch. Start off, build the rpms up, shift to the next gear, but instead of attempting to strongarm it in, feel the gears. You will feel it spinning, slow and then stop. When the gears feel like they’ve stopped moving, drop it in gear.

 

Eaton transmissions are meant to be double clutched, according to the manufacturer. That being said a lot of drivers are not using the clutch and are floating gears, some do it well, some not so. If a gear gets constantly slammed(for lack of a better word)against, eventually the synchro allowing that gear to be smoothly shifted can become damaged, making it difficult to be shifted.The higher gears are smaller and are not as easy to float as the lower gears which are larger. I've driven trucks that have been used and abused and I've sometimes found it hard to get into a certain gear(through floating). Whenever that is the case, I simply pull it out of gear step on the clutch to shift, making it easier to engage. Also every truck has an rpm range for shifting, too low it won't go in too high, the same.Also you have to match the speed of the truck to the gear your traveling in. All of that takes practice and time.If you can take the truck somewhere, where you're not going to interfere with anyone, practice going up and down, especially in the gear that's giving you trouble. Try it with the clutch and without the clutch and don't try to rush it or jam it, because you'll only be doing damage. The last 7spd that I drove(it was an older Pete)had what I call a mystery shifter, because the stick was so loose, it was a mystery what gear I was shifting into. Take your time, don't rush and don't stress and make sure when it goes in, that's it's all the way in, and if it still pops out maybe that gear is damaged. Good luck and don't worry you'll get it.

 

I thought the hammer was for the gas, lol.

 

That's a synchronized transmission which is not the same as a heavy duty ....I'm suspecting you're driving a medium duty truck??

The 6&7 speed used synchronizers and are to be driven similar to a pickup truck. Be careful not to float gears on these as they can become damaged very easily which might be the case why yours isn't shifting well.

 

Any time I see or deal with those smaller transmisions I try to be careful with the RPM's to stay in range. Range means the bottom RPM is torque and the top RPM is high horsepower. (There is a red line beyond this but horsepower falls off on the chart past high horse)

Right about in there is the spot. What you don't want to be doing like Yosemite Sam. Is beating on the poor thing. It might just go ahead and fail. Which is then traced to driver abuse (That's you) and that's that for your employment. (Unless you meekly offer to pay the entire bill...)