This covers it pretty well in my opinion. You can drive a vehicle that's hard for others to drive "UNTIL" they get used to it. You have to become intimate with whatever you are using to truly use it with no abuse. I drove a truck coast to coast back in the eigthies and had a WW2 vet as a partner for awhile. He was a super nice fellow and I wanted to impress him but also make his time in the sleeper as good as I could. I tried to not jerk any,, I shifted as smooth as I possibly could and I didn't slam on the brakes. The owner of the company told me the WW2 vet told him I was the smoothest driver he'd ever ridden with.
. I never told him I was deliberately trying to be smooth. I could change gears without using a clutch at all, upshift and downshift. Don't take this as me bragging as I'm not. It was just effort and repetition. I tell people if you do something enough you get good at it unless you're lazy. I broke my right wrist one time and I'm right handed. Before long I was ok at wiping my butt left handed
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Originally Posted by rotorwrench
When I first started driving on the farm, my pop had a 1952 F3 with the 4-speed T8 transmission and 11-inch clutch. I was determined to shift that thing with minimal gear clash. I eventually did by carefully listening to engine rpm during shifting. It's an art to match engine rpm to output speed but a person can get a feel for it over time. Double clutching helps but I found that I really only had to do that during down shifting after you get good at anticipating proper engine rpms to output speeds.
The thicker oil helps the countershaft cluster gear to slow down more quickly when the clutch is disengaged. I use SAE 85W/90 GL4 in my 29 model A and have no problem shifting it. I avoid downshifting down to low gear since it is generally only needed when stopping the car. I'll get a click now and then but I don't always concentrate as well as I probably should. When you get used to a car, it starts to become second nature. The car seeps a bit but no worse than any of the other old fords I've had over the years. They like to mark their spot.
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