take off

[Defective]

i teach with no throttle at first. It lets the driver feel the clutch grab more. When they can get it moving without the throttle you can go from there. When on a hill ill have them take the clutch out until the rpms go down to about 700-800, then when they let off the brake, the car wont roll backwards causing panic. I taught my girlfriend stick in my 4 cyl mustang and that thing was a hard stick to drive. No torque and the clutch was tough. First time I drove my brothers 5.0 i learned what torque does for a manual. His car was so much easier to drive.

There you go, if you want her to learn how to use the clutch, have her use only the clutch in first gear till she grasps where it starts catching. Then go to second gear, it's harder to slip and keep the car running. Once she's got that, work the throttle in to the equation. When it comes to the hills, this will help tremedously. It helps to teach hill starts with an e-brake in the middle of the front seats too though.

 

[swynx]

i took her out, and told her, to gently press on the gas, and wait till the rpm's got up to about 2 then slowly let out the clutch, and she did it, again and again, etc. and she can even get the feal of the clutch grabbing and do it that way. thanks for all the input

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Ease the gas on and ease the clutch out. If it's a stiff clutch like on my 92 Ranger I'd find someone with a riceburner who'd let you borrow it to teach her (better yet, they might teach her). Hondas, Nissans, Mazdas, etc, are a lot more forgiving and then she can transition to the Ranger. My son learned on my Ranger in an empty corporate parking lot (Saturday - no one working). He did OK until I made him try to start uphill. That ended that session. Then later he got in a friends Honda Civic and drove it like he'd been born with a manual shifter in his hand. Since then, he will drive the Ranger, but really doesn't like the stiff clutch. My daughter gave me whiplash and a blinding headache - she never did learn.

A Ranger clutch stiff???

You want stiff, you should try driving the '89 F-350 with a 460 and HD manual trans that I got to practice with. I'm always glad to let that clutch go and I'm glad the clutches in my Ranger and choptop are a lot softer.


Back on topic...

My dad started teaching me to drive a stick way back in the woods on a dirt road with his one dump truck. Wasn't hard at all to get the hang of going forward in that thing, it had plenty of power on tap. Trying to turn around with just the side mirrors nearly resulted in disaster though. I was ok going forward with the thing, but kept getting badly rattled when I had to put it in reverse. Then I got my Ranger and discovered that you pretty much have to give it gas to move forward, just letting out the clutch often stalls it. Plus, when it was brand new, it was difficult to hear the motor it ran so quiet, and it didn't have a stock tach, which resulted in quite a few stalls until I got the hang of it. Backing up took some work too, but it helped to be able to look over your shoulder and see what's back there. After I got used to being able to drive a stick with my pickup, I quickly picked up on being able to drive the dump truck and just use the side mirrors for backing up. Now I have a bad habit of completely ignoring the rearview mirror in any vehicle I get in.

With learning to drive my Ranger, I was taught to give the gas a light tap to bump the rpms up like 500 or so as you start to let the clutch out, then right after the tap, to start pushing gently on the gas.

 

[Totalled]

Tell her to floor the right pedal and pop the left.....

x2. When she gets the launch down, move on to power shifting... then work on having her slow her action down till it's "normal" operation...

 

[Will]

Teach her on a riding mower with a manual shift. Set the throttle to full-rabbit and let her go. The clutch/brake on those junkers will teach you a smooth foot action pretty quickly.

 

[red85]

Try it this way. Tell her to think of a teeter totter. As one pedal goes down, the other comes up. I learned to drive this way in an old Jeep J10 pickup.

 

[snake]

I always explain that the vehicle must be moving before they can let the clutch completely out. Show them idle in first gear and tell 'em it will stall if you aren't moving THIS fast in first gear. If you aren't moving this fast you'll have to be slipping the clutch. Generally easier to teach the basics of how to get it moving, harder to teach how to drive without destroying the damn clutch (advanced course)...