how do you drive a stick shift?

Answer 1

You shift the gear shift to the next gear while slowly pressing down on the gas and simultaneously lifting up on the clutch. It's a timing and coordination thing. The only way to learn is to practice.

Answer 2

Learning to drive a manual transmission just takes some patience and practice. This is probably over-detailed, but should help you gain confidence with the basics in a few hours:

First, find a flat wide road or parking lot where there's a minimum of traffic, obstacles and distractions, etc. Turn off radio, and roll down a window or two so that you can hear the engine, and possibly be able to smell a burning clutch. Next, start the car in neutral with clutch depressed, let the car idle and begin by not touching the throttle, just hover your right foot over the brake.

Select first gear, and with your left foot depressing the clutch pedal, very slowly release the clutch pedal; the car will move forward. As you release the clutch you will notice the engine will pull the car forward, and, if your car has a tachometer, you will see the engine speed begin to drop. At that point depress the clutch pedal back in and repeat this process until you get a feel for exactly the point of travel in the clutch pedal where the engine begins to transfer power to the wheels.

As you're learning to do this, you might stall the car a couple of times; just restart and keep practicing, but if you notice a burning smell, stop the car and let the clutch cool down before you try again.

Practice the take-off from a start without adding throttle until you're comfortable, then try take-offs from a stop by now using the throttle in combination with the clutch. You'll find that once the clutch begins to grip and transfer power, that in a see-saw motion you can apply more throttle; As the clutch is being engaged, with left foot moving up, the throttle should be depressed with the right foot moving down in a smooth kind-of rocking motion.

Once you've gotten the take-off mastered, it's just a matter of up-shifting as you gain speed; use the same motion as with the take-off, only shift from 1st to 2nd, and so on up through the gears. Keep in mind that you want a smooth transition of power from one gear to the next so that there is no damaging driveline shock OR clutch slip.

Down-shifting is similar, and is where a manual has an advantage over an automatic, because you can use the engine as a brake which saves brake wear. This is a particularly important technique for mountainous driving. To down-shift, lift off throttle, disengage clutch, shift into one gear lower, engage clutch, apply throttle.

In down-shifting, be aware that you're trying to match the ground speed and engine speed up as the clutch is engaging so that you get a smooth, but quick, transition of power transfered to the wheels as you switch gears. If you have a tachometer in your car this will be easier because you can not only hear and feel what is happening, but see this displayed, too.

Learning the take-off on a hill, you'll need to apply the handbrake to hold the car as you take-off; just hold the handbrake with pin depressed so you can release the brake evenly as you take off. Also, you might try a heel-and-toe technique where you depress both brake pedal and throttle simultaneously by holding both with right foot and use a sideways rocking motion to apply more throttle while releasing brake. This will take some practice to master, so start with a low slope hill.

When parking, whether your car is facing up or downhill, always put the car in Reverse and set the parking/hand brake, because reverse is usually a lower ratio gear than first. This way, if the brake doesn't hold, the engine will usually hold a car in place.

Finally; The worst thing you can do to an engine is to stress or lug it (the car will "buck" or shutter when this happens), try not to stress it to the point that the engine stops. It is easy to ruin an engine by over-stressing or over-reving, too, but damage by over-reving usually only happens at high RPM near red-line. So when driving, it's better for the engine speed to be a little too high than to be too low.

Hope you find this helpful.

Answer 3

I'll walk you through it...

1. Left foot- push in the clutch. Shift into 1st gear.
2. Right foot- Begin to press accellerator.
3. As you give the car gas, begin to ease clutch out.
4. As you feel the car begin to pull, add more gas, ease out
more clutch.
5. When you are rolling, let clutch all the way out, use gas.
6. When the rpm's climb, you must shift to a higher gear. So
at the same time, press in the clutch, and release the gas
pedal. Pull stick towards you, into 2nd gear.

7. Continue this process through all 5 gears. The gearshift
pattern will look like an "H" .

Answer 4

Just go for it and when you don't hear that grinding noise anymore you know how to drive a stick shift or need to replace your tranny one of the two. And honestly, I learned better by myself rather than having someone stressing you out or stress out next to you every time they think you did something wrong. Good Luck!

Answer 5

My advice -if you are taking driving lessons, learn on a manual car. Other than that, read what CJ has to say.

You also should have a bit of anticipation. If cornering, change down to a lower gear before entering the corner. Going down a steep hill, winding hill, change down to a lower gear, this avoids excessive use of the brakes. I do this with my automatic, slip it into third and keep it there.

Answer 6

Ermm, get out and actually do it under someone that knows how and has been doing so for years. This isn't the place to learn to drive a stick.

Answer 7

Um, there is this other pedal that is the clutch. Press that in, then put your car in first gear......very good, now release the brake. Now, at the same time, let off the clutch while you press the accelerator......

Good, good, that garbage can didn't need to be there anyways... :-)

It's tough to teach over internet, find someone near you who does know how to drive it then ask them for some lessons...

I did my best........

Vote for me??

Answer 8

normally It's a H pattern. Upper left is first gear, second is straight down, third is up & to the right, then straight down for fourth gear.

Answer 9

Only with Practice

Answer 10

Release the clutch slowly.