Where do you shift?
 

I shift 1st short (2000r) 2nd higher (3500r or so) and run 3rd & 4th pretty hard (regularly 4500-5200... and once or twice a day in that discolored red area)

I do most of my driving in the 3500-4500 range, if I am rolling under 60, I'd never use 5th.

I don't get the really good milage you old ladies get, and it's even worse in the carbbed car, a tank a day.



M

Street: 1st to 3500, 2nd to 4000, 3rd 4000 4th 4000....

Autocross: 1st to 6000, 2nd to 6000, 3rd when the rev limiter bounces at me, but usually dont make it to 3rd

I shift @ 7,000 mosty of the time...:-)

Anyway, way too many people use 5th gear too early, unless I'm running 70+ I stay in 4th, (a cyl head temp gauge wil show you why 914 2.0 heads crack so bad, 5th gear heats up heads like a torch if you are not going fast enough)

1st 2500,2nd 3500,3rd 4500,4th 4500 on the street.
Autox-1st 5000,2nd 5500,3rd 5500 to stay in the powerband.
Geoff

When the car is cold I'll make my shifts around 2500 to 3000 then, once warmed, I tend to follow along the lines of Chris.
bruce

If you don't care about your fuel economy (for example, when I'm driving on the track), I shift my stock 2.0L FI car at 5000 rpm.

If it's street driving you're talking about, probably 3000 rpm, and I try to cruise at 2000 rpm or so.

3000-3400, but i have a mindset carryover from a vw vanagon

Dang,

I'm surprised by the several 2000 range shifts. The only time mine ever sits near 2000rpm is when I'm coming through school zones and our sub-division. All other shifts are 3500 - 4000 when warmed up, and I'm almost always crusing in a gear between 3000-3500rpm.

Enjoy!

I never drive away cold, better to spend 10 hours a year warming up, than 10 hours crying, all at once.

I mean... I do like a good cry, being forced to sit through a Julia Roberts movie, or having to attend a symposium on "Thatch Styles of the South West Pacific"... but man.

:)

I don't recall what the procedure is in the manual, but I hold 2000-2200 revs until the temp comes up, only on the first start of the day.. when the sun comes out here, it's ALWAYS AT OPERATING TEMPERATURE... I even added an oil cooler for afternoon parking.

I've had alot of 914s, and I have previously trashed a couple, warm her up sitting, isn't that why the 6 hadda hand throttle?



M

2000 RPM shifts and using 5th too early is a terriable thing. I shift NO LOWER than 2600RPM, most of the time I shift at 4200.

Jake, why do you say 2000rpms shifts are bad? All the torque on a stock motor is coming on at 2000-2500 so thats all you need to tool around.
Geoff

'Tooling around' almost sounds like lugging to me. I think Jake is going to say something about heat cycling now.

Couple tricks to a good 914 experience:

1. Stop out of gear, shift into 4th before 1st, or redo the sync job a bunch.

2. Stop/Reverse/First procedure: Stop, Shift 2nd, Shift Reverse, Shift 4th, then 1st.

3. The engine is being babied at 3500/rpm, it's being battered at 1500-2000.

4. OH MY GOD! MAGNESIUM IS EXPLOSIVE!!! Carry fire equipment, ask me why I know that one.

5. If your factory mirrors need adjusting everytime you close the door, use liquid superglue around the seam where the mirror meets the base, don't gob it on, the trick is getting it to leech into the crack.. move the mirror bk+fwd about an inch until it gets tacky.

6. No Pets! You love your doggy, but he scratches your windows, and if he is a bulldog, he'll draw a snot line all the way around, perlon is a dog hair magnet, it's Borg, it just assimilates the hair, like a fur tattoo.

M

Doesn't the torque curve rise...flatten...fall between 3000 and 4500 rpm? I would think that you would want to shift when the torque starts to drop off when driving in a "spirited" fashion (all of the time in a 914!). Of course, I no longer have that particular problem :D

On another note:

Quote:

4. OH MY GOD! MAGNESIUM IS EXPLOSIVE!!! Carry fire equipment, ask me why I know that one.

As a high school chemistry teacher, I've GOT to hear this story :D I'm asking "Why?" :D
("In college, we had this big fire on the beach and we thought it would be cool to add a beetle case....")

The type 4 cases are aluminum so they don't burn like a bug case.
The torque curve on a stock 2.0L tops out at 4500 rpms and drops off like a rock.
The torque curve starts nicely at 2000 rpms and is fairly flat until 4500.
So whats wrong with crusin at 2000-2500 if you are not luging?
Always driving around at 4500 is loud!
Geoff

The transmission case is magnesium. And aluminum, once it starts burning, will continue to burn very well indeed...

In stock form, the torque curve is almost dead-flat between 2500 and 4500 RPM. It is at or above 105 lb-ft that whole stretch, and hits 108 lb-ft at 3500 RPM.

Your acceleration in a given gear is greatest at the torque peak. However, changing up to the next gear will pretty drastically reduce the amount of torque you are putting to the pavement. Very often, you have more torque at the wheels when you are above the torque peak in a lower gear than when you are at the peak in a higher gear.

In my stock 914, I shift out of 1st or 2nd at the redline. Shift out of 3rd somewhere between 5000 and redline. I shift out of 4th at 5000 RPM, but it doesn't really matter. The car won't accelerate at that speed in 4th or 5th... :(

That's at the track, though. On the street, I usually try to keep the revs somewhere in the 2500-3500 range. They might drop down as low as 2000 while cruising, but due to my short tires they usually wind up higher than that. I often wind up cruising on the freeway at 4000 RPM. (That gets old after a couple of hours....)

--DD

My 901 tranny has at least 70K miles on it since I installed it, it was a rebuild, and my clutch has about 40K on it.

When the tranny is in good shape, shift bar set up with new bushings and properly adjusted, and the clutch is properly adjusted (with the clutch tube in good condition), all that is necessary when shifting into 1st from a stop is to pause briefly after engaging the clutch before pulling the lever into 1st.

If you have to do the 4th - 1st or the 2nd - 1st trick, check your clutch free play adjustment, which should be 3/4" by pulling the clutch pedal TOWARDS the driver's seat. More than that and the clutch is likely not to fully declutch when depressed. Other clutch problems that can lead to issues on getting into 1st are: clutch disk not floating on the tranny mainshaft (lack of lubrication on the splines when installing), broken TO bearing arm plastic cup or guides, broken or flexing clutch tube, defective cable housing, etc.

When shifting to reverse, after engaging the clutch, I pause for as much as 3 seconds before moving the lever into reverse. Much faster than that and it'll grind as the mainshaft is still spinning. IIRC, reverse is not synchronized and requires more care on engagement.

BTW, another good trick to get into the habit of with a 901 tranny is to learn how to double-clutch. This minimizes clutch and synchro wear, I do it on ALL my downshifts.

With a 2.0L with FI, 1500 to 2000 rpm works just fine for cruising, there's still plenty of torque and more than enough oil pressure to suspend the crank under load. Under 1500 rpm there is insufficient torque and if you lug it, you may not have enough oil pressure to keep the crank suspended on the oil film.

If the problem is that the mirror swings in when the door shuts, the tensioning nut is loose. Remove the mirror from the door, and tighten the tensioning nut which can be accessed from the underside of the mirror. If the mirror flops up/down, you can very gently remove the black plastic mirror surround (VERY gently), remove the glass, VERY gently remove the clear plastic mirror backing, and tighten the nut inside the housing that sets the up/down tension.

Thanks Brad

My daily has a brand new transaxle, it shifts like it's gated, but I can't stop shifting that way, I've been shifting that way since 1982, the couple times a green light caught me off guard, I have nicked 1st.

Awesome on the mirror thing, you left out the step about beating the glued in glass out though.

;)


M

Very useful post, Brad. I've replaced bushings, which improve the feel, but still cannot stay in first gear. When I lift the clutch, the shift lever just quietly pops forward slightly, and out of first. If I try to hold it back, a loud grinding results.The rest of the forward gears, and reverse work fine. As for clutch pedal free play- I cannot pull the pedal towards the driver's seat at all. Does this mean my cable has stretched, and I need to tighten the cable end screws a bunch? The Lash manual shows free play as pushing the pedal IN 1/2-3/4". Can you shed light on this?

Thanks

Tony

The measurement of free play at the pedal has always been a question to me. I think it's supposed to be the amount of movement at the pedal before the clutch throw out lever begins to move. But I am never confident that I have adjusted it properly. Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

If you don't engage first gear completely and it pops out once, you are on the way to having that happen more often.. you have weakened the dog teeth and the selector sleeve.