Posted by Tom in Oregon on Monday, May 05, 2003 at 10:36PM :
In Reply to: Re: Stop Power Wagon Abuse! ! ! posted by The Rookie on Monday, May 05, 2003 at 9:59PM :
OK, double clutching means you are engaging the clutch twice when you shift gears instead of just once like you are used to with synchros. So when you want to shift gears, you push in the clutch pedal to disengage, take it out of gear, let out the pedal to engage the clutch while in neutral to synchronize tranny and engine speeds (that's the tricky part), then push it in again to allow you to shift into the gear you need, then let it out again. What it amounts to is just what synchos do in a synchromesh tranny. They speed up or slow down the tranny gears until they match engine speed and can mesh.
Understanding it is a good start, but it still takes practice. After awhile you'll get good at it and will love it. In the meantime, these PW drivetrains can take alot of abuse. The fact that the gear teeth are square in profile rather than "involute" (tapered) does not help with double clutching! I guess if you practice badly you tend to taper those teeth so it gets easier (haha).
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Tom Hammer