How to drive a Manual Ford Taurus?

[lionelkirk2004]

I bought a 1995 Ford Taurus SHO and its a manual, How do I drive it?

[Marbles1984]

You're joking right?

[drdisque]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com I think they describe it there

either that or just find someone who at some point owned a manual transmission car and have them teach you.

[DisneyVK]

sell it to me.

[FlamingTaco]

Clutch pedal on the left, then brake, and gas on the right.

Look at your shift knob to see where each gear is located.

With the car off, push in the clutch pedal and practice shifting into 1st, from there into second, then third, fourth, fifth, then back down to first, do not shift into reverse when doing this. This is to get you comfortable with what you should be doing with the shifter, and will help make operating the shifter second nature.

Start the car. Press in the clutch pedal and put the car into first. You need to be on a flat surface with no obstables in front of you. Practice letting the clutch out slowly to engage first and start moving the car forward. Do this WITHOUT using the gas pedal. This will teach you where the clutch pedal will be when the clutch starts to engage, and how much travel it has.

Once you can get the car rolling in first without using the gas, start practicing adding a little gas once the clutch starts to engage.

It's important that you do this because driving stick is about feel and feedback from the pedals, not an instruction set. I could talk all day about what you might experience, but in reality, you just need to do it.

Once you can getting rolling in first easily, practice accellerating and shifting up, and decelerating and shifting down. Changing gears is about matching engine rpm. The SHO is geared about 1k or less rpm per gear change. Shifting into a faster gear is most important because you will almost always use all gears when accellerating, but will often skip gears when decellerating. When shifting up, you want to try to engage the next gear before the engine speed has dropped 1k rpm. If you are at lower rpms, say 3000rpm, you will note that you have much more time before the engine drops 1k than at 6000rpm. When you go to change gears, make sure you depress the clutch pedal completely and quickly, change the gear, then let the clutch pedal out quickly until you get close to where it engages, then let it out at a more moderate rate that allows the clutch to engage without jerking the car, yet doesn't take forever and waste clutch surface. Once again, this is all about feel, and takes practice.

Shifting down requires the engine to change to a higher rpm, which it will not do without your input via the gas pedal. While you can simply let the clutch out slowly and drag the engine rpm up to match when slowing down or just switching into a slower gear, it goes faster and is better for the driveline if you match the speed, especially if you are shifting at rpms above 2000. For most cases, a quick "blip" of the throttle revs the engine enough, and you just let out the clutch as the motor drops back down to the rpm that you need. Practice, practice, practice...

Reverse is a higher gear than first, and you will have to feather the clutch more. It's as if you were using a gear somewhere between first and second to take off.

Do not ride the clutch. Once you have finished shifting gears, take your foot off the clutch pedal. Practice this now, and save yourself lots of money in pressure plates and clutch disks later.

If you are in a northern climate, practice taking off in snow now before it arrives. Get used to feathering into second gear, and it will come in handy later when you need to take off in snow, uphill.

Good luck. IMO, everyone's first stick should be an 80hp Escort. Oh well!