Manual gearshift question?

Question

when you shift a gearshift, can you shift diagonally, or do you shift up and down and left right.

to go from 1 to 2 gear you go down, to go from 2 to 3 you go up right up,

but can you go diagonally

how do you shift it

Answer 1

it depends on your gear pattern.some vehicles first gear is straight up and on some first is down.

Answer 2

If you are driving slowly enough and doing the shifting out from one and down into2 and then into 3 while still doing speeds that you can drive in first gear(under 30mph) going straight up could put you back into first if you really want to go there because there is no "lockout" on first gear.

  I always have done the diagonal just to be sure that I was in 3rd.  

  It is a "feel" thing with every shifter.

Answer 3

The standard 'H' pattern shifter requires you to move to the middle before going sideways to the next shift gate, because the sideways motion switches shift forks.   There are some top end shifting mechanisms that allow you to shift directly, but they are rare.

After you've done it for a while, you won't even think about it.

Patrick

Answer 4

The gears are generally in the shape of an H. So if you have 1, 3, 5 on top, and 2, 4, R on the bottom, and you start in 1st, you pull it straight back for second. Then to go to third you go straight forward but then in the middle push it over to the right and then push forward again to engage 3rd, and so on... You can't do a perfect diagonal line from 2nd to 3rd. You have to zig-zag a bit, but it's not difficult. Good luck!

Answer 5

I push in the clutch and slide the stick to the next gear.

As to going diagonally the normal free play in the linkage makes it feel as if it is a diagonal movement but in fact the mechanism moves in a step angle manner.  

With a little practice you will get to the point that you do not even think about it!

The hardest part of driving a stick is getting used to using the correct amount of slip on the clutch to get moving without stalling!