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What kind of damage are you risking doing? I'm trying to understand it mechanically. Forgive my ignorance . . .
First you must understand what's happening when you push your clutch to the floor. You are basically completely (or nearly completely) disconnecting the engine from the transmission. Little or no power flows into the transmission. Having the transmission input shaft being twisted by the engine makes the syncros work very hard. This is not a real consideration IF the revs are matched properly. If they are matched "almost" properly, you can still get away with it as the syncros still can do their jobs and make the transition into the next gear relatively smooth. This is why the syncros are there in the first place - to assist the average guy shift from one gear to the next without damaging the gears themselves. However, most people won't do a perfect rev match shift every time and this is when you need to disconnect the power from the tranny - to not make the syncros work so hard. As you work them harder and harder more often, they will disappoint you one day. That day will be when you notice more notchiness in your shifts. Then comes the day when you'll get a little gear grind when you shift. Then you get big gear grinds when you shift every time. That's when you post up here that you've got a terrible grind when you shift certain gears (each gear's syncros will have a different suseptibility to no clutch shifting). That's when guys like me sit and think about what you need to do to resolve the situation. That's when guys like me assume you wouldn't be the type of person who would punish your syncros in that fashion and try to make suggestions that may never help you because you never let on that you don't clutch properly.
But you get the hardtop free!!! 
01-13-2006 | 04:41 PM
