Holding gear lever

[sdhog2002]

From page 167 of my GTI Owner's Manual, under Manual Gearbox: "Do not rest your hand on the gear lever when driving. The pressure from your hand is passed onto the selector forks in the gearbox". Very

[Tim]

Thats the case with any manual gearbox. Whats the puzzling bit?

[sdhog2002]

Thanks, Tim, and sorry for my obvious ignorance. I have been driving manual cars for 36 years and rebuilt quite a few cars and motorbikes but have never thought resting my hand on the gear lever transmits any pressure through to the selector forks. I learn something new every day.

[The_Hawk]

I too have read things along those lines for years and wondered what the real impact is of resting your hand on the shifter??

Can anyone who has seen any damage comment or better yet post pictures?

[Big_Dave]

I have my girlfriend hold my stick for me,
much more fun


Drive Hard or Drive Home!

[Ozram]

I too have read things along those lines for years and wondered what the real impact is of resting your hand on the shifter??

Can anyone who has seen any damage comment or better yet post pictures?

I've stripped and repaired some Eaton Roadranger 15 and 18 speed transmissions out of trucks and you can tell a lot from the wear patterns on the internal components. The shift forks can show a groove or witness markings on one side if a driver holds the gear lever constantly. Even a small amount of pressure that you probably don't realize that you are using is enough to push the shift fork (via the gear lever) onto one side of the shifting dog and wear occurs. It looks like a groove in the metal on one side. You can also tell if someone has not been using the clutch as it wears the face of the gears. This rather shaky video shows the forks at around 1min 35sec. (counts backwards??)

Bigger gearbox, similar principle.

[sdhog2002]

Thank you Ozram. Nice to get an authoritative answer.