Ok I've got a 2000 Dakota v8 (not sure what the L rating is) with 5 speed, and when shifting from 1st to 2nd, I have to shift almost right after I begin moving (roughly at or before hitting 2k RPMs) otherwise the gears just grind, when we first got the truck, I didn't even know how to drive stick, but my dad did, and there were times where he had trouble with it.

We took it to the mechanic when we got it to have the entire truck checked out (not specifically for that just to make sure everything was in good working order) anyways we asked them about this and they said that is was normal to have your gears be pretty rough or whatever. But I am not sure if that is actually true, I just wanted to know what yall think/know about this. But for the most part (on flat roads) I have just been starting from stop in 2nd of coarse letting it slip some first (which gives a slower start which I don't really like, I am a lead foot).

I wanted to know if anybody has any tips for getting started faster, even moving throught the second gear it starts out pretty slow sometimes, and I really don't get moving good until 3rd gear. Am I just not cut out for driving stick and I am not balancing the amount of throttle and clutch right or what?

 

Sounds like either the clutch is not releasing completely or you've got a bad syncronizer for 2nd gear.

 

Thanks for the reply, thats more info than what my dad said the mechanic said...lol

When we got the truck, the guy said that the clutch had been replaced not to long ago, that was a few months ago. So I don't know if that rules out the first option or not, I know very little about how vehicles work. I am curious however what it costs to replace the synchronizer for 2nd gear and how difficult it is to do (Although since I know very little I prolly wont do it anyways (I am an electronics geek, Ill do the stereo...lol)

Thanks again for your comments, now atleast I have an Idea of what it could be.

 

Can you shift from 1st to third without grinding gears? If you get going pretty good in 1st (3,000+ rpm) and can shift to third without gear grind, that makes a poorly adjusted clutch less likely. If you know how to double-clutch (start off in first, shift to neutral, let out clutch and rev engine at bit, push in clutch and quickly shift to second without gear grind) then chances are greater that it may be syncros. Also, if you try moving the gear shift very slowly into second can you feel the syncro trying to spin the gears? Sometimes a very slow shift with ailing syncros will avoid grinding.
Anyway, if you and your dad aren't mechanics, I'd get another opinion from a pro who can test drive the Dak.

 

Thanks, your helping out a lot, I will try those things out tomorrow when I go to work. I will have to ask my dad if the mechanic actually test drove the truck or if my dad just asked him about it and the mechanic gave him a quick answer, also the checkup was free cuz my dads work just hired them to do like monthly checkups for all of their work trucks so they were willing to give us a free checkup so maybe we can get him to actually test drive. Thanks again for taking the time to help me figure this out.

 

I tried your first thing today, I shifted from 1st to 3rd at around 3,000 rpms and it was excellent, a very smooth shift everytime. I havent had a chance to really try the double clutch thing yet, im hoping to be able to try it where there is little to no traffic so i dont make to big of a fool out of myself, and with a straight path until i get it figured out. Again, you have helped so much.