I’m in the habit of shifting into neutral, while braking, without the clutch when coming to a stop. Am I reducing clutch wear at the expense of the synchronizers? Thanks

 

Are you saying that while you're braking, you just pop the car in neutral without first pushing the clutch to get it out of gear?

That doesn't reduce clutch wear. The clutch doesn't wear just because you push the pedal. You can push the pedal infinitely and never wear the clutch.

What you're doing can, however, wear synchros.

Or are you saying something else? Your question is a little vague

 

that’s how I understood him.

I’ve gone the other way. I’ve started double clutching recently into 5th and 6th to try to reduce the wear on the synchros.

I’ve noticed on the track that this transmission doesn’t like to be “rough housed”. I was having a hard time at both Road Atlanta and Daytona shifting into 5th without grinding.

 

An ap2 flywheel imposes this slower shift cadence. Hence why lighter flywheel is popular upgrade.

Other possible causes: (all except last two related to dragging clutch not fully disengaging)

Improperly adjusted clutch rod

Contaminated clutch fluid (or air in lines)

Improperly greased trans shaft splines (wrong grease, not enough, contaminated, etc)

Crappy exedy or similar clutch disk starting to fail, dropping a spring.

Inappropriate trans fluid, or simply trans fluid old and broken down

Worn syncros

 

Not the purpose of this thread...but if your transmission is grinding only when its very hot, a lot of times, its a fluid issue (assuming the clutch is 100% for sure properly adjusted and bled)

The fluid is either too thin or too slippery, or all the friction modifier is worn out

Honda MTF, for example, typically won't hold up more than maybe 1-3 track days.

Any burrs that have formed on your synchros will also cause this.

 

Try redline for track use, it does better in those conditions. You can fly through the gears on these trannys so if fluid is not fixing it, it could be synchro wear assuming the hydraulics are all in good order

 

I do this with my AP1, when coming to a stop or changing gears - but I always synchronize the motor speed so that there is no friction on the gears.

I frequently do something like speed shifting, where I take the transmission out of gear at the same time I'm pressing the clutch. By matching the engine rpm to the transmission and road speed, I can shift out of gear without really depending upon the clutch to be fully disengaged. By the time the clutch pedal hits the firewall, I'm already in neutral and can start to enter the next gear while letting the pedal and clutch engage.

I'm actually bad at speed shifting - that's a technique for downshifting, right? - but I've never seen the above technique for up-shifting given a name or even described.

Technically, I shift into neutral when coming to a stop just to practice getting out of gear without the clutch. It's a way to build muscle memory of the car's operations.

 

My AP1 seemed to have trouble shifting into 5th when she was younger. At the time, I assumed that it was because I used 6th like Over Drive and frequently skipped directly from 4th to 6th. My thinking was that the stiffness was because the synchronizers for 5th were not wearing in due to disuse. As time went on, though, I stopped skipping past 5th, and now at 100,000 miles I no longer notice 5th being any more trouble.

Note that I wasn't grinding 5th, I just noticed that it was more resistant or tighter when shifting into 5th. Now it's basically as smooth as the rest.

 

I do this occasionally. There is normally an engine speed, depending on what gear you’re in, where it will slip into neutral easily. It’s normally down around 1000 rpm or so.

 

If you move out of gear when there's no tension on the drivetrain, it won't wear anything out, but you can tell the difference between how freely you can move out of gear without using the clutch - under tension it will be hard to get out of gear without using the clutch, so forcing things can force wear. Pushing out of gear when coming to a stop at lower speed, won't do anything negative imo.