I hate to bring this up again.

[katsi]

Sorry everyone. I know this has been addressed in another thread but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, without having another spider to compair to, what speeds or approx speeds shoud the gears run through? I have a 2000 5 speed and they go like so (approximate).

1st - 3500 rpm - 12 mph
2nd - 3500 rpm - 25 mph
3rd - 4000 rpm - 50 - 55 mph
4th - 4000 rpm - 65 mph
5th - have not gone above 3000 rpm - speed -o-meter craps out at about 65 mph and just shakes back and forth.

Also, as the car is 30 years old and new to me so; I have not really reved her over 4K rpm's. Although, I do difinatly feel a "smoothing out" at the higher rpm's and the car seems to like being up there.

As always, your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

[kmead]

For day to day driving the revs you are pulling are fine, I would tend to pull first and second to four grand. Especially first, as there is no sense in bogging it in the lower gears.

I presume you have changed the timing belt (if you haven't you should soon).

I wouldn't worry too much about reving the car up, going to 6k isn't going to hurt a healthy engine. Speedometers can be finicky: bad cable, bad internals so the shaking of the needle doesn't mean much. The biggest worry is being grabbed by the gendarme's for excessive speed in the upper gears...

The gearing hasn't changed much, if you look at old tests the gears were good for:
..............1968 1438cc..............1984 2000 Azzura Spider
1st..............30 (6600)..............26 (6000)
2nd..............50 (6600)..............46 (6000)
3rd..............77 (6600)..............70 (6000)
4th..............106 (6700)..............93 (6000)
5th..............104 (6000)..............106 (6000)

The early cars had a different final drive ratio but the gears themselves didn't change much.

[katsi]

Cool, Thanks for the info. I cut and pasted to print out for my book.

[mbouse]

i learned to drive manual transmissions from the old school method, and have never shaken that.

back before dirt, we learned to shift by listening to the engine. Only fanc-E cars had a tak-0-meter. us commoners didn't afford that fanc-E stuff.

Today, only occasionally when i think i am close to red-lining, or if i am purposefully attempting to stretch 'er out do i use the tach to indicate when to shift. never used a chart.

when i taught my daughters how to drive, it was again in a manual tranny Ranger. I never explained the tach until after they learned when and how to shift by listening to their engine.

anyone else?

[PittsburghKevin]

@Mike

That is funny. I drove my spider down to work and found that a couple of people couldn't drive it. Not because of the manual -- they had learned that. But with no powersteering, they had problems turning the wheel while stationary.

[bwilson27]

I remember learning to drive a manual in my very first car- a '71 Spider.
As I recall, it was a BUMP! LURCH! BUMP! STALL!... BUMP! LURCH! BUMP! STALL!... for the first hour or so while my dad was having an apoplectic fit next to me.
My tach never worked right unless I slammed the door really hard.

-Best car I ever owned!

[katsi]

I guess I just use a hybird type of driving. I have always had a stick, all my F-150's were stick. I have an 04 F-150 herritage that is stick as well. My wife's car is also stick. Really had a hard time finding a family 4 door full sized car that incorporated a manual transmission (03 Kia Optima - first and last Kia by the way - don't buy one of these- I can go on and on - fact, today we took it back to Kia for repairs - About once every 3 months with an average repair bill of 500.00 -68K - the motor is solid, it's all the perriferials that go out - today, power steering pump). My wife can not drive automatic. We both tend to stomp on the brake while driving automatics in a habitual attempt to shift when the car is reving. Yet, I have always used the tack in tandem as listining to the motor or feeling the rpm's in the seat. I was more just hoping that the Fiat was shifting at the propper RPM's. It seemed a little slow in the lower gears. But I see it's normal.

[mbouse]

some of us are slow in the gears (years) as well.

[kmead]

Back when I learned to drive it was a tractor which could conceivably be started off and run in nearly any gear depending on load. A side valve Ford 9N is generally shifted when its either: not going fast enough or going too fast. The brakes never did work on that tractor.

My first car was a Super Beetle with the bare minimum of instrumentation, speed and fuel level with a small smattering of idiot lights. Since then I haven't had a car without a tachometer, even our current slush box Toyota which is our first ever automatic. Hopefully the last as well.

[mdrburchette]

I learned how to drive in a 69 VW Fastback I called the "Cockroach" because of it's shape and color. The main problem I had with it was trying to find 1st at a stoplight since the gears seemed aweful close together. When I got to drive my first Fiat, a 1968 Spider, my husband at the time told me "Whatever you do, do not rev it over 3k rpm in first gear or you'll ruin the engine." He'd probably die of heart failure if he witnessed me autocrossing my car.