Resting your hand on the shifter
 

Do you guys usually rest your hand on the shifter? I heard the extra weight is bad for the transmission.
And if the weight is bad for the transmission, what about a weighted shift knob?

Haha I think about this everyday. Especially with my 500gram flossy shift knob. From what I've read our hand is worse because it completely creates a counter force on the natural movement of the shift linkage. The shift knob doesn't, just makes it a little harder which I am sure also affects it in a negative but not as bad.

Both of you need to provide links to this information.

Watch any pro driver. Hands on the wheel at all times, except to shift.

Bet a dime it has nothing to do with the weight of his hand destroying his transmission.

Resting your hand on the shifter will cause the shift fork to make contact with the syncronizers (which spins) and will eventually cause wearing on the forks. If I remember correctly, a complaint will be the shifter popping out of gear. I rest my hand on top of the hand brake.

Resting your hand on the shifter is not a problem by itself. A weighted shift knob is not an issue at all, there's not enough force to matter, but if you rest a 10lb arm on the shifter, it can cause the stick to deflect slightly from it's intended position.

Easy explanation:
Deflecting the stick potentially causes an internal part of the transmission shift mechanism to drag. Its like starting the shift motion, but only just holding it there. This is bad, don't do it. If you MUST rest your hand on the shifter, keep a light touch and make sure its not moving. Shifting and occasional stick movement isn't going to hurt anything, but constant drag can.

Technical explanation:
Inside the transmission, each pair of gears shares a shift fork (move the stick left to choose the 1-2 fork, stick center is the 3-4 fork, stick right is the 5-6 fork). Each shift fork kinda looks like the letter C and pushes a synchro fore or aft to engage one gear or the other. The C shaped portion rides in a groove around the synchro so the synchro can spin freely, but still be pushed into position as necessary. Once a gear is engaged, the shift fork is meant to simply rest in that position (held in place by the the synchro groove) until the driver forces it to disengage that gear.

Resting your hand on the shifter can cause the shift fork to drag against the groove in the synchro, causing abnormally high friction as the oil is scraped away. Eventually, this can gall/break the shift fork and prevent it from moving the synchro properly, which manifests itself as weird shift problems, grinding, popping out of gear, etc.

Solution: get a automatic and rest your hand on that for days. Unless you have a column gear selector like me, then that's just a bit awkward.

Shift forks and hub sleeves. They are not designed to drag against each other indefinitely.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...pictureid=8577

I don't buy into this, I've had friends rest their hand on their STi and Evos all the time and the car still runs fine.

But I'm assuming they're not putting a lot of pressure and weight on the shifter, they're just resting their hand on it. I also do the same as well my car still runs fine at 17K miles.

the transmission is designed to deal with thousands of ft/lbs of torque and we worry that the weight of our hand is going to ruin it? dont do it because you should have your hands on the wheel.

A little contradicting if you ask me. The final answer is YES, there will be some sort of LONG term wear on your shift forks/synchros. Nothing you will probably ever notice until many miles have been registered on said gearbox. But FYI Most people arms do weigh about 10lbs :D

It takes a long time. I destroyed a B-210 transmission in my early 20s. Learned my lesson the hard way after it started popping out of 4th. It's real. If you do it, quit.

Damn, some of you have Cylon arms or what?

Just because your friends lay their hands on it and nothing has gone wrong doesn't mean physics doesn't apply here. The transmission gives off a natural vibration on the stick shift. Your hand being on it, wether rested or forced believe it or not is a force against those natural occurring movements therefor wearing out the items described in the LONG TERM. Nothing you'll notice at 17K miles.




Torque converters and drive axles are completely different components than a shift fork.

The damage happens over hundreds/thousands of hours of abuse. Like dragging one foot. The sole of that dragging shoe will wear out more quickly but in the end, you still have to buy new shoes.

I find it more comfortable to rest it on the ebrake.

I foresee no problem resulting from resting hand on shitter.

That's how I read it, too. Are you "resters" doing more than just resting? Now I have to weigh my freakin' hand.

I keep all my body parts in the trunk. Not as hard on floor mats that way either.


http://i.ytimg.com/vi/i5hlhbK7S8g/hqdefault.jpg

I've heard that people that rest there hands on the shifter are chronic MBS..... Just saying

If both of your hands are not on the steering wheel (unless shifting), you're either going really slow or cruising in a straight line. All of which is boring in the 86. :lol:

My first car was a Triumph TR6. A lot of old British sports cars pop out of third gear because people tend to rest their hands on third between shifts. People keep the car in third longer than first or second, but it's still a transition gear while they're on their way to fourth, so they rest their hand there anticipating the next shift. They take their hands off the shifter when they get to fourth and are ready to cruise. Mine came to me with a bad third gear synchronizer because of this.

It's a real thing. These people who don't think so will end up selling their cars for $2K in six or seven years to someone who doesn't mind swapping a transmission.

I drive with one hand its more easy to countersteer. When i take the curves the car dont drift nor grip.
Some folks call me God Hand

Seems I rest my hand on the button that turns the nannies off - and get some surprise wheelspin. :confused0068:

I did that once too! Scared the crap out of me for a second because I thought something was wrong.

Lol this is 2015 left hand on 12 o clock position, right hand on girl's leg.
Only way to drive this sexy car

To repeat myself:

http://slickzine.com/wp-content/uplo...-the-trunk.jpg

I would try to make a habit of NOT doing it...

sure the trans can take abuse(lol, maybe not this trans) but if you rest your hand/arm on it and don't move it I'm sure its fine, but why take the chance?

Lol if I saw that in parking lot, I am just going to run away. Seen too many scary movie to know not to open it

Every morning when I get up, I put a revolver with one bullet in it to my head and pull the trigger.
Been doing it for 5 days now and nothing happend so I am positive the gun will never go off.....

My driving instructor chewed my ass last weekend for leaving my hand on the shifter when I was held up by slow traffic or yellow flags.

His example was: "when driving my RSR through a casual corner, the transmission blew and it was like a bomb going off. Shit like that could happen at any second so keep both hands on the wheel at all times unless you are shifting!"

It was the only thing during the entire weekend that he actually got pissed about.

Slacker Driver's Anonymous
 

I'll admit since my first HPDE class last year I've been working on keeping both hands on the wheel. I do still tend to rest my gearshift hand on the center console. I too have inadvertently selected some optional nanny mode but never noticed because I don't overdrive the car.

This is also why I think the whole nanny concept is flawed. There's no replacement for actual skill.

Crap, now that you mention it, maybe it was third I killed. I was young & stupid.

As they say in the car biz. "There's an ass for every seat". If you want to keep your hand on the shifter go right ahead. And I'll keep mine on the wheel or resting on the hand brake. Thank you very much.

Man, since I have an auto (my first) I keep both hands on the wheel almost all the time. Is my steering mechanism going to asplode? The manual says you can overheat the steering motor. Do I need to stop steering with the front wheels and just use the rear?

I recommend it.

yesterday I noticed I have a habit of now resting my right hand on the e-break and clicking in n out the knob? aka button.

Guess i've moved out of resting it on the shifter.

This is nonsense. I've driven dozens of standards over the years. Never once an issue.
This car is no exception.

I don't rest my hand on it because it isn't comfortable to me and I'm not drag racing.
2 hands on the wheel almost all the time.