I have a 95 Civic Ex with stock tranny

I just wanted to know why it is hard to downshift into first gear. I have heard it is something to do with aluminum forks instead of steel forks.

could someone please clarify this for me

thanks

 

How fast are you going when you're trying to get it into first gear?

 

Not very fast, under 10 mph

 

How old is your clutch?

 

dont try it...theres a reason why...cant remember..you'll just mess up your trans..never down shift to first..

 

mine is the same most honda's are. i put a tranny in a friends prelude SH and you could put in first at like 25-30 mph it was crazy but haven't seen it before or since. i think it relates to synchro's and maybe and fluid. try changing the fluid i over change mine and it makes a huge difference. also a good trick for a lightly grinding tranny in honda is use 20-50 instead of 10-30 cheap and extremely effective.

 

thanks for everyone's input

I found out today that civics up to 1995 all have transmissions with aluminum shifting forks

1996 and newer all use trannies with stainless steel shifting forks

the aluminum is not as strong as the steel, therefore it is very hard to get the transmission to go into first gear when downshifting and you could possibly break the aluminum forks

So my new question is for people with 1996 and newer civics, is it easy to downshift into first while moving, or is that just a myth

Also, to the guy who said never downsift into first- I agree, but when you are racing someone downshifting to first can be the difference between winning and losing

 

It's supposed to be hard to get into unless you rev match it. Shift fork material has nothing to do with it. One will break, the other will bend.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EK k kay &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's supposed to be hard to get into unless you rev match it. Shift fork material has nothing to do with it. One will break, the other will bend.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Correct, its hard because its such a short gear.

You should NEVER have to downshift into 1st even when racing, Im guessing your talking about circuit or auto crossing.

On any car is it horrible unless its a 4sp HF .

 

its hard to downshift to 1st, because there is no synchro

 

so since steel is harder to break it makes it easier to put in first gear how????? has nothing to do with it. basically you are saying since one is steel you can push harder?? think about it dude. its just hard and that is the way it is.

 

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the reason that you shouldn't downshift to first is because it is such a short gear in comparison to all the others.

Yes it is possible to downshift to first, but it puts a lot more stress on the synchros than it does downshifting into 1st.

steel forks bend when you try to force it in to gear.
alum forks break when you try to force it in to gear.

alum fork breaks, you replace the fork
steel fork bends, you replace a lot more ****.

 

bense summed it up. but rev matching is your only help. put in neutral let out clutch rev engine then push in clutch and insert

 

1st gear has no syncro. As some have said above that you can downshift to first by rev matching but you really shouldn't need to.