In article >,
Mike Romain > wrote:

> wrote:
> >
> > Trying to understand more about manual's, and came across this
> > excellent article:
> >
> > http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission5.htm
> >
> > However, here's the part I don't get: What is preventing the driver
> > from shifting into reverse while going 60 miles an hour?
> >
>
> Absolutely nothing, I have done it. I hit reverse in a car once and
> only locked the rear wheels into a chirp when I realized it. Nothing
> blew up.... I was lucky....

Yep, that would make two of us - Although I accomplished mine in a car
with an automatic. Had this "hit the lights all green" strategy that
seemed to do *WAY* better than 75% - Come off the the north/south
freeway onto the east/west freeway leading into town, and mash the
throttle for all it could give me/all traffic allowed in the space
between the end of the off-ramp and the "Freeway ends 1 mile" sign.
Usually that meant I'd be hitting somewhere between 70 and 80 as I blew
past the sign. Bump the shifter into neutral, and coast in to the first
light, which would (more often than not) change green just as I rolled
up at about 40-ish. If I caught the first one, bumping it back into gear
and holding at 40 would put me through the entire ten light sequence
with every one of them green my way.

One day I did this for probably the 100th time, if not more, only my
"bump" was a bit too energetic, and I went through neutral and into
reverse... <SHREEEEEIIIIIIIIK!> Smoking rubber, ass-end juddering around
like it was about to go into bucking bronco mode, and me grabbing wildly
at the gearshift with one hand while trying to keep the car pointed
straight with the other, and the engine stalling out. It was a rather
"interesting" ride that I don't have any wish to go on again!

Didn't do any damage (that was evident right then, anyway... Strongly
suspect that it WAS the death-stroke for the tranny, though, since it
was only a couple months later that the thing went completely
tango-uniform) but by all rights, that transmission should have gone off
like a bomb... Manual or automatic, they just aren't made for being
punched into reverse at 70+!

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