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Personally I can’t see how it would be bad for the transmission, but, really, you are supposed to have 2 hands on the steering wheel, not resting one somewhere else. I can’t see it causing damage, but I don’t see it being good for the gear shift either! This is just my opinion not anything more :blink:
Whether it does damage or not seems to be highly contested. Some say that it can wear the synchros and/or the linkage a bit faster, and others say that it does no harm. Personally, I don’t see that it would do anything if you had your arm on the arm rests too. There would be a tiny amount of pressure on the stick, unless your hands are made of lead. Of course, I’m not a professional, so I couldn’t say for certain.
I won’t give you the usual spiel about having both hands on the wheel; you’re a big boy, I’m sure you can figure that one out 😉
The answer may vary, depending on the vehicle, transmission, and the force applied by the resting hand.
Based solely on transmission architecture, a hand resting on the stick will apply force to the shift forks, which will apply pressure to the synchonizer, which is then pushed into the speed gear.
Whether this force is necessarily “bad” is subject to interpretation and will vary depending on the application and many other factors.
[quote=”Michiganborn1969″ post=66860]Is there any truth or is it urban legend that if you have a manuel transmission, its unhealthy for your transmission to constantly rest your hand on the shifter?[/quote]
Well, my car is. Celica GT-S that has a 6 speed manual transmission and the shift points are close. I usually lightly rest my hand on the shifter in expectation of the next shift and not so much because I’m lazy or I think it looks cool.
Yes, there is some truth to transmission wear due to resting the hand on the gearshift lever; although as noted that can vary by, how much force is being applied, strength of the shift rail detent ball springs, etc.
I’ve done a lot of manual transmission work on Subarus with the majority of the complaints being that the transmission jumps out of 3rd gear. The common deonominator was that the drivers who experienced this problem rested their hand on the lever while the bulk of their driving involved traffic an speeds that required 3rd or 4th gear. However, this can also occur in lower gears or even 5th if someone has this habit while cruising on the highway.
Most problems involved a worn 3/4 shift fork and worn synchronizer sleeve.
It can put pressure on the shift forks adding wear and play into the transmission overtime. This can cause issues shifting into gear and having it pop out of gear.
It’s worse to do if the shifter is got a longer handle(like transport trucks).I don’t really think its the worst thing to do if you got a light touch, or if you drive a logging truck.
But i wont do this very often.
As stated yes it can wear the shift forks, but as Wrench Turner stated not all transmissions are the same… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, not all transmissions should be labeled the same and be put in the same box… Just because it killed the transmission in a ’78 Chevy pickup, doesn’t mean it will hurt a mustang, the same can be said vise versa.
Also note that cable operated transmissions don’t normally have this particular issue… But again, this is completely dependent on how it is set up.
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