Recently I had a botched foot surgery on my left foot. I'm now handicapped. I can only use my heel. I had to relearn the clutch.
you can do this it just takes time. do it a few times and sleep on it. the next attempt will be better. before you know it you'll be fine.
Yes, but you need the friction to overcome the momentum of the stopped vehicle. Also, some vehicles ARE set up so that first gear has such a high ratio that the clutch will engage perfectly at idle, and the vehicle will move without needing to step on the accelerator. This low first is called a "creeper" or (in Germany) "Grundig" gear. You won't see too many of these in the States - usually on trucks if you do. Most cars here are geared so that one does have to "give it gas" to engage first - one has to get the engine up to speed and providing enough power to get the vehicle moving. Yes, this does create more friction, which is why noob manual drivers wear out a clutch quickly. With practice, you'll be able to rev *just* high enough that with the right letting out of the clutch that wear, and shift harshness, are minimized.
You start to press the gas down to increase the RPM's if you don't do that then the engine will not have enough power to move and the engine will stall
With a normal dry-plate clutch, the friction force does not depend on the relative speed of the plates. It depends on the spring pressure, controlled by the foot pedal.
As you say, you would stall if you didn't add gas. Particularly starting on a hill, you are trying to balance the engine torque, dependent on the rpm controlled by the gas pedal, against the friction force controlled by the clutch. And the weight of the car trying to roll backwards.
It's a matter of timing. Your foot is beginning to push down on the gas as your left foot is easing up on the clutch. If you don't give it enough gas soon enough, letting up too much on the clutch, you stall. It takes practice and at first seems tricky, but you get the hang of it soon enough with lots of repetition.
There is not enough torque to get the car moving. You have to press the gas or it will stall.
So I've been reading about how manual transmissions work and I can't wrap my head around this...
When you are at a standstill and are trying to get the clutch to catch, why would you apply gas? I understand that letting the clutch pedal go will connect said clutch to the engine, but wouldn't adding gas just create more friction while trying to make the two catch? Obviously my thinking is wrong because you'd just stall if you didn't add gas, but please explain.
