It’s all about the learning curve. Many diehard stick shift drivers have been taking to the forums to bemoan what they perceived to be an awkward shifting pattern to the 2nd to 3rd shift in the Tremec TKO 5-speed. The narrow gate can often confuse drivers who cut their teeth behind the wheel of a muscle car equipped with either a Muncie, Ford top-loader or Mopar A-833 manual gearbox.

Thankfully, our friends at Silver Sport Transmissions have produced a pair of videos not only showing the proper or preferred way to shift a TKO 5-speed, that is, without encountering any misshifts while rowing the gears aggressively, but also a great inside peek at the shifting gate and rails that account for the Tremec’s unique shifting behavior all to help dispel any misconceptions regarding the TREMEC swirling around on the forums.

Silver Sport Transmissions’ own Jeff Kauffman, wrote: “When you shift the older 4-speeds, you would go over and up to 3rd gear (or just shove it over if you were really beating on it). With the TREMEC TKO, you want to go straight forward with an open palm. The SST shifter mechanism will help guide you right into gear!” Because of the wider shift gate in the older transmissions, it was required to row upwards and outwards to engage 3rd. Because of the modern narrow gate of the Tremec, simply row up. It’s that simple.

In second “2-3 shift” video, SST shows how people could miss the shift, and the easiest way to avoid this while driving in the real world. (Caution: it is behind the wheel of a Camaro fitted with one of Silver Sport Transmissions’ Perfect-Fit kits, so prepare yourself to see a Chevy on a Mopar magazine. We apologize. It won’t happen again. -Ed.)