International Road tractor 7 speed

Is it just the nature of a 7 speed (not a 6+1) to shift hard without scratching gears. Practice helps, or can you do anything to help the problem, lighter or heavier oil, tightning up anything? Clutch is adjusted right because stopped you can use any gear and no noise. Anybody with experience throw in a few thoughts. Thanks

Hmm - have a 610 would be willing to part with / 

You will need some practice with it, the seven is wider than a ten or thirteen between gears and just about the time you think you have it mastered you will miss the point a time or two.  Big heavy gearbox, goes almost rail to rail under the truck but are genuinely bullet proof as  to wearing out or blowing apart.

Edited by DMiller - 25 Feb 2013 at 7:48pm

It's been an easy twenty years since I drove a seven speed, but if I remember right, it took a little more time between shifts to clear the gears. That was hard for the boys to do when they had started on Eaton gear boxes, but I learned on the old time stuff. And DMiller, you are exactly right that thee Eaton 3 speeds were the best transmission, but the power dividers sure took a beating and required frequent re-builds!

My first teach in a Freightliner Cabover on how to drive a 13 behind a 8V71T 350 HP setup was inclusive of a 42" "Yardstick", the old mechanic that taught me would whop me one if my foot even so much as headed for the clutch at speed!!  I remember I learned quite quickly too!  Hardest engine/trans set up I ever drove was a Mack Triplex, three shifter set up, was a narrow point of time you used both hands, a slight hit of double clutch and a prayer to get from low side box high gear into the main in 1st. and the aux boxes in 3rd/and 3rd, Never knew why they had so many available gears in those big buggers but you had unlimited expanse of side shifts for best pulling, came in a B611 sleeper conventional cab set, 210HP Thermodyne.