Fiesta poor downshift to 1st

[borgward]

snap-on SRP2B is similar to the one I have. The one in the video has an angle milled into it so it fits the angle of the circlip end. See 1:49. S3e picture I added.

 

[ZETEC DRIVER]

They are designed to NOT be easily force down shifted! Imagine how catastrophic that would be at even just 40 mph. Forced down shifts are not desirable for multiple reasons. The only time that would be acceptable is if the car has lost all brake pressure and the driver is trying to scrub off some speed to not crash as hard. That situation would involve something like a 5th down to 3rd kind of action.
Forced downshifts feed a tremendous amount of torque back through the gearset, timing components and valvetrain. You are basically using engine compression to slow down the car.
But first gear is intentionally designed to not be usable at any speed above a crawl.

Always thought you have to be stopped, or almost, before downshifting to first. That's my experience not just in Ford cars.

 

[borgward]

You don't shift into 1st at 40MPH unless you are stupid. I know not to do that. Consider your shift point going from 1st to 2nd. Lets assume 15mph. Nothing catastrophic is happening to your engine at that speed.

The reason the IB/5 does not want to go into 1st unless you are below 3mph is not because they designed to not do that shift. It is because of several factors. One being that it was a 4 speed transmission that had a 5th gear added onto the end of the shaft. Too much rotational mass for the synchro to deal with. Another factor is the the reverse gear is part of the 1st/2nd synchro unit which is a lot more mass than should be.

As for Fords not shifting into 1st well our 3rd gen 1999 Tracer (a rebadged Ford Escort) has no trouble doing so. Different 5 speed transmission.

The idea that they are protecting you from catastrophe is just plain Hubris. If anything they are protecting themselves from criticism.