Friday, December 15, 2023

Shifting is easy. Let a Boomer show you how.

 


15 comments:

  1. now demonstrate shifting a early 70's worn out 5 speed with hi low axle cab over chevy straight implement truck with a 350 engine carting a 4.5 ton John Deere tractor. Lot of fun when your an 18 year old farm boy. Boss tells you not to use clutch as it's about shot so power shift.

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    1. You are a real man, I am a carpenter and self mechanic. Only probably caught part of the full joke but still 100 % get it

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    2. Get it up to the exactly right RPM's and you can easily shift to the next gear up but you have to be brisk about it and not dawdle. Long ago I had a bad clutch and had to do that til I got it fixed.

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    3. Yep! That was me in the '68 Chevy farm truck with the 350 engine and two speed axle hauling 300 bushels of grain. If you miss hi/low you're free-wheeling between gears. Come to a complete stop then start over again in 1st gear. Good times!

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  2. The old school vehicle anti theft device. - Nemo

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  3. You don't need to use the clutch in hi/lo, just feather the gas pedal. Weekly stories on car thieves unable to steal due to a maniual transmission are quite funny.

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  4. Now try that finesse with "three on the tree"...

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    1. three on the tree, ever wonder why in the 70's so many adults drove with one hand lying on the automatic shifter, force of habit!

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  5. My winter beater would lose the hydraulic clutch at 25 below. Now traffic lights were a problem only solved by turning off the engine selecting first and then starting the car when the light turned green.

    Spin Drift

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    1. Back in '84 the clutch went out in my '65 Kenworth log truck just after I'd been loaded in a landing 85 miles from the mill the load was to be delivered to. After figuring I could change my route to only having to go through one traffic signal between where I was and where I was going I went for it. I made it with no problem and didn't have to come to a complete stop at the only light at Missouri Flat Road in Placerville.

      I was a young, struggling gypo at the time and there was no way I was going to pay the bill for a tow truck to haul me home.
      I was pretty proud of the fact that in the nine years running that truck I was never on the hook once.

      I you drive a manual transmission it pays to practice driving without using the clutch. That skill might come in handy some day.

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  6. Since 1966, I have only owned vehicles with a standard transmission.

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    1. Only one or two manufacturers left that build a vehicle with a manual transmission.

      Evil Franklin

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  7. Recently had a brake failure on my Suburban. Downshifted and then used the engine/transmission for the entire rest of the 220 mile trip home. No clutch involved except to start from a dead stop.

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  8. Went over the bars in a dirt crash on a friend's Hodaka, circa '71. Knew I had done something to my foot before I hit the ground. Rode home by swapping hands on the clutch, and using my left hand to shift it to first gear at a stop. (left hand shift, Euro pattern, one up/4 down)
    Had a party to attend that evening, so I borrowed another girl's Honda Dream 305 with the heel/toe shift pedal that I could shift by dropping my heel on the front or rear pad, since I figured I would have to walk too far if I drove my Mustang. Couldn't lift the front of the foot, felt really weird. Hobble into the party given by two nurses, and the first one looks at me and says "you broke a bone". Calls her roommate, points to me, and the other one says "broken bone". Still not sure what symptoms they were seeing. So, they drove me to the hospital the following day in my car, for an x-ray, and found I had pulled a chunk of bone that connected the tendon to my foot. Doc just taped up the foot to ankle, no cast.
    They borrowed the car for a couple days to run up to Philly (we were in a summer resort on the Jersey shore).

    When they got back, I set the idle up a bit so I could release the clutch with my right foot without stalling, and then move to the throttle and shift without clutch up and down until I had to stop. Maybe 6 weeks doing this. '65 Mustang v8 4spd. It worked well doing this.

    The girls out of town trip was to pick up a couple keys of grass, which they informed me after the fact! Not a happy camper, as I didn't do any recreational drugs, and I would have lost the car if they had gotten busted...

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  9. ...or learn to double clutch if the synchros have crapped.

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