I have this push/pull lever on my 33 Dodge DP 6 3 speed and I have never used it because I do not know what it does. can someone help explain to me what the lever on the left side bottom does. I read the manual and it says floating power and kind of explain's what it does, but I don' t really get it.
Floating power, as dodge put it was just a fancy way of saying there 4 banger was mounted and isolated from the frame as as not to send the engine vibrations up through the frame into the cab. The knob on your dash has nothing to do with floating power Just pull your knob! Guessing it’s an overdrive .
don't know about the lever but I thought "floating power" referred to the engine mount design. as in the front motor mount being up high. edit: I see VANDENPLAS is faster than I, it was also used for the 6
Floating power refers to the new type of engine mounts used to reduce vibration. I believe the lever activates the "free wheeling" feature of the transmission (considered part of the floating power system by MOPAR)
Free wheeling lets the car coast with out engine drag when you take your foot off of the gas, no engine braking. Everyone got rid of it after cars started crashing going down steep hills with no engine braking and mechanical brakes. Start in 1932, don't know when they quit using it. Later it became integrated into overdrive. Can't push start a car with Free Wheeling engaged or with a car in overdrive.
Floating power was the advertising lingo Chrysler used to describe their rubber motor mount system at the time. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
For a long time all car engines were bolted solid to the frame. Chrysler was the first company to think of flexible mountings. Their first efforts mounted the engine on coil springs but they soon changed to rubber mounts. They called this Floating Power. Within a few years every other car copied them. Free Wheeling had a vogue in the early thirties. They added what amounted to a one way clutch, like a bicycle free wheel hub to the drive line. This allowed you to shift gears just by lifting off the gas, without touching the clutch pedal. The drawback was that it did not allow engine braking so they made it so you could lock it out for driving in hilly country. It did not prove popular and was soon dropped from the option list.
Can you show us a closeup of the push/pull lever? The floating power item would say, "Floating Power" on it. What is the lever in question hooked up to under the dash? Can you trace the cable to something?
The cable goes from dash through fire wall, curves under driver seat to the driver side of tranny. I ha e never pulled the lever and it is hard to pull while stopped. I think ill leave it be.
e FWIW Saab used free wheeling in the Saab 96 1960-1980. Yup, different to drive in free wheel mode and took a bit of getting used to. I can see where folks could get in trouble with it if they were't paying attention. Ed
Freewheeling was a must on 2 strokes. When you closed the throttle you shut off the source of lubrication. You didn't want your engine spinning at revs for 50 mph with no oil. We used to call coasting down hill with the trans in neutral using Georgia Overdrive. I think the freewheel option was sold in places with few hills with gentle grades to let the engine idle on long gentle downhills. Not recommended for the Appalachians or Rockies. Floating power was Chrysler corps way of hanging the engine so that the center of gravity was centered between the mounts. So each contact with the frame carried the same weight. The bonded rubber parts being engineered to both carry weight and cancel harmonics.
The Jalopy Journal
