Three on the tree......Am I gettin old??

Look at it this way; would you rather be your age with the knowledge of all the good old cars we grew up with, or one of the kids of today with the fart can equipped Tuners? I'm for the old hot rods, three on the tree, 4 on the floor, carburetors, etc. Lotta kids these days don't have a clue.

 

I had to laugh when I read this. I had a '66 Catalina, 389 with a 3 on the tree.
That shifter was sloppier than a hooker on Navy payday. It finally literally fell apart and I put one of these cheap universal 3 speed floor shifters in it. Thanks for the memories, I haven't thought of that car in ages!

 

As far as my memory serves me (not that old...yet) last year for column shift for fords was 86 and chevy's was 87. Last year for the dimmer in the floor on the fords was 91 as 92 went to the column. This is of course for trucks...

 

That shifter was sloppier than a hooker on Navy payday. [/QUOTE]

Ha Ha, I haven't heard that one in years!! Having been in the Navy on Oahu for a few years reminds me of Hotel Street of old. I ran a 56 Chevy back then and it had 3 on the tree. Ran it once out at Cambell Industrial Park I think thats what it was called.

 

When we had that 51' stock chevy for sale, everytime someone came to look at it, and asked for a test drive. They'd always ask if i know how to drive it, because of the column shift. I was happy to show them.

Its funny, at 21 i try explaining how my 53' cadillac has hydo windows & seat, No actual 'Park' gear selection, an auto hi-beam dimmer & preset jumper radio to the same age and slightly older people, And they look at me like im up on acid....

 

Buddy AL has a 66 CAPRICE! 3 on the tree with OVERDRIVE. He has it for sale and you should see the faces on people when they are told that it has 6 forward gears! by the way it shifts super smooooooooth NO SLOP

 

Saab and Mercedes both had 4 on the tree. I had a66 model 230 Mercedes and brother Joe had a Monte Carlo Rally Saab with 4 on the tree about 66-68. Don't think any American car ever had 4 on the tree

 

Ha Ha, I haven't heard that one in years!! Having been in the Navy on Oahu for a few years reminds me of Hotel Street of old. I ran a 56 Chevy back then and it had 3 on the tree. Ran it once out at Cambell Industrial Park I think thats what it was called.[/QUOTE]


lol Figures an ex-sailor would recognize that phrase. That's where I learned it, being an ex-sailor myself.
Hotel Street probably hasn't changed much, but the drag strip out at the Campbell Industrial Park closed down about 5 years ago. We no longer have a drag strip on Oahu. Maui has a good one though, and the hard core guys ship their cars over there. Hopefully we'll get one again.

 

What is the trick to getting into 1st while rolling, with a non-syncro 1st gear?

 

Double clutch it. That was a trick from the old days, but it works. Had to do the same thing when I had the Y-block & 3 speed in my old '56 F100.

 

Last one I saw was on a '82 Chevy stepside that belonged to my roommate in college.

 

When I met my wife in 1978 she had a OT Volkswagen Bug with a 3spd "automatic". I think it actually had a vacuum shift/clutch because you had to actually shift it. If you just touched the (floor) shift lever It went neutral. The brake pedal was wide so when the natural instinct was to use a clutch to shift you would sometimes hit the brakes instead.

 

God bless you and thank you for your service

 

The story is that the only reason car companies eliminated "wind wings" was to save money...At the time, the claim was they'd save about $5.00 per car.

 

Had a 64 Ford pickup that did just that. If you went from 1 to 2 too quick you got stuck somewhere in the middle, and goin no where.

Im only 27, but I have been around this stuff my whole life. In high school we had to move the schools old truck one day in shop. It was an early 80's. No one else knew how to drive the 3 on the tree old chevy pickup. My shop teacher just hung his head, and called my out from under my weld hood. Somehow he knew I could move it. Might be the 64 Dart I drove. Or the 65 Mustang.

 

Double clutching matches engine rpm with vehicle speed for any given gear.

Truck drivers with over and under boxes would only use the clutch when starting out from a stop. None of their gears were synchromesh

 

I'm 19 and I am restoring a car that has four on the tree, a removable crank handle, pull start knob, no radio and an umbrella hand brake. Its a 1954 A40 Somerset. I basically learned on a car with four on the floor with no syncro on first (OT british car from 1970 that was my first), had to take my drivers test in my moms car, as my tester failed me for either riding the clutch for the last few feet and staying in second (didn't want to risk grinding it on the test) despite me explaining that I would have to, this same tester also took out a book on the procedure on testing someone in a manual car.... I remember being at a friends house not long after said first car was on the road and one of my friends asked me why there were three pedals, I just laughed.

In my experience talking to people my age about cars the thing that gets the most odd looks is positive earth/ground, or even negative ground.

 

I had a 68 Holden (GM Australia) panel van with three on the tree. It had done 250,000 miles as a delivery van before I got it so the shifter was pretty worn. I would get stuck between first and second all the time until I worked out how to 'fix' it.

I rigged a rubber band from the the first - reverse shift rod to the master cylinder to help pull the selector out of first gear. Had to replace the rubber band every few months but it was less embarassing than having to pop the hood at the lights because I couldn't get a gear.

 

You ain't gettin' old....just these youngin's aint gettin' edjucated......Pop buys them new for graduation....nothing like our growing up...
Good post....

 

It must be an Italian thing; when I was stationed in Sicily, we had a Fiat one ton, front wheel drive, unibody truck with a five speed on the column. It was the weirdest vehicle I've ever seen. Having learned the 'three on the tree' drill on an old '63 Chevy truck, I was the only one that could drive the beast.

 

hahaha... I'm feelin' ya on that... Just got my licence. My daily custom falcon with all the old gizmo's sure reels 'em in

 

Over here few people will have driven an automatic - in fact, you take a separate driving test for manual trans and auto. You can't drive a manual if you have only passed the auto test.

My ex-wife had one of the auto only driving licences and for months after we split up she was wanting to borrow my car as her new guy was too cheap to buy her one. Got fed up with it after my mother saw them canoodling in it - went out the next day and bought a manual trans Ford Puma.

 

My kids bought a 62 Unibody for me as a suprise gift and the youngest son was elected to get it over here. He had to ask me (on the sly) how to shift a 3 spd on the column. He was about 20 at the time and driving manual trucks, but still had no clue about that column thing.

Yeah, we're old and it's OK!

 

I belong to another message board for my daily driver. One of the hottest topics on that board is "which dealer should I have do my oil change?"

 

So the younger generation should take their time to educate (there is no "j" in educated) themselves on an outdated form of shifting? Seems like a waste of time to me if they aren't interested in old cars.

 

this was a "Semi Auto" The clutch arm and brake arm were both joined at the pedal pad but there was no clutch connected to the pedal they just used the stock pedal set and joined the 2 at the pad.The clutch had an electric solenoid that was actuated by pressing down slightly on the stick shift so slightly that you didn't even notice it.They were regular VW 4 speed trannies so you had to shift same as a regular VW just not use a clutch pedal,They got a bad rap early on because people have a tendency to let their shift hand rest on the stick which in this case would raise havoc with the "electric clutch"I think this option was first introduced with the new Super Beetle but I'm not sure on that, I know it was out in 1970 because that's when I got to drive a brand new bug with this set up,And the first few miles were "interesting "Till I remembered not to go for the clutch pedal!Oh ya the new disc brakes worked real well !

 

well ive never driven a three on the tree but i really want to. my 59 f100 was already converted to floor shift when i got it so i missed out on that one. Even better than the dimmer switch on the floor (which my 64 f250 that i drove through high school has) is the starter on my dads old 50s dodge powerwagon. it was a little round petal above the gas pedal up under the dash that you had to push with your foot to start it. We always joked that you never had to lock it cause nobody knew how to start it.

 

I'm 26 and work with mechanics twice my age that barely know what a carburetor is or how to replace a u-joint. I don't think it's just us youngins anymore...Sh*t they stopped using distributors years ago, times are changin'.

 

Personally I love my three on the tree. One of the main reasons I don't put in a big block is because I want to keep the three on the tree.

I also saw the note on "that button over there by that other pedal". My car actually has two, one for highbeams and one was a manual windshield washer pump.

 

This is a little O/T but I was standing at the magazine rack at Target, looking at the maybe...two...magazines with anything vaguely relevant, waiting on my wife, when these two kinda snotty young guys walk past. One starts fiddling with a map/atlas that Target has a habit of displaying with the mags. He sneers "what are these for, everybody has GPS" and they snicker and walk away. My eyes roll.

I can remember feeling kinda lame because my '46 had a 3 on the tree, and my friends had Chevys w/4 speeds. The guy next door was a bus mechanic at the local "Orangebelt Stagelines," and helped me a lot on the '46. He told me I could put in an older box but would probably have to get rid of the quaint heater box, and besides If I left it alone my girlfriend could sit real close. I'm glad that I listened to him. He had the only foreign car that I'd been up close and personal with to that point, an early 60's M-B w/4 on the column like someone else mentioned. I was in awe of that car. I asked him if it was hard to work on. He said that "it took some special tools but other than that all mechanical things had some similarities," plus he had some kind of manual for reference. That helped me when I veered off to "the Dark Side" later in life.