1961-1963 Pontiac Transmission with auto trans. The way I understand teh automatic trans, there is no "P" on the selector and the car only starts in neutral. What do you use when parking? just the parking brake? or do you put it in a gear....AND apply the parking brake? what's the best way to hold it on hills? thanks
My mother had a 62 Tempest wagon in the mid 60's. Slant four engine and a rear transaxle. I believe that Pontiac used this "vehicle" as the inspiration of the all time favorite vehicle in car rental fleets the Aztek! This was a great car for me being newly licensed, as it was hard to get in much trouble with an extremely high weight to power ratio, and a front end that was so far out of alignment that if you went over 60 mph the front tires would smoke.
Have a '55 olds with the same problem. e-brake doesn't work after sitting since '87. When I figured it out I didn't have any chocks.
.....oh no.....another "hater". lol. quirky, oddball, marginal handling and power.....just my kinda car! Aztek? any car called the "rolling dumpster" by its own design team is the car for me too! I learned to drive in a 66 Valiant wagon, auto Slant 6....not much better. It had uniquely engineering wiper returns.....looped rubber bands. engineered by yours truly. motor powered them up.....my rubber bands connected to the cowl vent brought them down. worked like a charm until the sun killed the bands after a week or two. No problem...just put new ones on! Kids today are spoiled not to have such wonderful vehicles to learn on.
Not a hater of the car at all. The rear seat folded down flat, and there was plenty of room for good times with my girlfriend out in the woods in secluded areas. Fast forward about a year later, and I was driving a 62 Valiant with a mighty 170 c i slant six. 3 on the tree, only option on the car was an AM radio. Wasn't as much fun going parking as the Tempest wagon. But, as they say "necessity is the mother of invention"! Best thing I ever did with Valiant was buying a 2 barrel Holley cargo, and an adapter. I really hot rodded that car!
With the Olds Hydromatic you put the car in reverse, and with the engine off, it locked the trans so the car would not move. Maybe the Tempest was the same?
At the neutral position the dash mounted lever clicks over to the left to go into the "Park" position. It holds fine. After starting the car the lever is moved to the right for a neutral location and then up or down for forward or reverse. That's what is in my '63 Temepst.
Yup my 62 tempest wagon had no park... was a bitch when the parking brake cables would freeze in winter... had to lay in the slop and work them loose to get car to move and hope it wouldn't roll over you once they freed up!
no matter what you can say good or bad about the early tempests, when the factory dropped a 389 in them the results were stunning. hamb friendly or not if someone dropped a winning lottery ticket on me a 64 goat would be among the first 10 cars i'd buy.
yes,,standard for 61-62 was the 4 cyl motor, 1 & 4bbl versions. Optional in 61-62 was the 215 alum. V8. 63 was the 4 cyl & 326 (336) V8 motor. Also in 63 were 6 coups & 6 wagons with the 421 V8 & a 4 speed automatic transaxle with a clutch in back
All in how you drove them. In 63 you could only get the 3 speed manual & automatic behind the 326 motor. You could get a auto, 3 & 4 speed behind the 4 cyl motors. The weakest link in the entire system was the ring & pinion in the diff. Here is a pic of the 4 speed powershift transaxles that were in the 63 superduty 421 cars. 2 speed trans on the left, diff in the middle, another 2 speed on the back with a flywheel & clutch hung on the back. Push in the clutch, shift into drive, ease out the clutch & ease on the throttle. When it upshifted to 2nd gear, then nail the throttle & hang on!!!
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