Ever sheared off a bleed nipple?

[NewcastleFalcon]

And all that groping for gear levers with the right hand as they were all left hand drive

Did you never get any assistance from a Giraffe?




regards Neil

[bobins]

Did you never get any assistance from a Giraffe?

regards Neil

Giraffes were always few and far between on the South Downs

[Zelandeth]

Makes me think back to the first time I encountered a split box on an old Scania coach (Van Hool Alize body), which I did fine with until I discovered that the shift pattern changed on the top four gears...

That caused a bit of confusion when I went for what I think was 9th and I think ended up in 11th.

Niva and Riva actually had really nice gear changes. Really long spindly lever (which meant it was right by the steering wheel), but a lovely light action and a really short throw. In sharp contrast to the rest of the controls which were rather more on the heavy side...steering in particular.

Old Merc 308D I had a few years ago had a gearbox that was like stirring a bucket of lumpy custard...there were five forward gears in there, but finding them required both technique and knowledge of where they actually were - which I swear changed depending on what mood it was in.

Would love a shot of a Unimog...

[myglaren]

Would love a shot of a Unimog...

[bobins]

Would love a shot of a Unimog...

No! No! No! No! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! No! Wrong! Bad Steve. Bad.

[van ordinaire]

At least Scammels had different colour knobs (black, red, yellow & green - I think).

Was Renault 16 really better than a 5-speed DS (i.e. in the gear change dept.)?

Anyone remember the Standard Atlas? forward control - with a floor change; fell to hand, by virtue of being cranked forwards - so the positions were reversed! (bit like dumper trucks - but without the rear wheel steering).

Worst gear change? Austin/Morris FD's (threepenny bit cabs) technique was to hold lever about 4" below the knob - & nudge that with your wrist: painfull.

Weirdest (in my experience) Chevy guntractor (being used as a breakdown wagon): LHD, crash gearbox, pedals in the triangle arrangement - with throttle in the middle! - a lot for an 18 year old, who'd never driven anything more agricultural than a 100E, to cope with.

The same garage had a "flying pig" (Mk 1V Zephyr) in the workshop which a was asked to move, found what seemed like more gear leaver position than was feasible, none of which were reverse - & with each tentative letting in of the clutch, so it inched ever closer to a plate glass window!

Real madness? Learning to cope with a Wison pre-selector in a vintage Daimler coming up the A13 from Tilbury - in the rush hour!

[NewcastleFalcon]

This shows a bit of column changing in a zephyr and combines nostalgia, humour, and yes education to the new world of automatic transmission in a nice Mr Chomondley Warner style



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Anyone remember the Standard Atlas? forward control - with a floor change; fell to hand, by virtue of being cranked forwards - so the positions were reversed! (bit like dumper trucks - but without the rear wheel steering).

Can't remember them, and was expecting to see a car like the Stanard Vanguard



but no its a van, which could make a justified appearans in "a nice 2- tone", or in "the collection of interesting/awful camper vans"



regards Neil

[CitroJim]

I must say the Atlas is not the prettiest of campers...

[Hell Razor5543]

I must say the Atlas is not the prettiest of campers...

True, but it has character (as it doesn't look like a Tupperware box on wheels).

[isisalar]

Speaking of strange Zephyr gearchanges, a friend had a succession of them and discovered that the problem was the long connection rods from the column change to the gearbox stretched over time, his quick fix was to swop them around so they ran diagonally, taking up the slack. This worked very well except that the gear positions were reversed, very interesting if you weren't used to it.

[CitroJim]

This worked very well except that the gear positions were reversed, very interesting if you weren't used to it.

Indeed, very interesting

back in the 70s Dad had and R5 and I had an R4. Both had 'umbrella handle' gear-changes (it was a very early R5) and his 1st and reverse was opposite to my R4!!!

I recall once stopping at a T-Junction in his R5, waited, put it into what I thought was 1st without really thinking and shot-backwards..

Good job there was nobody behind!

[Hell Razor5543]

This worked very well except that the gear positions were reversed, very interesting if you weren't used to it.

Indeed, very interesting

back in the 70s Dad had and R5 and I had an R4. Both had 'umbrella handle' gear-changes (it was a very early R5) and his 1st and reverse was opposite to my R4!!!

I recall once stopping at a T-Junction in his R5, waited, put it into what I thought was 1st without really thinking and shot-backwards..

Good job there was nobody behind!

Oops!

Reminds me of a story my Mum tells every so often. She was walking into work one day, and at a set of traffic lights there was a Learner Driver, with the person in the passenger seat being about as much use as a sieve made from tissue paper. The driver was continually stalling the car, with irate drivers going around blowing the horns. Eventually a police car drew up behind, switched on the tannoy system, and then explained what to do. All was going well until the bit after "Let off the handbrake, gently build up the revs, now lift your foot off the clutch". The car did not stall, unfortunately, but it went straight back into said police car. It turned out reverse was up and to the left, and the driver of the police car only was used to gearboxes with reverse off to the right. Shame is that Mum didn't have a camera!

[CitroJim]

How embarrassing for the copper!!!

Wonder how he explained that to his superiors....

[daviemck2006]

Pity it wasn't a camera car!