Inquiry for diesel drivers

[wolfie]

So how does the lever help with this, and (while the subject is up anyway) don't they make cars with column shifters anymore?

The auto shift lever helps because, since it won't be in "park" when the car is moving, they can "piggyback" the "let the key turn to the removal position" function onto the lever being in "park". With a manual, EVERY position of the shifter can legitimately be used while the car is moving, so they can't "piggyback" it, and need to use a separate button/lever to let the key turn to the removal position.

I've only seen column shifters on cars with bench (not bucket) seats, and those tend to be models that aren't offered with manual transmissions.

[Chromatix]

I've seen vehicles with column-mounted manual gear levers. The one I particularly remember was a type of small minibus - I suspect the design originated in Japan. Because the linkage to the gearbox is longer and more complex, it's more fiddly to use.

Not to forget the various types of paddle-shift gearbox. Those are technically column or even wheel mounted, but they work very differently from conventional manual or automatic systems. They are frequently used with sequential gearboxes, which have two clutches, each serving half the gears - this type can change gears extremely quickly, while keeping the efficiency advantage of a true clutch.

[Shalom]

I've only seen column shifters on cars with bench (not bucket) seats, and those tend to be models that aren't offered with manual transmissions.

Well, my Blazers (both the '88, which still runs, and the '99 which doesn't) have bucket seats and a console in the middle, but a column shifter. The console comes out pretty easily, it's only held in with a couple bolts, and if you remove it there's just this empty space between the seats; I usually take it out once a year to vacuum under it -- you wouldn't believe how much crud accumulates down there.

The MT version of this vehicle has the hole for the shift linkage far forward, with the stick bent way back at about a 45⁰ angle, so even with the bench seat you could still have a floor shifter. (The lever for the transfer case is at that spot even if you have the column shifter, but it's straight and kind of short, so you have to lean way over to grab it. The '99 has the electric linkage rather than a lever.)

My dad's '97 Ford Explorer has bucket seats and a column shifter as well.

[HYHYBT]

How about push-button shifters? They had those in the 60's, and I don't know why they didn't catch on.

[wolfie]

How about push-button shifters? They had those in the 60's, and I don't know why they didn't catch on.

The kind that was found on the Edsel? I heard it was because driving schools didn't like them, and at the time people tended to stick with either the brand of car that they learned on, or the brand their parents drove, so having a feature the schools didn't like would be throwing away a lot of future business.

[dalesys]

How about push-button shifters?

That's what my '59 DeSoto had. Whewe's my cane?

[Shalom]

What I'd heard (gathered mostly from novels, so take it for what it's worth) was that A., the electromechanical linkages tended to freeze in the winter, and B., people were nervous that the transmission at the other end of the buttons was too delicate. (As it happened, this wasn't the case; the TorqueFlite A727 was equally robust in either version.)

The version found in the Edsel, called "Teletouch", had the buttons in the middle of the steering wheel, rather than on the dash where Chrysler put them. This could and did lead to problems when drivers used to other cars, in emergency situations, would pound on where they thought the horn button was and shift gears instead, which did not yield a useful result, especially if they happened to get reverse. (My father had a '72 Plymouth that had three horn buttons at the edges of the wheel spokes and not a damn thing in the center of the wheel. My mom, who usually drove a '68 Dodge with a normally placed horn, would always beat on the inert plastic in the middle of the wheel when she tried to honk at someone, before remembering where the buttons actually were.)

[protege]

Well, my Blazers (both the '88, which still runs, and the '99 which doesn't) have bucket seats and a console in the middle, but a column shifter.

My parents' '89 Dodge Caravan had bucket seats and had a column shift. Not surprising really, since those vans were based on a stretched K-car (which had bench seats) platform and running gear.

As to horns in odd locations, my MG has one of those. It's on the left 'stalk.' Pushing it in beeps the horn. At the time, safety was starting to be built into cars. The factory wanted to include a collapsing steering column...but due to technology limitations, couldn't get the horn to work in the center of the wheel. Ford did something similar with their Tempo when airbags were installed in steering wheels.

[HYHYBT]

A lot of cars for a while in the 90's had those buttons around the wheel, too; Grandma's Mercury is like that.

On the stalk: Pop had something that did that; I think it was the Capri. The sound it made was closer to the Road Runner than to other car's horns. (I remember him driving the Capri with a rope hanging out the window to operate the clutch one time when it broke. He eventually sold it to the folks across the street, who promptly crashed it. It also had only one reverse light, which looked like it had been added on later rather than being part of the original design.)