<VV> 3 onna tree - more!

[Thesuperscribe at cs.com]

Ha! My very first car was a '49 Plymouth with 3 on the tree. The car was worn 
out way before I bought it for $95 so of course the shifter was balky. On one 
little trip I recall having to take my arm from around my girl friend's 
shoulders many times to fight the shifter. "Excuse me... @#$%^&^% it!"

Then there was the '56 Dodge panel truck at work. Its 3-onna-tree linkage 
blocked the brake pedal while the tranny was in 1st -- so no brakes -- and I 
almost had a wreck when leaving the loading dock and entering a busy boulevard 
(Kilbourne Avenue between 3rd and 4th, for you Milwaukee folks). 

In the garage I gave the truck to another young (18, like me) driver and told 
him to park it on the wash rack. He went through two turns and headed for the 
rack, all the time in 1st gear. I didn't see the crash but heard him scream, 
then bang! as the Dodge hit the wall. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about 1st gear and the brakes," I said while 
stiffling a laugh as he emerged from between some parked trucks. 

"Oh, thanks a LOT," he said. He didn't think it was so funny, even though I 
really had forgotten about it. We wrote it up and the mechanics fixed the 
linkage, and soon after that the company traded off the Dodge. Good riddance, as 
the late '50s and early '60s Chevys with 4-speed floor shifts (with granny lows) 
were faster and much more fun to drive.

--Tom Berg

*** 

In a message dated 6/7/2005 4:06:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
Sethracer at aol.com writes:


> 
> Warren _LeVeque_ (mailto:LeVeque at aol.com)  writes:
> 
> I had a  hi po 55 Chevy with 3 on the tree. It wore to the point where it 
> was 
> 
> nearly unusable. I elected to not put in a floor shift and had the column  
> rebuilt. 
> I wanted my girl friend to sit really close to  me.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As usual I put performance ahead of Comfort - I finally outgrew that! 
> My 55 Chevy (first car) got a Hurst "Mystery Shifter" for the three speed.  
> With the removable stick, I could get the trans out on the ground in about 
> 10  
> minutes. That came in handy as the synchro blocking rings on the three-speed 
>  
> were no match for the speed of the shifter (Not me, the Hurst) and they 
> would  
> pop out regularly. (Take out the trans, bring it to my friend, have it  
> reassembled) Then as now, I hated working on transmissions. The day I went 
> to my  
> first T-10 4-speed was a day to remember. With a new Hurst Competiton Plus, 
> It  
> was like shifting in warm butter. Just thinking about that T10 makes  my 
> Corvette feel clunky! That's why I demand tight shifting for my  Corvairs!
> 
> - Seth Emerson
>