<VV> Push Button Gear Selection Re: Dont knock thosechryslerproducts

[Jim Becker]

My parents had a '62 Rambler with the push button automatic.  The 
transmission was built by Borg Warner and had no connection to the 
Torqueflite other than they both used push buttons.  Borg Warner had a 
unique shifting behavior.  If you selected "D2", if would start out in 
second gear.

As I recall, each button pushed a cable that ran clear down to the side of 
the transmission where their movement translated to rotation of a shaft. 
Think of a mechanism much like the pushbuttons in a Corvair radio.  It would 
have been simpler to use a lever and control rod.  I think that one day my 
dad managed to poke 2 buttons at once.  He got them freed by poking other 
buttons, didn't need the screw driver.  The only other problem we had with 
the shifting mechanism was a broken PARK cable.  Fortunately, it broke with 
park disengaged.  That cable was the only push-pull and was outside of the 
bundle of other cables, so was fairly easy to replace.  As I recall, the 5 
push-only cables were in a bundle and would have been replaced as a unit.

Jim Becker

-----Original Message----- 
From: William J. Meglen via VirtualVairs
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2015 11:50 PM
To: Virtual Vairs
Subject: Re:  Push Button Gear Selection Re: Dont knock 
thosechryslerproducts

Nostalgia, and the first opportunity I've had to say, Me too! I had a 1961 
Rambler that used a variant of the Mopar  push button torque flight. My kids 
about the same age as Jim managed to jam the buttons, every time we left 
them in the car for any length of time. Tried, but failed to reproduce their 
results. Gave up and just carried a Phillips head screwdriver convenient to 
remove the cover. Thanks for the memories!

Fond memories including the Rambler.

On Jan 18, 2015, at 6:07 PM, BBRT via VirtualVairs 
<virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:

> The only time it malfunctioned at all was when my son Jim (displaying an 
> early interest in automotive technology) managed to push TWO of the 
> buttons at the same time and jammed both of them in together.  (I believe 
> he was 5 or 6 years old at the time)