At the time I thought it was neat, but cool?? Umm, many a time I wish I didn't know anything about a truck.
Left Leg Training
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At the time I thought it was neat, but cool?? Umm, many a time I wish I didn't know anything about a truck.
Learned driving an Oliver 1350 and my 56 Willys as a kid on the farm.
Once I learned how to shift, the next step was trying to get the Oliver to pull a wheelie from a dead start
Dad was not impressed...
My older brother had a 78 Regal with a 4 speed and I took it out for a toot one day when he wasn't home. Went about 6 miles and turned around at a pulloff, decided it was time to see how much rubber I could get. Dumped the clutch on the gravel and shot rocks until I hit the big pothole at the edge of the pavement. Went to stab second gear and found the clutch pedal on the floor...
Rev matched it home, jacked it up for a look and found the linkage arm to the clutch fork gone.....
As it was the only car left at home, I had to get it out of the shop, start in gear, drive back the 6 miles to the pulloff , stop and find the part laying in the dirt.
Repeat all over again, and get it in the shop and reinstall the part with new cotter pins.
He still doesn't know.........
Once I learned how to shift, the next step was trying to get the Oliver to pull a wheelie from a dead start
Dad was not impressed...My older brother had a 78 Regal with a 4 speed and I took it out for a toot one day when he wasn't home. Went about 6 miles and turned around at a pulloff, decided it was time to see how much rubber I could get. Dumped the clutch on the gravel and shot rocks until I hit the big pothole at the edge of the pavement. Went to stab second gear and found the clutch pedal on the floor...
Rev matched it home, jacked it up for a look and found the linkage arm to the clutch fork gone.....
As it was the only car left at home, I had to get it out of the shop, start in gear, drive back the 6 miles to the pulloff , stop and find the part laying in the dirt.
Repeat all over again, and get it in the shop and reinstall the part with new cotter pins.
He still doesn't know.........
Few people know about that skill. I was towing a boat with my '68 Firebird going fishing. A guy came alongside and said I had a flat on the trailer. Sure enough so I left the trailer parked in Lynbrook and drove to Freeport for a spare wheel. (I know, I know, I now carry TWO spares) They had none because of how old the wheel was (bearing in wheel hub) and as I went back to the boat the Z-bar stud in the engine broke- no clutch. I had to do the start-in gear-shift-stop-in-neutral dance all the way home to borrow my neighbor's '80 Monte Carlo to go to Woodside for the wheel and then back for the boat. LONG day.
In the 90's I went to backwoods, Shenerdoa Virginia to look at a '52 Nash Healey Roadster. When we arrived it turned out to be an old AMC dealership. The 80 something year old owner/ former car dealer passed away and his wife was selling all his stuff. She's telling this story about In the '70's Furrin' cars were hot and her husband had the first Mazda dealership in the Shenerdoa.
"We still have one. Only has 600 miles on it" That got me interested. I wasn't ready to spend $12.500 for the Nash Healey, because that was market at the time and it needed work to be presentable.
We go through a maze of rooms to a shed and she finds the light and clicks it on. A 600 mile '76 Wankel powered Mazda RX-3. She says its been in this shed for at least 15 years. Wow! I say. Can I look inside? I open the door and 1 foot from the poking my head in the door, I'm hit with a Science Fiction Movie amount of Mold Spores and I closed the door. The interior was like a rotting corpse in the woods, if insects didn't exist. It was days before I got the smell of mold out of my nose. Every surface of the interior was covered in mold.
A 600 Mile '76 RX-3 that needed Level 4 Bio-containment would probably be worth something today, by gutting the interior and making a brand new vintage race car out of it, but I was traumatized and had to pass. I did buy '67 Marlin from her for $2,500, though.
I learned by driving farm equipment on the family farm in the summers instead of staying in the city. First time I figured out stick shift I was 7 maybe 8. Great uncle would always take me to tour "the back 40" after supper and had asked me to start the tractor instead of taking the horse. I took off like a shot. I had seen him start it many times before so I had an idea of what to do so....
I was little and had to stand with both legs on the clutch and both hands pushing up on the steering wheel to get the clutch down enough to get it started. I got it fired but when I would let go of the steering wheel the clutch would push me up and let it slip in gear until I pushed up on the wheel again. I had no idea of how to shut it down, or select a gear. Every time I would let off the steering wheel it would lurch the tractor forward towards the freezer shed. I screamed and hollered for him to come help. In what seemed like forever he came out of the house, he shook his head laughing. That old fella then went back in the house to grab his hat and in what seemed to be forever again he came back out. I was in tears by the time he finally got to the tractor to pop it out of gear and climb up with me. He didn't get mad or upset, and we went for our tour of the fences like nothing happened. Life Long lesson learned on my part. I really really miss that man ! He passed in '94
and btw by the end of the summer I could drive stick, and get the old "3 on the tree" Ferd into 1st to roll it around the fields as long as I had my 2 pillows to get me closer to the pedals LOL
I was little and had to stand with both legs on the clutch and both hands pushing up on the steering wheel to get the clutch down enough to get it started. I got it fired but when I would let go of the steering wheel the clutch would push me up and let it slip in gear until I pushed up on the wheel again. I had no idea of how to shut it down, or select a gear. Every time I would let off the steering wheel it would lurch the tractor forward towards the freezer shed. I screamed and hollered for him to come help. In what seemed like forever he came out of the house, he shook his head laughing. That old fella then went back in the house to grab his hat and in what seemed to be forever again he came back out. I was in tears by the time he finally got to the tractor to pop it out of gear and climb up with me. He didn't get mad or upset, and we went for our tour of the fences like nothing happened. Life Long lesson learned on my part. I really really miss that man ! He passed in '94
and btw by the end of the summer I could drive stick, and get the old "3 on the tree" Ferd into 1st to roll it around the fields as long as I had my 2 pillows to get me closer to the pedals LOL
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I started at age 12 - my mother was taken shopping and my Dad let me drive his 54 Beetle in the parking lots. He raised the idle speed and just taught me the feel of the clutch pedal as I idled along. By 14 I was driving forward and backwards in the house driveway. He had done some headwork, carb and exhaust improvements yielding about a total 45 HP - up from the original 36 HP. I was banned from driving after friends urged me to dump the clutch leaving 2 three foot strips of rubber on the drive.
Still driving stick in my 2012 VW daily driver at age 71 but do enjoy the auto trans in my truck and Monte. I drove heavy truck for 10 years before retiring - all manual trans trucks.
Still driving stick in my 2012 VW daily driver at age 71 but do enjoy the auto trans in my truck and Monte. I drove heavy truck for 10 years before retiring - all manual trans trucks.
7 years old. Dad finally got me a dirtbike motorcycle. 60cc Yamaha 2-stroke. He taught me how the engine turns and how a clutch worked and how it got moving. Took all of a coupla minutes. At 15 and getting my learner's permit, I got to drive the '76 Chevette my mother had. 4-banger with a 4-speed. First time in it I had no trouble due to riding motorcycles all those years.
Speaking of failed clutches while out and about, my wife and I were out in our '90 Honda Accord 5-speed back around 1999. She was driving. We stopped at a light and when it turned green, the clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there (hydraulic slave cylinder failed). She kind of freaked as she didn't know what to do, the clutch is on the floor and it won't go into gear. I said get out and switch with me. I got in, turned off the car, and with left hand on the key and right hand on the stick, started cranking it with pressure to go into 1st gear. It engaged into 1st and the engine started with us rolling while cranking. I rev matched it the rest of the way home (didn't get any more lights).
She learned something that day.
Speaking of failed clutches while out and about, my wife and I were out in our '90 Honda Accord 5-speed back around 1999. She was driving. We stopped at a light and when it turned green, the clutch pedal went to the floor and stayed there (hydraulic slave cylinder failed). She kind of freaked as she didn't know what to do, the clutch is on the floor and it won't go into gear. I said get out and switch with me. I got in, turned off the car, and with left hand on the key and right hand on the stick, started cranking it with pressure to go into 1st gear. It engaged into 1st and the engine started with us rolling while cranking. I rev matched it the rest of the way home (didn't get any more lights).
She learned something that day.
I almost forgot this one: I was like 17 years old and out drinking beer with friends. While stumbling home I came across a kid that lived on my block, and he was around 13 at the time. He had found a Hertz rental truck with the keys in it. It was a tractor trailer cab with a clutch and a tall single shifter. I was intrigued by this and we got it started but I could not reach the shifter and work the clutch at the same time. So I sat in the driver's seat and worked the clutch/gas/brake. He sat in the passenger seat and shifted the transmission. It was a co-ordinated effort to get it rolling but we did. We drove around for a while before got bored and left it where we found it. I shudder to think what we would have been charged with if the cops had seen us.
I started back in the early 70s driving my dads 68 Chevy shortbed with a three on the tree. Over my lifetime Ive driven a ton of vehicles from tractors to box trucks. The majority were manual transmissions. Even my own personal vehicles. CJs, cars, pickup trucks. My first new truck with an automatic was a 94 Chevy extended cab 4x4. To be honest I enjoyed driving a stick. Now, Im so used to putting the lever in "D" I dont think I'd want to go back. LOL
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