three on the tree shifting

[Rodent]

Driven a few, never owned one. Had a couple of friends with 3-on-the-floor Mustangs, including one with the non-synchro first "paper" gearbox. Owning a Mustang with a toploader, I had a really tough time driving either one of them without putting some thought to what I was doing.

When I was writing service in the late 80s-early 90s, we would occasionally get a bottom-feeder F-series with a 3-on-the-tree in the service drive. I wrote one up, and the lot kid went to move it. His eyes got as big as saucers and he looked at me and shrugged. He could drive a manual (his own car was a Fiero) but he didn't know exactly what to do with this truck. We were kind of far away to shout, and I didn't feel like walking over there, so I raised my right fist at him and made an exaggerated motion back toward my body and down. Kevin caught on right away, gave me a thumbs up, and away he went.

I did drive an 40s Chevrolet a long time ago with vacuum shift (working) and that weird lever.

[TECHMAN]

My first 55 Chevy was in 1966, Power Pac 265, 3spd overdrive on the column, 2 door hardtop.  FIRST thing I did was bought a floorshift conversion kit (a cheapie from our local Western Auto).  It had no "positive stops" (as I said, CHEAPIE) and within a few weeks of abuse, had "killed" the o/d tranny......  Went to local wrecking yard, was sold a "heavy duty" 3-spd trans for $35.......  Few more weeks of abuse, dead tranny again (think was bending the shift forks inside the transmissions, but wasn't smart enough to pull apart to see.  One of my mentors "made me" buy a decent shifter along with the next transmission, problem solved!!!  Was a Hurst from Honest Charlie's ($49 as I remember correctly).  Those were GOOD OLD DAYS!!!!!😊

DJ

ps: last 3-on-the-tree  was a 1964 A100 Dodge Pickup (the little cabover model) 225 cubic inch 6, and 4.10 rear end gears....  went NOWHERE in a hurry, but would pull just about anything you hooked it up to.

 

[Dave G.]

3 on the tree was great for getting worn, then not recognizing you needed to be very deliberate on the shifting pattern, you found  yourself under the hood getting the linkage unstuck from between gears, while the tranny itself was still in first.. I had one so worn, you had to move the lever slightly towards reverse before letting it slip through the neutral gate. This is when I went and bought the Hurst shifter for three speeds. Seems to me that back in the day, that was around $30. Course you bought the car for $100 ! Sometimes $75. 

Hah, I just looked that shifter up. It was the Master Shifter, Summit racing still sells them, now in the upper $400 range.

Edited August 13 by Dave G.

[espo]

18 hours ago, TECHMAN said:

My first 55 Chevy was in 1966, Power Pac 265, 3spd overdrive on the column, 2 door hardtop.  FIRST thing I did was bought a floorshift conversion kit (a cheapie from our local Western Auto).  It had no "positive stops" (as I said, CHEAPIE) and within a few weeks of abuse, had "killed" the o/d tranny......  Went to local wrecking yard, was sold a "heavy duty" 3-spd trans for $35.......  Few more weeks of abuse, dead tranny again (think was bending the shift forks inside the transmissions, but wasn't smart enough to pull apart to see.  One of my mentors "made me" buy a decent shifter along with the next transmission, problem solved!!!  Was a Hurst from Honest Charlie's ($49 as I remember correctly).  Those were GOOD OLD DAYS!!!!!😊

DJ

ps: last 3-on-the-tree  was a 1964 A100 Dodge Pickup (the little cabover model) 225 cubic inch 6, and 4.10 rear end gears....  went NOWHERE in a hurry, but would pull just about anything you hooked it up to.

 

Did much the same thing only with a '57 Ford Custom, the base model with a back seat, 312 and 3 speed with the O/D. The Hurst Shifter even came with a decal that I put on the ash tray cover "Shift as hard as you want but don't break your arm". Drove it like I stole it and never had to even readjust the shift linkage.