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.