Car transmissions - Standard or automatic?

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Profile celttooth
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Message 1556867 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 18:34:17 UTC

On the east coast they call the turnpike
in Massachusetts the "Mass Pike".
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Message 1556959 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 21:01:17 UTC

I learned to drive on a 1967 Ford LTD with a foot switch for the high beams. The family also had an early 60s Vauxhall (sp?) with some very strange switches (by local standards anyway). I recall a momentary push button on the dash that turned on the brake lights without applying the brakes. Can any of you Brits tell me what that was all about?

Non-engineers can skip this part: It took until well into the 1970s for relays to become cheap enough and reliable enough to put things like dimmer switches on a "stalk", as we call them in North America. The foot switch on the LTD was a massive lump of iron that had the whole headlight current pass through it, using really big cables. If you tried to put all that anywhere on the steering column you might not have been able to see out the windshield.

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Message 1556960 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 21:03:04 UTC
Last modified: 14 Aug 2014, 21:04:50 UTC

I agree with David. What we call a fender on a car is, I believe, called a wing in the UK.

On boats, however, a fender is a bumper, something hung over the side of the boat to keep the dock from scratching your paintwork.

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Message 1556980 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 21:29:55 UTC - in response to Message 1556727.  

All this talk about foot brakes vs. hand brakes, reminds me of the bright light controls operated by the foot on a Chevy Malibu my parents had in the 70's. I thought that was pretty neat. :~)


My 1973 Cougar XR-7 also had the brights' control on the floor. ...and, the parking brake was also foot set; no hand brake.
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Message 1556982 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 21:31:07 UTC

Fender amp'.......
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Message 1557027 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 22:36:42 UTC

It was cute...last night my Dodge Grand Caravan beat a Camaro on a full stop at a Red light.

I was so proud *sniff*


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Message 1557031 - Posted: 14 Aug 2014, 22:51:17 UTC - in response to Message 1556761.  

A lot of things were foot operated in the past. My first car a Morris 8, had a foot operated headlight dip switch, that swivelled the light reflector!(dip & cut). Also it had trafficators (direction indicators) where the damn solenoid always stuck, and you had to thump the side of the car!

UK - USA

Hand brake - parking brake
Footbrake - service brake
Bonnet - hood
Boot - trunk
Hubcap - nave plate
Bumper - fender
Motorway - freeway
Saloon - sedan
Shooting brake - station wagon

Parking brakes can be foot operated (as in my wife's car) or hand operated (my previous car) or electrically operated (my current car) or foot applied and hand released (couple of old vehicles I have driven). Hand operated can be either on the center console, or under the dash. Foot operated is the farthest left pedal (left of the clutch).


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Message 1557086 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 1:00:29 UTC

Our '48 Chevy had good indicators, on the panel

For example: "Battery level" (not on any cars, I've seen, today)

Also, it had manual choke and throttle knobs. Great guys to pull out, on a cold-
weather start.

My only disappointment, is that there is no real room, on the front of the
car, for full-sized auburn lights. They would be used (again, on our Chevy)
during a bad snow-storm/blizzard; esp., at night. The regular headlights
would be turned out. And . . . the road, ahead, appeared, as if by magic.

My N. Dak. driving experiences were a factor in buying the Focus, with
an "Auburn Gold" color. Easily seen in any road conditions -- including,
in a parking lot.
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Message 1557107 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 1:59:01 UTC - in response to Message 1552137.  

Learned to drive a stick shift. Prefer automatic now.
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Message 1557133 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 3:24:37 UTC - in response to Message 1556959.  

I recall a momentary push button on the dash that turned on the brake lights without applying the brakes. Can any of you Brits tell me what that was all about?



That brake light button sounds pretty spiffy. :~)
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Message 1557283 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 12:22:11 UTC - in response to Message 1557235.  

It might have been something like that Chris. There was no label (or the label had fallen off), and the only visible result of pushing the button was the brake lights coming on. The machine was 4th or 5th hand, and the manual was long gone by the time I got my hands on it.

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Message 1557333 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 15:07:00 UTC

Here's one, out of the past. When I was a kid, a bunch of teen-agers
wheeled by in a jalopy; it was jammed-full of them, and a rumble-seat,
in the back, was opened to accommodate the overflow. A raccoon-tail
had been attached to the antenna, as well -- right out of a classic photo
(Again, this was in the 40's.).

Of course, it had running-boards, but don't recall anyone standing on them.
Amazing, the cops didn't catch them (at least, on that block).
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Message 1557345 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 15:44:21 UTC - in response to Message 1557339.  

A raccoon-tail had been attached to the antenna, as well

Way back in 1965 Esso had an ad campaign for "put a tiger in your tank", and gave out free tigers tails. All us young lads had one on our aerials. Of course they were just cloth, not real ones.

Running boards, ah that was in the days when we had REAL cars :-)) My Morris 8 had them!

You can still have running boards.

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Message 1557444 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 18:25:02 UTC

My parents' 77 Vega had the dimmer switch on the floor, as did my 78 Monza (same car, but Pontiac). The 79 Monte Carlo and Malibu both had it on the stalk: pull back on the turn signal arm, pull again to dim. Same on my Jeep and van. When I test drove the Trailblazer, I thought it was broken because pulling only caused the lights to go bright for as long as I pulled. The dealer told me to push it; it stays pushed until I pull it back for dim. One of my recent loaners had yet another variation on this: push and it would go bright, but it would also snap back to the normal position. Either push again or pull to go dim.

Foot-operated parking brakes are usually all the way to the left and closer to the driver than the other pedals, so they aren't easy to push unintentionally. They always have a hand release in my experience. Both of the 79s, and the 69 Buick, had them, and all also had cable rust and/or stretch.

Agree with the definition of boat fenders.

The Trailblazer (and the recent loaners) has a voltmeter with actual numbers on it. Like all the gauges, it drops to nothing when the ignition is off.
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Message 1557447 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 18:27:13 UTC - in response to Message 1557283.  

That button sounds like a good idea. When I get tailgated
by other drivers, before I pull off the road I try to warn
the offending idiot by turning on my four way flashers
for a sec'......
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Message 1557489 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 19:36:45 UTC - in response to Message 1557447.  

That button sounds like a good idea. When I get tailgated
by other drivers, before I pull off the road I try to warn
the offending idiot by turning on my four way flashers
for a sec'......

On most cars, if the switch is adjusted properly, the brake lights come on just before the brakes actually start to engage. So lightly depressing the brake pedal should allow you to flash the offender without actually applying the brakes.
"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

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Message 1557507 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 20:34:43 UTC - in response to Message 1557339.  


Way back in 1965 Esso had an ad campaign for "put a tiger in your tank", and gave out free tigers tails. All us young lads had one on our aerials. Of course they were just cloth, not real ones.


They made a brief come back over here in the mid 1980s, and were sold as "Crushed Kitties". I remember the chief inspector where I worked took a very dim view of the one we added to the back door of a helicopter.

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Message 1557535 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 21:45:48 UTC

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.
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Message 1557549 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 22:14:41 UTC - in response to Message 1557535.  

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

I would guess its for those days you get stuck in your driveway when it has snowed 20" and you spin the tires going back and forth trying to get out.
My KIA forte with an auto Tran. has traction control which I usualy leave on. But when Im stuck that thing wont let you go over a certain RPM. Thats when I turn it off and look at my TAC. Some times traction control will keep you from getting unstuck.
[/quote]

Old James
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Message 1557576 - Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 23:03:25 UTC - in response to Message 1557535.  

One of my pet peeves in regard to instrument clusters is the tachometer. First of all, why would anyone with an Automatic need the RPM's prominently displayed? There are so many other good things that could go there, or just expand the view of the speedometer! My mother's Automatic 2002 Camry wastes 50% of the cluster space with that silly tach.

Secondly, even those of us with a Manual, don't need a big tachometer taking up space. We drive by feel, not by looking at those RPM's. ~At least I don't. My Saturn also has a little Upshift light that comes on if I'm running at too high a speed in a gear. That little light doesn't bother me; it's just the big tachometer that I don't like.

I do look at the tachometer from time to time but one place where it is very useful is when you are using engine braking on a long down hill grade. Often high gear will not provide sufficient braking so you keep downshifting till you find a gear that will hold. On the motor home this was a real problem because it had an automatic transmission and anything over 2500RPMs could end the life of the engine. The weight resulted in a fine balancing act where you didn't take all day to get down the hill but you didn't damage the drivetrain or overheat the brakes.
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Message boards : Cafe SETI : Car transmissions - Standard or automatic?


 
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