Swing away shifter

mccsix

mccsix

Senior Member
At 86 I'm on my 3rd A. Super happy with all of them only question I have is about the ******, My current '28 the shifter cannot be pulled up and moved out of the way. It is Feb '28 build would that make the diff?
 
Chuck Dempsey said:
I'm a bit confused... What exactly is meant by 'pulled up and moved out of the way'?

Thanks
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Model A shift levers do swing away by lifting up on the lever and then turning it in one direction or the other. Not an obvious feature. To return just swing it back in position to shift and it will drop back in the shifter forks.
 
My father-in-law told me about this feature long before I had a model A. He said they called it a "dating stick."
Marty
 
First I've heard of this feature, too.

Question....Do you swing away the shift lever while driving, or is this just a feature to be used while parked?

eog
 
I've never seen anything saying this was a 'feature'as such.It's just a design of holding the shift lever that happens to let you pull it up and swing it.Has anybody ever seen any documentation saying this was an intended action from Ford?Years ago somebody tried to do some research on it,and the best he came up with were some dealer ads talking about the feature.But,those were dealer written not from Ford.
 
woofa.express said:
To move your girl closer. Why would you think. Every young bloke knows that.
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Back in early high school I had a Fait spider, I rigged the shift lever with a quick disconnect so I could quickly remove it out of the way...for that exact reason...Oh those were the days
 
I have heard this story for at least 35 years. I also had a very well-known Model A guy tell me he tried it and the gears slid out of position and he could not re-engage the shifter. He had to call AAA to get the car home. Had to pull the floorboards and the tower to get it working again.

Tom Endy
 
My dad had a Ford with a column shift,I can't remember what year it was but it had a flathead in it.He drove the roll pin out of the lever and flipped the lever over to the left side,and drove the pin back in.That car jumped out of second unless you held the lever up.With the lever on the opposite side second was down,and the weight of it pretty much let it stay in gear without holding onto it.I remember him telling people it made it easier for him to reach around and slap us kids.
 
The real reason (so I've heard) was so that when parking the car, the driver could get the shifter out of the way and slide over to the other side and exit and enter the car through the passenger door. Apparently that's why the passenger door has the lock on it. People didn't have to use the drive's door in traffic. Personally, I find it hard to do with the Tudor seats. Maybe better with the bench seat.
 
I can't do a video, but can do photos. First photo in normal position. second photo partially swung. third photo all the over to the tank. Pull up on your shifter and just swing it. Swing it back and it should drop right back into your shifter forks, but as Tom says, maybe not. It works on our car, but can't speak for your car.

When i bought my first Model A in the early 1980's, my dad played a trick on me. He pulled the shifter and swing it over when I wasn't looking. I got in the car later and had a WTF moment, then pulled it back and it did reengage and shift OK. We both had a good laugh.
So is this an intentional Ford feature? Beats me.
And no. Do not try this when your car is running or in motion. Parking only.
 

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Bill G said:
The real reason (so I've heard) was so that when parking the car, the driver could get the shifter out of the way and slide over to the other side and exit and enter the car through the passenger door. Apparently that's why the passenger door has the lock on it. People didn't have to use the drive's door in traffic. Personally, I find it hard to do with the Tudor seats. Maybe better with the bench seat.
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It does seem like there should be a logical reason for this swing away gear shift lever.

Since many of the Model T's didn't have a functioning driver side door, it would make sense that getting out on the passenger side would be a natural manufacturing consideration for the Model A. It may not make much sense nowadays, but, I can imagine it very well could have made perfect sense in 1928!

eog
 
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