gear shift trick

S

Still Runnin'

Junior Member
My 85 yr old Uncle told me a story about his courting days in a model A.

He said if you lift up on the stick, you can turn it towards the firewall, to make more room for you and your date....while you are parked.

You model A experts here probably knew this, but it was news to me.
 
Gotta wonder who, why and how the first guy to do that found it.:eek: (Assuming it is so) And whether Henry designed it so.:rolleyes:
 
Yes its true , there was a thread about it some time ago , and I tried it . It does work , though now days I don't really have a cause to use it .
 
Yes it does work, could have been handy when I was a young man. Took a pretty young Blonde girl to the Drive In theatre in my new small two door Toyota Corolla. I asked her if she would like to get in to the back seat for more comfort. She declined, she said she would rather sit in the front seat with me. :cool: True story, not just another Blonde joke. :mad:
 
Still Runnin'
I started that thread a while back. My father-in-law told me about the "dating stick" many years ago, before I got my "A". I tried it and it worked. Some of the older folks on this site had never heard of it. Seems like it was a lesson for all.
Marty
 
I read somewhere that if you pull up and rotate the shifter around next to the brake handle you can lock them together for added security (can't shift it or release parking brake). I think there was an accessory lock for this purpose.
 
Y-Blockhead said:
I read somewhere that if you pull up and rotate the shifter around next to the brake handle you can lock them together for added security (can't shift it or release parking brake). I think there was an accessory lock for this purpose.
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One guy taped a car flare to an OOOOLD ALARM CLOCK, wound some squirrely wires around it & just sets it on his front seat:eek::D:D:D:D:D He said he only spent 5 minutes, makin' it up:rolleyes:---Chief wuz right, we're ALL CHILDREN, in OOOOLD SKINS:)
Bill W.
 
Not a Model A story, but maybe fits this thread: I got lost looking for my cousin's farm just east of Calgary after a heavy night at the Stampede. Ended up sleeping in the back seat of an Austin Mini, not to be recommended when you are 6' 4" and over 200lb!
 
ian Simpson said:
Not a Model A story, but maybe fits this thread: I got lost looking for my cousin's farm just east of Calgary after a heavy night at the Stampede. Ended up sleeping in the back seat of an Austin Mini, not to be recommended when you are 6' 4" and over 200lb!
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Like @ Pismo Beach, flipping a coin with Gary, to see got the "big" front seat in my '46 Ford Convertible:D---The back seat was this l-l big!!!
Bill W.
 
Don't know of Henry designed it that way but it's been known about by some for a long time as I was told about it by my grandfather, some 48 years ago. I was only 8 years old and he was teaching me how to drive an old "A"in the fields behind his house. Still remember some things like "hang the key on the gas valve so when you grab it to go you'll remember to turn the gas on" Or spark and gas levers "up" to start it "up" And "remember this trick with the gear shift lever" you might need it some day when you get older :-)
 
There's also the possibility the lever was so designed to make it easier for the driver to exit and enter from the passenger side. In the early days of narrow streets and .parallel parking, opening a driver's door could be dangerous. Many cars only had an external lock on the passenger door. You locked the driver's door from the inside, then slid out and locked the passenger door with the key. Plus, many Model T's did not even have a door on the driver's side. So when one traded up to an A, they naturally slid out the passenger side, but now a shift lever was in the way. Ergo, the lift and turn feature!
 
I first leaned this when I was a kid. Pop showed it to me on his doodlebug. I've done it on a number of Model As just showing new owners this little bit of trivia.

I'm not convinced this had any practical purpose, but may just be a novel accident of design. I can't believe it was for comfort. Admittedly here in New England with our hills and curves you are never in high-gear long enough to make it worth while, but all the times I have done this (on several cars), I've had to stoop over the shifter and pull the thing up with both hands. I can't imaging doing it while driving just to snuggle a few inches closer.

Ken
 
It's not a good practice to pull the gearshift up to disengage its trunnion pin because if raised too high, the lever will come out of the shift forks and may not go back in. This has happened to some Model A'ers I know.
 
40 Deluxe said:
There's also the possibility the lever was so designed to make it easier for the driver to exit and enter from the passenger side. In the early days of narrow streets and .parallel parking, opening a driver's door could be dangerous. Many cars only had an external lock on the passenger door. You locked the driver's door from the inside, then slid out and locked the passenger door with the key. Plus, many Model T's did not even have a door on the driver's side. So when one traded up to an A, they naturally slid out the passenger side, but now a shift lever was in the way. Ergo, the lift and turn feature!
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This is the reason given to me by my father. It was common to exit on the curb side of the vehicle and moving the shifter out of the way made it easy. It wasn't so much the narrow streets but the mud and 'stuff'. Street conditions are not like today. (Refer to video posted elsewhere on the forum)
 
Strangely enough, Chief NEVER showed me that feature. I'd be concerned that if you did it TOO much, the spring clip "might" go ASTRAY, or BREAK!!! "maybe" that's why the pin slot is worn a lot, on some cars??
Bill W.
 
I learned the gear shift lever trick back about 1964. I was driving down a city street with one of my Model A buddies in the passenger seat. As we came up to a stop sign he pulled the lever out and turned it. I had no idea what to do, and I was mad at him for messing with my "A", it was my only transportation.
 
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