Quote:
Originally Posted by last fairlane
How many mistakes in one post as I recall
for a start it was 1957 and Ford 7a Customline had a 'Fordomatic" 3 speed
(where do you think we got the "FMX" name from) Chrysler had a manual overdrive you could also get a Standard 10 ( think Triumph) with push button clutch on top of the gear stick
Holden got 3 I repeat 3 speed auto in 1961 with the EK and then 2 speed with the HD/HR and back to 3 speed in the HK but not the V8s they were 2 speed I had the pleasure of winding out a brand new HK Premier 307 "5 Litre " to 75 MPH in first gear but still couldnt get away from a BMW 2002
Zephyr had BW 35 in 1961 along with Wolsely and Austin Freeway and Mk 2 Jags
Falcons on debut were 2 speed air cooled transmissions they werent conected to the radiator and dont forget Valiants had auto from 1962 push button "Torque flite" 3 speed
thats my recollections thanks John
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Thanks for your thoughts, John. Being ex-Canadian I never liked GM products and always plumped for Fords. But both marques could have good designs with crappy executions. My then-new '59 Mark II Zephyr had a Borg Warner 'DG' (Detroit Gear) 3-speed auto that was used by some British makes, with cooling through the radiator and a full-time lock-up torque converter in top gear as there was no 2nd-gear hold! I think the Zephyrs got the '35' in '62.
What was crap about Ford using the DG was there was no lockout between R and L. Great for rockin' her out of a mud puddle, but imagine you are hanging it around hairpin uphill bends at 20 mph in Low (held). You swing your hands hard left and you brush the shift lever. Bang! It goes into Reverse and you come to an embarrassing halt in a cloud of burning rubber! One of the reasons I tried to put a big gap between me and following traffic...
When I bitched to the dealer he told me, "Sorry, mate but Ford takes the rear auto pump out of these when they come here because they disintegrate and churn aluminium through the transmission!"
The rear pump protected the transmission and threw it into Neutral down to walking pace if something silly like a reverse-slip happened. It also allowed push-starts when the battery was flat (so THAT's why that hadn't worked when I'd left the parkers on over a weekend). Nice of them to tell me this after I'd experienced both issues with no rear pump!
No such problems with my 1960 XK auto (just a poorly-fitting grommet on the base of the stiff gearshift, and whose gear dial was not lit up at night either, making shifting bloody awkward!) - oh, the brakes were damn small too. I traded one in on the other, but have to say the 2-speed Fordomatic was no handicap for the XK on the road and having taken down times their accelerations up to 70 mph were absolutely identical give or take a tenth (because the XK was lighter and its Low wound out to 47 mph), as were their top speeds of 87 mph.
John