Ranger

That's what I learned to drive with.

 

And it's a GM transmission shared between the 2 companies making it even worse!

 

I still remember my Dad telling me how to position my hand to drive.

 

Would love to drive one of those...

Thats when trannys were non syncronized as well right?

 

I drove my Dad's 75 Ford Van and a little Cushman if you know what one of those were. Actually pretty fun to drive once you get the feel of it.

 

That Cushman was something like this, have no idea what engine it had but it was a 3 on the tree.

 

Cool looking machine! Never seen one before. Is that guy street legal?

 

Good question, my Stepdad was a security guy at a Community College back in the early 1980's and worked the nightshift so l would go with him sometimes and drive that all over the place.

 

Cool! I loved driving with my dad when i was a kid, really fun times.

Also kind of looks like something a landscaping/maintenance company would use for large properties. Cant believe its a manual!

 

I think they sold those things to all sorts of different industries as they would have been quiet useful. Yeah being a 15 or 16 year old in the middle of the night alone in giant parking lots over acres of land was a real blast with that thing, no idea if they still make them today but if the do they are probably all AT.

 

They do, though admittedly you see less and less of them. That's pretty much the first market that the electrics got a foothold and dominated.

 

Thank you sir! Yeah, I loved that van ... My wife used to call it 'The Hippy Van' ... LOL! I actually had that until about 94' ...
It had the Dodge Slant-Six in it, which were pretty bullet-proof ( Although under-powered) but I did get almost 300K out of it.
It finally spun a connecting rod bearing and that was it. I was seriously considering putting in a re-mfg engine, but like all vans, getting to the engine was a massive PITA. There was two ways to go.. Out the bottom, which unless it was on a lift, wasn't gonna happen ... Or take everything apart and use a cherry-picker to take it out the side door. Doable but still a massive pain. I thought about it for a looooong time, but the wife just finally talked me into 'Let's just buy a new van' .. So we did. I still regret getting rid of it.
I took that from being a used 'Telephone Company' van, which I especially wanted as it had doors on both sides (ULTRA rare for 1966) to what it was, and spent countless hours/day/weeks working on it. Oh well ....

 

You do have an excellent point... My 66' van was 3-on-the-tree ... Hey 1st gear got ya going .. Everything else was icing on the cake.. Had many 4-speed MT's ... FOUR gears! Extra bonus! LOL!! ... The first rig I had with a 5-speed was a 68' Toyota Corona and I thought .. 'Man ... We're living in The Space Age now!' LOL!!

 

This happend to my 2.0L turbo VW GTI. It was fun at the lights when I loved laying down the blue smoke screen...all the way to work. 22 miles of it.

 

I wouldn't doubt that for a second. Otherwise there would be absolutely no need for a 10-speed tranny.
I had a 66' Covair once with the 2-speed 'Power-glide' trans. I'm sure it was anything other than efficient, as nobody cared about getting an extra 2 mpg to meet EPA 'guidelines' etc. (Or 'smog' back then) .. But I tall ya ... You couldn't break that tranny no matter HOW hard you might have tried..

 

holy shit this thread is boomer as fuck

 

LOL! Yeeeeeah buddy!!! LOL!
I had to drive a neighbors ... VERY early 50's F-100 once. And I was just cutting my teeth on the whole 'MT' thing...
This was back when non-syncro'd trannies were the norm. I had to learn quickly about 'Double-Clutching' ... My 14 year-old self said 'Well, if I can drive this.. I can drive anything!' .. LOL!

 

We apologize if we're offending yer Man Bun ....

 

We apologize if we're offending yer Man Bun ....