[AT] OT I'm getting older are you?

[Ron Cook]

Something pretty strange about that thing.   I have lots of experience 
with two-speed axles in GM trucks.   Both vacuum shift and electric 
shift.  One of each are still on the farm.  A '56 and a '59.
I learned the two-speed in our 51 Chevy and 52 International and  I 
don't recall any of them getting in neutral with the engine off.  Too 
cold to complete a shift, YES!  Bad news when climbing a hill.  Because 
of that, we usually parked them in high in cold weather.  Maybe you had 
a different brand, or maybe we just didn't know they could slip into a 
neutral position unattended.  I am a flat-lander, if that makes any 
difference. ;-)
    My Dad's 51 Buick and my 36 Chevy both had the footfeed starter.  
Once started, the vacuum kept the footfeed from engaging the starter 
function.

Ron Cook
Salix, IA

Chuck Bealke wrote:
> On 1/28/2010 4:57 PM, Gene Dotson wrote:
>   
>>      Our Dad's 1949 Packard used a vacuum override for the starter switch on
>> the accererator pedal. When the engine started the engine vacuum disabled
>> the starter. Buick may have had the same system.
>>    
>>     
> Gene,
>
> This reminds me of another vacuum operated feature that might never pass 
> safety rules today.  Starting at about 14, I occasionally drove a long 
> '53 GMC 1 1/2 ton truck with a grain bed, sometimes topped by a cattle 
> rack.  It had a two-speed axle, which I think was vacuum actuated.  The 
> farmer I worked for, who owned the truck, gave me a serious instruction. 
> He warned me that if I left the axle in high speed and parked it in gear 
> facing up a slope without remembering to put the brake on, it would 
> eventually lose connection to the engine and start rolling backwards.  
> He had done it once to some kind of ill effect.  My rule was to ALWAYS 
> set the axle to low speed before parking and leaving it.  That way, if I 
> forgot to put the brake on, nothing would get bent.  Vacuum operated 
> windshield wipers were not so comforting either - 'specially when you 
> were climbing a long grade on long winding road with oncoming traffic.
>
> Chuck Bealke
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