50s/60s push button automatics

Provience

Provience

Kill!
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
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Gatesville, TX
How do they do the things they do :confused:

Back before the government decided it was illegal to have push button transmission, anyways.

Seems more fun than a column shift, but I understand how the lever arm or cable works for a stick
 
I worked at an papermill at one point
they had old abandoned control rooms that looked like they were strait out of the cold war full of those controls

I have wondered the same thing
I'm interested how this thread goes
 
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Provience said:
How do they do the things they do :confused:

Back before the government decided it was illegal to have push button transmission, anyways.

Seems more fun than a column shift, but I understand how the lever arm or cable works for a stick
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Government = we're so ****ing stupid and pathetic that buttons are scary but a knob isn't scary

I'd guess they work off of vacuum somehow
 
Ksand said:
Government = we're so ****ing stupid and pathetic that buttons are scary but a knob isn't scary

I'd guess they work off of vacuum somehow
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It's like ot was a trial run for getting the key off the dash :shaking: stupid interlock trash


I could see vacuum, guess I don't know much about vacuum. I'm assuming the transmission end is the same and it needs throw for the range. Not sure how vacuum does anything other than all on or all off :laughing:
 
now that I think about it
my family had a commercial boat at one time, as a kid I remember that the gear was pneumatic
and if you did not hit the gears in order, it wouldn't happen
example, to go from forward to reverse F-N-R and R-N-F in that order
....and if something crazy happened and you needed to go quick and think that you are going to be able to go F-R it just wasn't going to happen :laughing:

that was when I was a kid, it was all converted to fly-by-wire after that and it fixed that problem
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
now that I think about it
my family had a commercial boat at one time, as a kid I remember that the gear was pneumatic
and if you did not hit the gears in order, it wouldn't happen
example, to go from forward to reverse F-N-R and R-N-F in that order
....and if something crazy happened and you needed to go quick and think that you are going to be able to go F-R it just wasn't going to happen :laughing:

that was when I was a kid, it was all converted to fly-by-wire after that and it fixed that problem
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Safety feature, not a flaw to hit N first :laughing:

My old benzo had vacuum door locks, they were neat when they worked. Pneumatic stuff is entertaining
 
Corvair powerglides had a push-button shift. The buttons moved levers connected to cables, that's how the shifting worked, not vacuum. There was no "P," only "RNDL."

These were banned as part of an effort to standardize transmission shifter patterns for safety.
 
Provience said:
How do they do the things they do :confused:

Back before the government decided it was illegal to have push button transmission, anyways.

Seems more fun than a column shift, but I understand how the lever arm or cable works for a stick
Click to expand...
When I was growing up my dad had a 1956 DeSoto with a pushbutton auto. The pushbutton mechanism mechanically operated the automatic transmission via cables, eliminating traditional column and console mounted shifters

s-l1600 (1).jpg
 
SanDiegoCJ said:
When I was growing up my dad had a 1956 DeSoto with a pushbutton auto. The pushbutton mechanism mechanically operated the automatic transmission via cables, eliminating traditional column and console mounted shifters

s-l1600 (1).jpg
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Early '60s Chrysler stuff was the same - a kid I went to HS with had a '63-ish Dart with a . . . ~AM radio selector to tell the slushbox what gear to slip in :laughing:
 
I used to borrow a friend's 61 or 2 Plymouth Fury with pushbuttons on the dash for the automatic transmission. It worked fine , magic like magnets I guess. Dodge had a cool dash mounted lever shifter in the 60s too.
006-torqueflite-shifter-buttons.jpg
 
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The only good Automatic is one in the dust bin of history. I'm kidding, I'm just not a fan of any automatic. Give those gears to row through.
 
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subybaja said:
My grandfather was an automotive engineer. He loved pneumatics, and spent his retirement designing a diesel outboard that used no electricity. Starter, injectors, everything was pneumatic.
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For years, I wanted to build a vehicle with no need for electricity: mechanically injected diesel w/ York compressor, redundant air tanks & pneumatic starter, possibly w/ a wind-up backup starter.

Neat in theory, but the chances of me doing that get slimmer by the day - I think I'm over that romance :laughing:
 
ExWrench said:
For years, I wanted to build a vehicle with no need for electricity: mechanically injected diesel w/ York compressor, redundant air tanks & pneumatic starter, possibly w/ a wind-up backup starter.

Neat in theory, but the chances of me doing that get slimmer by the day - I think I'm over that romance :laughing:
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You mean a centrifugal starter-- that's cool the Germans during WWII loved them used on the Planes , the Tanks and even some of the other heavy equipment. But if you want that setup may I suggest a Mack M45SXwith Detroit Diesel 16V71 has your air starter and completely non-electric setup. But it is a little big. But it has a crappy Allison in it. I would prefer an Eaton Fuller 8LL.
 
Coffman starter is best starter.

I can't remember the rest of the Edsel details. Cold war motors resurrected one on the YouTube's. That's where I saw the column. The buttons were stationary in the center of the steering wheel.
 
ExWrench said:
For years, I wanted to build a vehicle with no need for electricity: mechanically injected diesel w/ York compressor, redundant air tanks & pneumatic starter, possibly w/ a wind-up backup starter.

Neat in theory, but the chances of me doing that get slimmer by the day - I think I'm over that romance :laughing:
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There's some lawnmower recoil starter out there that winds up a clockspring with each pull, then spins the engine when it gets tight enough. I'd love one on my truck.

I learned to drive on a 64 Series II Land Rover, and one summer we were too broke to replace the starter. I did a lot of this on it's anemic little 4cyl:
NZBY2IShrfa0MV9oA-Mw4GKGE2YQIkkDCYAvDg7HE&usqp=CAU.jpg

Probably wouldn't work so well on a 5.8l.
 
I had a Sunday school teacher that had an old Mercury Monteray with one, then she had a 383 Charger, a 68 or so, then an Alfa Romero GTV. Her husband had a 67 427 Corvette, and they both had R90 or R75 touring bikes. He also had the first 900 Kawasaki I'd ever seen.
 
FelixstoweF.2 said:
You mean a centrifugal starter--
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I've not heard of what "I mean" referred to as a centrifugal starter :confused:

I'm talking about pneumatic starters that were used in OTR truck diesels 'til the '90s.

Large air vane motor + gear reduction + drive components found in an electric starter motor.

Here's the first decent cutaway view I found of the animal in question:

1709948702223.png


Sounds about like a badass impact wrench without the ugga-dugga noises

 
subybaja said:
There's some lawnmower recoil starter out there that winds up a clockspring with each pull, then spins the engine when it gets tight enough. I'd love one on my truck.

I learned to drive on a 64 Series II Land Rover, and one summer we were too broke to replace the starter. I did a lot of this on it's anemic little 4cyl:
NZBY2IShrfa0MV9oA-Mw4GKGE2YQIkkDCYAvDg7HE&usqp=CAU.jpg

Probably wouldn't work so well on a 5.8l.
Click to expand...




I forgot about those
 
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