Column gear changes

[Greybeard]

I once had an ancient split screen Bedford CA Dormobile with a knackered colum gear change. The mechanicals were basically the same as the British Vauxhall Victor. The Bedford had a four speed gearbox. I was able to adjust the linkages to give me 1st, 3rd and 4th, or 2nd 3rd and 4th. The engine was not strong enough to pull away on any slight slope in second so I had to have 1st, 3rd and 4th. 1st gear was extremely highly geared, due no doubt to the gutless engine, so pulling away in first, by the time you were travelling fast enough to engage third, say 20mph, the valves were practically bouncing! Then when third was selected the engine revs dropped to almost tick-over and the vehicle struggled to gain road speed. This was amusing for a short while 😕

[RDfella]

Ah, the dreaded CA van. Nasty things - but then again the Ford Thames had its problems as well.
Remember once coming up to a T junction (with traffic man controlling the junction) when he put up his hand to stop. Being an obedient fellow I hit the brakes and the van stopped. The driver's door - locked in open position - didn't and shot forward, came off its runners and slid up the road towards the officer. Being an environmentally friendly sort of fellow I didn't want to leave it there, so hopped out, picked up the door and threw it in the back of the van. Just in time to be waved on. Traffic cop wasn't bothered at all - unlike these days. Mind, coming off was a fairly regular occurrence for CA doors.

[Sav]

My dad had a Bedford Doormobile when he ran the local shop, it had the long bench seats either side in the back.

I remember doing a family outing to Sarfend-on-mud fully loaded. Things were fine until a stupid child ran out from between cars and gave dad no chance. She was not hurt much but the injuries in the van gradually got worse to those sitting at the front on the bench seats who got progressively more squashed by the sequence of flying bodies behind them.

Didn't have seatbelts in them days!

[Rex]

It's about time for a re-emergence of column change. I had it in an FB Victor, a 101 and a 1954 Minx and I thought it was so cool at the time, but then I was still a teenager with girlfriend.
You could also fit three in the front and another four in the back for the nights when you were the driver..

[Greybeard]

The Ford Consul I owned had a column gear lever which allowed for a full width bench seat in the front, wide enough for three adults.

[Topdad]

I did an engine rebuild on one back in the 60's when stripped the bores had a massive wear ridge ,owner being a cheapskate wouldn't consider a bore so we used new rings and an "oil control ring,the motor was so tight when we put it back together that to get it running we took the plugs out and I towed it in gear round a bloody big carpark eventually it started ,smoke gone and very quiet(??)  owner was delighted  and it ran well until the body nearly rusted of it ,but never,never worked on another one !
 

[groily]

A lot of European stuff stuck with column change for quite a while - I remember an ID19 Citroën (Slough built and horribly unreliable not to mention a super-fast built-in rot factor), a mid-60s Audi 80 (good car and super-economical 1700cc alloy engine), and some sort of Opel that passed through my old man's hands when I was a youth - all with column change. Can't say I liked driving any of them a whole lot, so don't think I'd want to see them make a return myself.
Perversely, a lot of modern Mercedes with auto 'boxes stick the shifter on the column too, but no useful space gain between the seats in this age of gizmos galore of course, just a risk of confusion when you 'switch the wipers on' with the right stalk - and try to go into reverse at speed! DAMHIK (- but luckily, they won't go there ). I assume Mercedes foolishly imagine none of their customers ever drives any other marque  . . .

[Greybeard]

Mercedes

That reminds me; I just read that Mercedes are copying BMW in offering additional features in exchange for a subscription.

Mercedes-Benz to introduce acceleration subscription fee.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63743597

If you take this idea to extremes I can imagine buying your new car but it will not go anywhere until you take out a driving subscription.

[groily]

[quote author=Greybeard link=topic=17675.msg152263#msg152263 date=166974049
If you take this idea to extremes I can imagine buying your new car but it will not go anywhere until you take out a driving subscription.
[/quote]
And until you've passed the on-board drink and drugs test, done an eyesight and hearing test, proved you're not too fat or thin for your seatbelt, loaded your 'medically-fit-to-drive app' to the all-seeing Off-board Comptroller, etc etc ad nauseam. Only then will you be allowed to proceed at a pre-determined and externally-controlled speed, on certain days only mind, and be charged by the mile for the pleasure GB.
I jest not. They do it because they can.
Glad am I to have lived, like most of us here, in more enlightened pre-surveillance times.
Ironically, it makes more and more sense to use classic machinery as daily transport frankly - which I try to do  for as long as THAT doesn't attract the evil eye of the self-appointed  ****wits who have seized control of the lives of us all. All it takes is for good men (including women of course) to do nothing  . . . and look where it's getting us. I am as guilty as charged as the next person - wish I had the cojones to tell them where to stick it  . . . .

[Kickaha]

Nissan D21 Utes were using 5 speed column change until the early nineties, I had an HT Holden ute 3 speed column change which continually jammed between 1st to 2nd or 2nd to third, stripped all the linkages to the gearbox out, welded up and redrilled the holes round, built up the shafts so they were round again and fitted new bushes and that was the end of the problems, after doing that anyone who drove it reckoned it was the best shifting Holden they'd driven

[ellis]

Drove a CA for a very young rock band in the sixties. Going from west to east over the Pennines was very interesting with a three speed box.
No Motorways or satnavs in them days. 

ELLIS 

[Black Sheep]

Took my driving test in an Austin A55 Cambridge with a column shift. Later had a Renault 4 with a gearshift sticking out of the dashboard. All splendidly quirky.

[Greybeard]

Renault 4 with a gearshift sticking out of the dashboard. All splendidly quirky.

I enjoyed the R4; it was an eccentric vehicle but very nice to drive.

To make the car front wheel drive Renault turned the engine and gearbox through 180° so the gearbox was at the front. The original gear lever stuck up in front of the radiator. The gear change rod went through the dashboard and passed above the engine;  it had cranked sections at each end; above the gearbox the cranked section had a rubber grommet that went over the gear stick; inside the car a plastic knob was fitted for the driver. First time you lifted the bonnet you just had to laugh!  😀

[groily]

Still LOADS of them on the road over here GB. Much loved and still perfectly practicable on all bar autoroutes maybe. The boss had one when I first knew her, so got to know the way around them quite well.
(I have a cyl head and water pump off one lying in a dark corner if anyone wants a freebie  . . . as if!)

[Greybeard]

Still LOADS of them on the road over here GB. Much loved and still perfectly practicable on all bar autoroutes maybe.

I also loved the even more excentric Citroën 2CV.