Ever sheared off a bleed nipple?

[Zelandeth]

Only manual column change I can remember driving was in a Bedford (CA?) van which had a three speeder. First time I'd driven one, exiting the bus station in Dundee and trying to keep up with my mate who knew where he was going - was an experience!

Catastrophically uncomfortable thing...think I spent most of the trip with my right foot on the door step and my left foot on the throttle once we were out of town...

Edit...was about to click submit when I remembered that the Trabant uses a column change too doesn't it? If so that's two cars I've driven with one.

[daviemck2006]

We had a D plate Bedford Midi 8 seater for the boats car which had a column change. I think it was an Isuzu something with Bedford badges on it. It was an unreliable, uncomfortable piece of junk which fell to bits, literally, and was scrapped at 6 years old

[CitroJim]

Best column change (and bench seat) I experienced was French.. In a Renault 16 TS...

That was a 100% lovely car...

One that left a lasting impression on me given it was getting on for 35 years ago now...

[NewcastleFalcon]

I like nothing more than a bit of nostalgia, paddling about with long gearsticks and mechanical linkages, clutches and accelerator pedals with cables, bit of heeling and toeing, and even some unnecessary double declutching. All part of the driving experience.

Lewis Hamilton wont have to bother with those kind of pleasures, its all done from the steerinng wheel!



The floor mounted manual may become an endangered species. The mini 850 may well increase further in value as there can be fewer beter examples of imprecise paddling through the box with an unnecessarily large gearstick and an unecessarily small accelerator pedal



All right I can push buttons on my Picasso Steering wheel to faf about with the radio, but I still enjoy the old manual change.

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Don't you just love that red interior

I fondly recall the Mini switch extensions.. I had those, along with every other Mini owner, on my first Mini...

[bobins]

I like nothing more than a bit of nostalgia, paddling about with long gearsticks and mechanical linkages, clutches and accelerator pedals with cables, bit of heeling and toeing, and even some unnecessary double declutching. All part of the driving experience.
Regards Neil

I used to have a U900 Unimog as a daily driver at work. Changing gear was like stirring a cup of tea. I never did work out how many usable gears it had - it had a 6 speed main box, a splitter, a crawler box, and a super crawler box..... and before anyone starts trying to work it out, not all the gears could be selected in all the boxes I did put it into super crawler first once for a laugh - it is no exaggeration to say you could have put a snail in front of one of the tyres and it would have outrun the 'mog A magnificent beast it was.... the Unimog.... not the snail

[Stickyfinger]

[Hell Razor5543]

http://i52.tinypic.com/2qx3ko9.gif

[CitroJim]

http://i52.tinypic.com/2qx3ko9.gif

[NewcastleFalcon]

ditto ^^^^^

I used to have a U900 Unimog as a daily driver at work. Changing gear was like stirring a cup of tea. I never did work out how many usable gears it had - it had a 6 speed main box, a splitter, a crawler box, and a super crawler box.....

Nice colllection of pedals knobs and levers to play with!



regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Gosh Learning to drive a Unimog must take some doing!!!!

[Hell Razor5543]

Apparently the designer kept pet octopi!

[bobins]

Gosh Learning to drive a Unimog must take some doing!!!!

Pick a gear lever - any gear lever



From memory, the top left red lever was for crawler / super crawler, the white patterned one might have been the splitter lever, the black knob bottom right was for 2WD / 4WD / 4WD difflock (could be changed on the go ), somewhere else in that lot will be the reversing lever and the PTO lever...... and then there's the other lever for which its use I've forgotten

[CitroJim]

Pick a gear lever - any gear lever

That is something else I'm speechless!

I am enjoying this thread

James, you're right about the Octopus

[bobins]

Pick a gear lever - any gear lever

That is something else I'm speechless!

I am enjoying this thread

James, you're right about the Octopus

And all that groping for gear levers with the right hand as they were all left hand drive

Somewhat unbelievably, I had two different cars crash in to me at different times. If you're going to hit another vehicle - don't hit a Unimog. One car suffered a dented 'D' pillar where he just pulled into me whilst overtaking at slow speed in traffic - the bumper hit him just below roofline The other car was completely written off when it failed to take a corner and was stopped by me - the 'mog only suffered a tiny paint scratch on one of the wheels