Column Mounted Shifters
Discussion
Just a post of curiosity really.... I watch a lot of movies and the column-mounted shifter appears in many of them. Obviously these being Hollywood films.
I've driven for a few years now (okay, nearly a decade) and been in all sorts of vehicles of all sorts of age and price but I've never encountered a column-mounted shifter.
I was just wondering are they that common in the states, are they still popular? They seem like an awful idea to me, but I suppose you'd get used to them...
I've driven for a few years now (okay, nearly a decade) and been in all sorts of vehicles of all sorts of age and price but I've never encountered a column-mounted shifter.
I was just wondering are they that common in the states, are they still popular? They seem like an awful idea to me, but I suppose you'd get used to them...
Depends really, nost yanks are auto so you just use it once then rarely touch it and that's easy, like the toyota lucida, manual ones are a PITA IME but then you very VERY rarely get manual column changes nowdays, even in the states most manuals would have been 4 on the floor (usuall gear leaver postion) older 50s and earlyer where 3 on the tree, 3 speed column change.
For US cars at least it'd be an auto, you need park, drive and reverse, so you don't need to shift all that often. The cars also had bench seats, which would often be in the way if you wanted a floor shift, a floor shifter also takes away space.
Mechanically they used to be very simple, a small lever at the bottom of the column rotates when the shifter is moved, this is linked to a lever on the side of the transmission case.
For some time in the 60s Chrysler had a push button shift transmission, the buttons were usually up on the instrument binnacle or in the dash somewhere:
Mechanically they used to be very simple, a small lever at the bottom of the column rotates when the shifter is moved, this is linked to a lever on the side of the transmission case.
For some time in the 60s Chrysler had a push button shift transmission, the buttons were usually up on the instrument binnacle or in the dash somewhere:
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