On gears and their selection

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 05/19/2020 at 19:45 • Filed to: Citroën, Gears, Trabant, Wartburg

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Most of us, even if we drive in the two pedal world, are reasonably familiar with how DIY gears are selected. The gear lever moves in all or more than all of a H pattern, so first lives on the top left, you move straight back down the left side of the H for second and so on until you run out of gears. Simple (unless you drive a truck or a tractor when you may get to repeat the process having arrived at what might have seemed like top).

However, it was not always thus. Things could be different and were. You could for example have had a column gearchange so you reached in behind the wheel like so:

Want four gears behind the wheel? The odd position of first out on its own doesn’t suit so you’d want to have a conventional H. Seems straightforward then, except that it might not be.

Let’s explore the Trabant, for many years the only thing on four wheels that the proletariat in several of the glorious socialist republics on the grim side of the Iron Curtain could buy. The Trabi had a four speed with column change so let’s see how that went.

So, back to front then.

If you were a cut above the proletariat or drove a State vehicle you might have or get to drive a Wartburg. Like the Trabi, a two stroke with a column gearchange and four speeds so it went just like its utilitarian brother, ja? Nein.

First and second were swapped with respect to the Trabi as were third and fourth. This must have made for some interesting moments.

There were other oddities, many of them French and by Citroen.

Take the Traction Avant (front wheel drive) which I associate with Maigret . Back in the 1930s it had monococque construction, the fwd aforesaid, hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension. Not unique individually but certainly so in combination.

The gearbox lived in front of the engine and the company found it simpler in terms of the linkage to fit the gearlever to the dash. That’s it poking out of a hole on the left. A for Automatic? Mais non. A pour Auto matique, then? Non. A pour Arriere or reverse. Note where I, II and III are though. Yes, you begin where you would expect to find fourth and proceed to where first would otherwise be expected to be found. When you came to a stop you did the opposite, at which point you discovered that M Citroen’s ideas as to what to fit as standard did not include synchro on first. In an unusual feature, it was found that the horizontal lever tended to drop towards third under the influence of gravity so an interlock was fitted which prevented it moving unless the clutch was being pressed.

Even eighty odd years ago three gears were seen as rather lacking so you could, with the careful application of money, have your TA fitted with a four speed from one of several makers including in this case Ouriez . Note that you’re going around in a kind of semi circle to arrive at the new fourth. Of the switches, S is for starter which is not the French for starter (it’s the choke) while D is for dé marreur which is the French for starter.

Should you find yourself the keeper of a TA today you still have options for more gears, although not by Ouriez - you can fit four or even five speeds from the DS.

Want more? Here we go. 2CV.

The lever still grows from the dash, but the pattern is eccentric. To engage fourth (S for surmultipliée or overdrive) you kind of go rou nd the corner to get to it.

lone_liberal > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 20:03

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I learned how to drive a manual on a column shift car. I would not recommend it, especially not with someone as impatient as my mom as the teacher. 

Jb boin > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 20:26

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The Renault 4 (called the 4L in France ) also has the gearbox in front of the engine and a dashboard gear lever with 3 different layouts depending on the gearboxes .

Pictures from this page of different gearboxes/ pattern :

T he 3 speed gearbox didn’t have a synchro between 1st and 2nd

SiennaMan > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 20:36

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I think I want to show this to anyone who ever complains to me that driving a modern manual (ie from the third tail light era) is too difficult.

 Also, I still want a 2CV, even with an interesting pattern to engage surmultipliee. (I'd better brush up on my French first..)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 20:42

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Came here to ensure there was 2CV and Trabant gearshift mentionage....was not disappointed. :P

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jb boin 05/19/2020 at 20:43

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I visibly cringed when he called it a ‘Ren-alt’ in the final video.

Jb boin > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 05/19/2020 at 20:49

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To be fair i heard something even more cringy :

wafflesnfalafel > lone_liberal 05/19/2020 at 21:17

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right - spatially it is more difficult, the horizontal plane of the “H” is not flat like it is with a floor mounted shifter adding an additional layer of complexity

ranwhenparked > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 21:39

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Of course, if you have enough torque, you can just leave it in 3rd all the time, which is how a lot of people actually drove in the ‘30s. 

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jb boin 05/19/2020 at 22:10

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*shivers*

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Cé hé sin 05/19/2020 at 22:11

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I had a Traction as my first car. The shift pattern never felt unusual even when swapping to and from “normal” cars. I think because the motion was vertical not horizontal, it fitted into a different set of muscle memory from a floor shift, just like a column shift did. I later had an R4 which had a dash mounted lever, but on that one the motion is horizontal - you push/pull and twist the lever - so it felt more like a conventional shift (and had a conventional shift pattern).

Lack of 1st gear synchro was common for cars of the Traction’s era (ie 50s or earlier) and wasn’t even slightly a problem. It only had 55hp, but it had all the torque at none of the revs. As long as you were rolling, 2nd was fine - 1st was only engaged from a standing start, and even then was pretty much optional unless you were fully loaded.

Even UK-built “Light Fifteen” or “Big Fifteen” Tractions had the French control labelling, despite having a unique dash with most of the knobs between the wheel and the door. As far as I recall there was also something very odd about the wiper/ventilation labelling  though I don’t remember what and can’t find a good image to remind me. I do recall however that the wipers parked off the screen and the screen was top hinged and could be opened a few inches for ventilation, so if it started to rain and you forgot the screen was open and turned on the wipers, they’d leap through the gap and attack you. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Cé hé sin 05/20/2020 at 08:50

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As someone who wants to own a 2CV someday, I very much enjoyed this. 

Cé hé sin > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 05/20/2020 at 17:44

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That’s a rather, er, interesting choice of first car!

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Cé hé sin 05/20/2020 at 17:59

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Less unusual than you might think by the standards of 1980s New Zealand, where keeping cars on the road well past their use-by date was something of a national sport,  due to the extremely high price of new ones (we had 40% import duties back then). But yes, it was something of a standout among the sea of late 60s and early 70s British and Japanese beaters my friends were driving.

It only lasted a couple of years - eventually the practicalities of DDing a decrepit 35 year old French unicorn on a student budget overcame my sense of romance. But they were glorious years - the pleasure I got from looking out over those sweeping wings and chrome headlights is still with me.

I replaced it with a Hillman Avenger, setting the pattern I’ve pretty much followed ever since: fall in love with something impractical, get burned, replace it with something sensible, get bored, rinse and repeat.