I think some of the 60's vehicles I've had were equipped with plastic release *****. Early 50's had levers I think. I know plastic on cars goes ack about 100 years. Bakelite was the first used in cars for *****.

 

Kinda an optical illusion due to the camera position. It's definitely longer than the original plastic handle, I just made it ergonomically feasible. I made it so my index and middle fingers can wrap around it from underneath. And yes, I did weld the nut at an offset otherwise the handle would be touching the plastic dash panel. You can make it as long/thin/offset as you like. Experiment to see what works for you. I just cut a piece of 1/4" round stock to the length that worked for me, ground the ends into a ball shape on my bench grinder, welded on the flanged nut then polished the whole thing on the wire wheel. Took about 30 minutes start to finish ( I work slow).

 

Park it in 5th gear, not 1st.

 

And get your camera out...because if you're getting a roll, stop,roll again,stop & you're parking in 1st gear think of how much faster it's gonna

haul a$$ down the incline if it's in 5th gear! Get your camera so you can detail all the damage it creates as it picks up speed running into/over stuff!

 

Thinking about this, you are correct. My reasoning was, it would be harder for the weight of the truck to roll the engine over in a higher gear, when in reality, it is exactly the opposite......

 

I used to see it recommended (back in the day) to leave it in reverse when parking.

 

This makes sense; reverse is usually an even higher gear than 1st on a lot of transmissions.

RwP

 

Sort of. So few cars have manual transmissions today, they don't teach it in drivers education, if schools even do that any more. If you are parked pointing down hill, put it in reverse. The engine doesn't like to turn backwards. Also, you turn your front wheels towards the curb so if it does roll, it'll roll up against the concrete. If you're pointing uphill, leave it in a forward gear, usually first and turn the wheels away from the curb so if it rolls backward, they'll still go against the concrete.

 

I took drivers ed back in the mid 70's, when it was still available for free, thru the schools..... Even then, we didn't have a single manual trans car to learn on. My dad taught me how to drive stick. (driving tractors on the grandparents farm for many years didn't hurt either.)

 

I was just ahead of you. I learned at age 8 on a tractor. My daily driver in high school was a '61 Valiant with 3 on the floor. Dad gave me one lesson in an automatic car and then every single one after that was a stick shift. When I drove a truck, they were all stick shifts. Now, even the biggest OTR rigs can be had with automatics. When those stall, they are a nightmare. You can't release the brakes and put them in neutral to push them out of the way.