Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ellis]

Although I have not driven a car with a pre select gearbox, the principle has intrigued me for years.

What is it like drive a car with a pre select gearbox? The few people I know who have either owned such a car or have driven one have either complimented such a device or remember their experiences with consternation.

Your views please.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[petelang]

I have two such beasts and TBH I think it's made a better driver of me. The Daimler Fifteen is easy as it has the fluid flywheel so it will happily idle in gear and I tend to downshift from top to neutral on stopping, but you can simply downshift through the box. It makes you anticipate more and you have to remember which gear you are actually in as the select lever may indicate otherwise.
The Armstrong Siddeley has no fluid coupling and therefore you have to employ the gear change pedal as a conventional clutch on first or reverse but knowing how slipping the bands does cause premature wear, I tend to let the pedal up very quickly on pulling away with no adverse jerkiness noticeable.
I'm sure if BMW and Audi drivers had to use this it would significantly slow their behaviour and make driving today's traffic a whole lot more pleasant for all concerned.
Whilst there is scope for the infrequent "false neutral" when the pedal is not fully pressed, and consequently comes back at you with alarming force, and about strains your knee to recover the situation, with practice this seldom occurs.
You should definitely try it. Find a local enthusiast to give you a go. Once you have got your head around it, it's easy.
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Daimler Fifteen 1934
Armstrong Siddeley 15 Long 1933
Daimler V8 250 1969

[Ray White]

I am sure it does make for a better motorist; I have heard that said before.

Another period feature that has been relegated to the past, which I particularly liked, was the "free wheel". The only down side that I remember - typically on the Austin 110 - was the lack of engine braking.

[Penman]

Ray I had an A55 pre-Farina which had an O/D with Freewheel it had 2 controls an electric switch operating a solenoid to engage or disengage the O/D and a handle which allowed you to use or not use the freewheel function.
The only problem which it shared with the Rover freewheel was that you had to be pulling in the gear, not on the overrun, in order to re-engage the fixed gear function
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Ray White]

[Penman]

Ray, I had the column change.
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Ray White]

At the time I was very happy to get the Austin. It had 28K miles and one owner from new. My Dad had always serviced the car and when the owner died, he suggested it would be an improvement on my A30. Always garaged, the A55 was in mint condition. Even the seats had covers on them.! I was given preferential treatment because Dad had been a loyal friend.

It was mine for just £80 !

[alastairq]

I learnt to drive [properly, nt for my car licence] with London Transport, a Chiswick Works. All the L buses were AEC RTs...[including the skid buses]
These all came with pre-selector gearboxes.

Marvellous , especially in traffic and roundabouts....gear changes without the hassle so prevalent with crash gearboxes, when having to steer as well [no power steering, so one was compelled to handle the steering wheel properly...othesie one literally hurt oneself.]

Fluid flywheels helped.
The only real issues I came across initially, occured when I got back into my AH Sprite at the end of a day's training.....Much grinding of gears until I got my head together.

Bus drivers of the era [pre-plastic fantastics with small wheels, mainly pre-noughties?] were adept at switching rapidly from gearbox to gearbox, there were so many varieties of gearbox, gearchange, position of the latter, etc etc, during a shift one could be faced with gearlevers to the right, gear levers to the left, buttons, switches, numbers of gear available for manual control, etc.

Did not the Riley Pathfinder have its gear lever down by the driver's right leg?
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[mikeC]

The Pathfinder did, indeed, have a right-hand gearchange; incredibly they even transferred it to the left on the few left-hand drive cars they made.

It's many years since I last drove a car with pre-selector gearbox, but I'm a great fan and would be very happy to have one in a future purchase.
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in the garage: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Recently departed: 1953 Lancia Appia, 1931 Austin Seven, 1967 Singer Chamois, 1914 Saxon, 1930 Morris Cowley, 1936 BSA Scout, 1958 Lancia Appia coupe, 1922 Star 11.9 ... the list goes on!

[Ray White]

[badhuis]

[Rich5ltr]

This chat about pre-selector gearboxes interests me. My Lagonda left the factory with an ENV pre-selector box but it was changed for a Lagonca crash box at some time, unknown to me, in its history. I have considered restoring a pre-selector box but the specialist that works on my car says that they sap more power than a crash box and as the 16/80 is not the most powerful Lagonda he has advised against it. I have no problems using the crash box so it would purely be to restore the originality of the car. I am now in two minds so I would be interested in the thoughts of others, especially the suggestion that they sap power.

[Penman]

alastairq
Reading various comments about pre-selectors on the sct61 site there would seem to be a number of different ttypes in bus use, some have commented on the gear change pedal "snapping back" at the driver, which I take to mean coming back up so sharply it jars the driver's left leg.

Incidentally, when DVLA separated auto from manual for licencing purposes; the pre-selector was designated as an Auto for driving test purposes regardless of the fact that it had 3pedals
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[mikeC]

[Ray White]

Rich, Your specialist is correct. However, almost any gearbox will sap a bit more power than a crash box. In a manual, it's the synchromesh ... and with an automatic I assume it's down to the torque converter.

I imagine the effect of a pre select gearbox would also be to show up as poorer MPG; especially if it was coupled to a fluid flywheel which I suppose would have the same sort of dragging effect as a torque converter.

May I tentatively suggest that to compensate one could retain and reduce the weight of the existing (very heavy) flywheel.