[Shotimes] Re: Park vs. Forward (was Autolock and MTX)

[sho2go]

Man does that bring back memories ....in the early 60s I had a 1950 VW!!! in
Germany.  Had the optional gas heater; the fumes would blow you out after a
short time.......in retrospect I suspect the heat exchanger was cracked,
guess lucky it never went postal.  The natural heater would barely clear a
small spot in the windshield to see out of.
Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Mallinson" <dmall@mwonline.net>
To: "Carl Prochilo" <gr8sho@prochilo.myserver.org>
Cc: <shotimes@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Re: Park vs. Forward (was Autolock and MTX)


> Carl,
>
> The Turboglide was really not very well known, so few people
> would have probably been reluctant to use low gear because
> of the problems with that tranny.  Chances are your father
> was one that was told another bit of auto lore:
>
> Brakes are designed to slow down a car and motors to make it
> go, let each do their own job and the car will last longer!
>
> Of coures with drum brakes (and mechanical brakes before
> them) lower gears had to be used in cars as well as trucks.
>
> Funny how some habits happen though.  Here is another:
>
> I had a good friend that would never use the heater all the
> time in the winter.  He said the car would get better gas
> mileage if he kept the heater off.  Well, I knew better than
> that, even when I was 15 and 16 years old.  But a bit later,
> I found out WHY my friend probably felt that way.
>
> His father obviously grew up driving cars that had the very
> good, but fairly rare optional heater system that used
> gasoline in a heater inside the car!  So you had a FIRE
> inside the car in a little space heater before good hot
> water heaters were common.
>
> Thus turning off THAT type of heater DID save fuel,
> especially during the depression, my friends father probably
> wanted ever drop of fuel saved, and comfort was secondary,
> so he taught his son to do the same, even though hot water
> heaters have zero (or near zero, the fan pulls some juice
> and thus a tiny amount of drag via the generator/alternator
> on the motor) effect on fuel mileage.
>
> So as Paul Harvey would say: Now you know the rest of the story!
>
> Don Mallinson
>
>
> Carl Prochilo wrote:
>
> > You made me remember things from a long time ago.  I don't remember who
I
> > asked, probably my father, why he never used the lower gears, I was told
> > that they were only to slow the car down going down hill.  I never
really
> > gave that much thought until I owned my own car.  I know that my family
> > never owned a car with a Turboglide transmission, but now it certainly
seems
> > that a myth grew up around that issue that somehow got extrapolated to
all
> > automatic transmissions of the 60s to the point that I'm sure none of my
> > family's older cars ever saw those gears get used.
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