The Stovebolt Forums Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Automotive De-evolution

Look up the Studebaker "hill holder" system sometime. It was a great help to uncoordinated people who couldn't manage to deal with three pedals with only two feet! (Another reason to run an automatic transmission, maybe?) Those multi-speed transmissions let a tiny little engine stay at its torque peak all the time so they can send a boy to do a man's job!
LOL!
Jerry

Thanks Jerry - I am old enough to remember them, and have driven them. I don't NEED to look them up :P

Jon

Subaru used it for several years also.

One rainy Seattle day I was sitting at a stoplight on a steep uphill in my 1950 Studebaker Champion listening to the radio. I was holding the clutch in with my left foot and my right was covering the gas pedal waiting for the light to change. The hill holder was doing its job. On the radio came a Suburu advertisement which claimed that Suburu had invented the hill holder. As the light changed I gunned the little six, let the clutch out and drove off up the hill after slipping the clutch a little to get rolling. That car had self-adjusting brakes, overdirve, radio, under-seat heater with separate defroster and white sidewall tires. I used second and overdrive a lot because of its 170 CI flathead six of 78 HP. On a trip from Seattle to San Francisco it averaged 28 MPG and would cruise along fine at 65 but not uphill.

I really wish I had not sold the Stude but I was seduced into buying a 78 BMW, which I drove 275,000 miles until it rusted away. That car had a 4-cylinder double overhead cam 2-liter motor with mechanical fuel injection (K-Jetronic), points-and-condenser ignition, no power steering, no air conditioning, hand-crank windows. No computerized anything, handled like a go-cart, accelerated like a 60s muscle car and was a babe magnet, which is mainly why I bought it.

All the while I've been driving the same 51 Chev 3800, which had the optional heavy-duty spring pack, oil filter and hydrovac, its only three options. I have since been seduced by modernity and added the three-speed brownie, air conditioning, a radio, cruise control and an MSD ignition. When the big break down comes, I may have to revert to points-and-condenser, which I keep in the glove box just in case of an EMP. I can go back to the hand throttle in lieu of the cruise control. Rather than a dual-clutch transmission, it has a dual-transmission-with-clutch, which if you're in practice you don't have to use to shift the brownie. I have a bunch of old bias-ply tires in the tack room too just in case things get really tough. But I suppose eventually I might have to saddle up ol' Dobbin if I can still throw a leg over her by then. We have lots of grass but I'm sort on oil wells.

There's one nice thing about horsepower with wheels on it- - - - - -you don't have to feed it if you're not using it!
Jerry

Heard a funny on point statement the other day that reminded me of this post.
“Everything nowadays is built for planned obsolescence”.
Back in the day everything was serviceable and easily repaired and put back into use. It just keeps getting worse and worse. I have been in the new gmc at4 sierra’s and yup they drive great and are comfortable……. But with literally EVERYTHING computer controlled in every single way, I think i will pass. In 15years it will be basically useless garbage. This is coming from a guy with a LS in his 49 pickup😂

It’s ridiculous. My 21 Chevy company truck acted like the transmission fell out early one morning at a stoplight. I had no gears. Shut the truck off, powered it back up, and then was able to go.

Got it into the dealer and they scanned it. They could see the event happened. Some sort of shift solenoid code. But no idea why. Their best guess was battery voltage. Apparently that can cause all kinds of weird stuff in the computers.

Also can cause weird stuff in non-computer controlled stuff.

JW51, since your thread has new legs consider the Carrington Event of 1851. [sciencealert.com]. This article [scientificamerican.com] is from a more respected source, Scientific American.

Scary stuff. Fires were started by telegraph lines, telegraph operators were able to send messages with batteries disconnected using only stray voltage in the atmosphere. Daylight at midnight due to extreme aurora borealis activity over a large part of the planet. Accounts read like a cheap sci fi movie, but it was real.

When another plasma ejection (giant solar EMP) hits earth (most miss) it's not going to be a pretty picture. That's when a vehicle like my old school '95 Dodge diesel "may" earn it's keep. Doesn't require a computer to run, or battery, or any electrons. It has a totally mechanical fuel pump, and injection pump. I needed the start solenoid for a project truck many years ago so it was pulled and replaced with a push/pull cable like many old school diesel tractors run. If someone steals the battery and I've got a hill to roll down for a bump start, we're good to go. That is if the solar EMP dosen't start a fire that burns the old truck up.

So, my first vote is a older school diesel. No computers, simple fuel needs, run on vegetable oil, kerosene, pine knots (well the Cummins might Or an older Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Always liked those, looked really hard at doing a Cummins 4BT or Isuzu 4BD1T conversion on one for a spell.

Hopefully we won't have to live through a Carrington level event. But if we do, I suspect this group will deal better than most in the modern world.

RonR

A joke, but relevant to this thread.
Traveling in a car are 3 engineers. Mechanical, electrical and computer engineers.
Car stalls and they pull over to the side of the road.
Mechanical engineer tells the others that he’s sure it’s a mechanical failure and is gonna go have a look under the hood.
Electrical engineer objects and says it’s an electrical problem and that he’s gonna check the fuse box.
Computer engineer says “Stop! Let’s try my idea first. Everyone get out of the car and close the doors. Then everyone get back in the car and the car will probably work just fine again.”
Haha!