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I am not quite ready to dive into putting things back in my 1st ed. 3/4 ton GMC but I am deffinitely going to go back to the floor mounted foot pedal ignition when I do. In the mean time, I thought I better educate myself on the topic. Has anyone put one of these in? Is there a diagram available explaining the mechanics of the device and how to wire it up? Any help that you may be able to provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Tom
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Tom
I havent seen one of these in a looong time, but if what you are talking about is the floor mounted starter, it is mechanical, not electric. Stepping on teh starter button moves a lever that closes contacts in the starter motor itself. The only wire is the battery cable that goes to starter.

I still have the original foot pedal in mine and it works great. Let me know if you want pictures and i'll e-mail them to you.
Brian Davis '49 3/4 ton

Foot pedal starters are great. You can put on your seat belt while starting the truck!

Yeah the pedal is the ultimate retro. Many do not even know what it's for. This should have been there for manual tranny's through early '55. Hydramatics came with the push button and solenoid. Mechanical is the way to go! You will need to make sure your bell housing has the taps, etc., to mount the setup. Best to hit the wrecking yard. Should be easy to find.

I have seen them in Task Force trucks through '59 .

Push Starters were standard equipment on 6 cyl through 59. V8 had electric starting in 55, I think?? I know they were all electric in 60, also the first year of manditory seatbelts and turnsignals.
hope it helps
Brad

Think of it as a anti-theft device, even if they can get juice to the coil if theycan't handle four pedals your dead in the water.

I take my 59 to a quickie lube (I don't have a garage). They almost always have to come ask me how to start it.
Now, if it only had a cup holder.

When I took my '48 to the glass shop, it wasn't the foot starter that fooled them, it was the "on" position of the ignition switch. They thought all-the-way to the right was on (instead of straight up) and wore down the battery!

"Footpeddlers",

Yeah, the foot starter is practically trouble-free!

It's also fun when you're at the store or the mini-mart and the by-standers get that funny look on their face when your starter's cranking, but both hand are at "10 & 2" on the steering wheel!

How many remember the "Starter-ator" that Chevy used back in '36-'37, where they had the starter linkage "piggy-backed" with the accelerator linkage?

Frank McMullen

I remember it quite well - Buick used in from (?) '47 or so through the mid - 50's . just push the accellerator pedal to the floor and the engine starts - sweet .

Any one here remember Studebaker's " Hill Holder " ? - as long as you were in gear with the clutch pedal on the floor , the car would not roll back .

All these and more were great inventions but stupid drivers made them all obsolete .

VWNate,

Stoopid, or just lazy? :p

I think it all began with that durn Chas. F. Kettering and his "self-starter"; it's been down hill ever since!

Now we've got "soccer-moms" who, ten years ago wouldn't drive "their father's Oldsombile" 'because it's too big', and now they're barrel-assin' down the highway @ 80 mph in the Lincoln Navigator, yakking on the cel-phone!!
(the soccer moms aren't the only menace; I've got plenty of contempt for other "motorists"!) :mad:

Maybe we should get all the 1-ton & bigger AD trucks we can, and form a "rolling roadblock" and slow 'em all down!

What was the question ? :confused:

Nate You have to push the clutch on my 37 nash to ingage the starter.(botton under the clutch pedal,real good on thrust bearings for cold start) Subaru still uses the hill holder i believe.

Phat, Subaru did away with the "hill holder" after the 1994 model year. I asked the parts dept. at the dealer why and he said they had too many of them come back defective or leaking. I have an '87 Subaru wagon that has the hill holder and it still works fine. No leaks either. You can shim the foreward edge of the valve up or down to get it to actuate on steeper or lower grades. We'll probably never see something like that in an "American" car (not counting the Stude's), it makes too much sense. People are happy with their SUV's with the extra power outlet for the cell phone and dual cup holders for their latte's. Most of them don't know how to drive in the snow....... :rolleyes:

Hill holder? If you don't have the ability to move your right foot from the brake to the gas while engaging the clutch with your left then buy an auto trans SUV with heated cup holders LOL

I don't like automatics, slushbuckets are for cars; they don't belong in a real truck.
Yes, I can do the pedal dance :p two-speed axle and all .
Oh, I got the car for free, I don't buy offshore junk :mad: Why waste a good running vehicle? My GMC doesn't get 38 mpg!

GMC248, I didn't mean you, just a generalization.I have never owned a vehicle without a clutch pedal. See Lionel's post about his tranny tragedy;

Up here in my neck of the woods, every time it snows we see suv's in the ditch's and abandoned because the owners used to drive cars. You know,...... you never see these suv's with off road stratches. These people with their phones and big arse suv's need to go back to driving school. Don't get me started on them,(quiet)the guys in white coats are right outside................... :confused: :p

O.K. boys , time to take your meds and chill out ~ NOT ! let's make a new law : PROVE you can drive well or you cannot buy a SUV - fail the test ? sorry you're rusted out s*itbox YUGO is waiting over there

Try driving a V.W. bus as I did (still do in fact) - being in front , first to die , makes you THINK when you drive .
Grrr , rant , gnashing of teeth etc.....I think I need some of Profitt's meds.......
Last night some stupid b*tch in her brand new brand "F" SUV nearly took out my beloved Nash Metropolitan as she ran a stop sign yakking on her f**king CELL PHONE NOW I'M [censored] OFF!! - oops , sorry I gotta go now .

Nate, that is typical behavior for an SUV driver. They all think that since they have dual cup holders for their Starbuck's Latte's, they can talk on the cell and change lanes without using turn signals! :mad: I see this all the time where I live (population 23,000). They are people who sold high dollar real estate in the bay area and moved to the Sierra Nevada foothills where homes cost about half as much as they do down there. That leaves them enough $$$ to buy an SUV and commute everyday to their silicon valley jobs :rolleyes: . They are no better than the "carpetbaggers" of old.

Stupid Useless Vehicle :p

If they pull that carp on me when I am in my truck, I just blast them with the air horn I put in last year and I don't move over. It's mounted under the hood, so no one suspects it's there..........

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: gmc248 ]

GMC248
23,000 people? We have more than that in the high schools here. and most of them drive daddys SUV . Talk about inexperence teenagers with SUVs.....
DFW metromess pushing 3 million :p

Ya cant beat da old " foot stomp " starter.
If ya need a picture of the set-up email me.

Better yet I'l swap you for that splash pan you wanted - I need all of it , starter , hardware and all - sound do-able ? should be no problem for you to pull off a junker motor . I have 12 volt , 1957 235 . lemme know .

O.K. ,,,, who needed the foot starter linkage?????

Me for one but I need _all_ of it including a starter , have good working solenoid starter in trade if you want it....
E-mail me off list please .

Volkswagen Nate, I got 2 crates full of the foot starter set ups. Let me know if ya need 1.

My foot starter has started spinning only if I push at the very top. Sometimes I have to try twice before it engages. It spins fine when engaged.
Possably dirty contact or out of adjustment? I haven't tried to take it apart to look yet. Any thoughts guys?

brsdb: Try looking at tne electrical switch, it is mounted on top of the starter. Unscrew it and look at the contacts; mine acted like yours and it was worn contact in this switch. Got a new one at local parts house , don't remember the price but it was cheap.

I believe Napa has the switch for on top of the starter, I think for less than $10.00

Two other advantages of the foot pedal starter.

1) As the ultimate anti-theft device, just unscrew the footpedal and put it in your pocket when you leave the truck. You can even leave the keys in to really drive the would-be thieves crazy .

2) When diagnosing starting problems, you can turn on the key and then use a long screw driver or tire iron to crank the starter from under the hood.

On the subject of SUV owning morons (is that an oxymoron?), why do so many people think "4 wheel drive" means "I can't slide on ice"? Last winter after an ice storm, I was carefully driving into work at a maximum speed of about 20 mph. Several 4 wheel drive SUVs came shooting by me at 50 mph. I almost sped up myself just to see what would happen to them if they had to come to a quick stop :p .

Jeff,

I think Garrison Keillor put it pretty well on "Prairie Home Companion" when he said that "four-wheel drive means that you can get stuck farther from civilization" :p

Last winter, we had a few pretty good "winter weather events" here in NE PA, (nothin' like it used to be!), and it was interesting to drive home on I-81 in my '93 Escort and count all the fancy SUVs abandoned in the median or in the ditch.
(I won't drive my "good old vehicles" in the snow anymore, 'cause of the salt!)

I'm even thinking of selling my '61 Willys, cause I live in town, and we haven't had any winters that I've needed the four-wheel drive.

BTW, I like your "anti-theft idea" :p .