Transmission starts in 2nd

[tertiumquid]

I've had two experiences with shifting the BW automatic. First, in my dad's new '63 Hawk. The start in low and then a quick pop to drive and back to low would perform a perfect 1st and 2nd gear operation with no problems or damage. All my friends thought it was a 3 speed stick. Second, on my Avanti R-1, I wound it up in 1st, then 2 and then went to hit "D" but missed it and hit Neutral instead which overrevved it and shattered a piston. Other than a regular clicking noise, I had no idea what had happened and drove it home over 2 miles. When I pulled the pan and started disconnecting the rods one by one, number six piston literally fell apart. It was in five pieces but somehow managed to hold together in the cylinder. All I had was some minor scoring on the cylinder wall and a new piston fixed it right up. How that piston held together is still amazing to me.

[PackardV8]

Well Jack the lord be with you.............but let me just say the following.....................if by some crazy happenstance someone blows their trans............would you be the one to step forward and indemnify the sad aftermath??

Mike and I would refund twice what he paid for the advice.

jack vines

[6hk71400]

Discussion similar to this topic happened yesterday at our outing. The discussion was about someone that talked about driving an 84 year old car with original driveline and brakes at 80 mph at one time on a 400 miles trip. Checking the compression ration everything checkout today at 85 all 6 cylinder. So one said it may have been a 80 mph car at one time but not now. He did set a pace on our outing around 60 mph and did pull the hills well. Someone else mentioned that the speed is not the only factor; still dealing with brakes that were good then but probably not adequate for today's drivers that love to cut you off trying to see how close they can come to take your front bumper off.

If you want to run against the new cars, get a $40 to 80. K Mustang, Camaro, or Challenger. On the open interstate 10 Eastbound, lots of waves honks and smiles were the norm of the day.

Bob Miles
Perry Mason: Case of disappearing fun driving.

[Hawklover]

Mike and I would refund twice what he paid for the advice.

jack vines

LOL....... two times zero is still zero, at least where I hail from;-)

[Jessie J.]

Someone needs to say it. What works with shifting a standard or HD Studebaker Flight-o-Matic does not work with the floor shifted BW POWER SHIFT Flight-o-Matic.

With the BW Power Shift transmission you may select a 1st gear start and shift manually to 2nd gear at the rpm and speed you desire.
A BW Power Shift transmission will -remain- in 2nd gear until you manually shift to 3rd.
With the Studebaker (Avanti) BW Power Shift transmission there is no need to use that old practice of pulling the shift lever back into 1st to hold 2nd gear.
If you choose to start off in 1st gear you simply move the lever 1-2-3 at the RPM of your choosing

The ability of NOT having go through that old 'shift it back into L' deal is the major difference and the reason Borg Warner developed the Studebaker Power Shift transmission.

.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

Didn't Avanti Motors switch to the Borg-Warner FMX transmission by the late sixties? And I believe the FMX is first-gear start.
-Dwight

[PackardV8]

The FMX is an evolution of the Powershift; built mostly for FoMoCo applications. ; in fact, many of the gear sets are interchangeable. The new transmissions arrived for model year 1958 which coincided with the release of Ford's new FE and MEL engines. Although marketed as Cruise-O-Matic, the new transmissions were known internally as the MX (larger) and the FX (smaller). They were a three-speed design using a Ravigneaux planetary gearset like the original, but moved the pump from the rear to the front of the transmission, while also using a different valve body so the transmission would start in first gear as opposed to second.

jack vines

[Hawklover]

The FMX is an evolution of the Powershift; built mostly for FoMoCo applications. ; in fact, many of the gear sets are interchangeable. The new transmissions arrived for model year 1958 which coincided with the release of Ford's new FE and MEL engines. Although marketed as Cruise-O-Matic, the new transmissions were known internally as the MX (larger) and the FX (smaller). They were a three-speed design using a Ravigneaux planetary gearset like the original, but moved the pump from the rear to the front of the transmission, while also using a different valve body so the transmission would start in first gear as opposed to second.

jack vines

My '67 Gal 500 XL had a FMX trans.

[Jessie J.]

One of my ‘64 Daytona’s (now used up and reduced to parts) was equipped with the 289 & Power Shift combo (that engine and transmission is now sitting on my garage floor)
Anyway, In all the years I owned it, after winding out in 2nd and then clicking the FLOOR MOUNTED shifter into 3rd, I never once even attempted to “pull it back into Low to hold 2nd gear”, but this conversation has certainly caused me to wonder about what would happen, or what doing so could accomplish beyond what the Power Shift transmission was engineered to do?

I expected that the trans would simply remain in 2nd gear at anything above about 30 mph, unless ‘floorboarding’ it was used to kick it all the way down into 1st. beyond the reasonable max rev range in 1st, what would be the point of that?

But like I said, I was never inclined to ‘test’ the results like my HS buddies shifting their family cars into reverse at 60 mph.

[Jessie J.]

The 1966 Fairlane GTA featured Ford’s ‘Select Shift’ transmission. Brother in law had a beautiful new ‘66 GTA convertible.
As newlyweds we used it on many occasions. However my ‘67 Cougar with the GT 390 4 speed option could practically suck its headlights out.