23: Floor Shifter

TD took Abbey out for a test drive after this-and-that had been completed. 

He came back a half hour later and said:

"Whoa. We might want to put a new chassis on the truck. When you redline the speedometer and hit 35mph, everything rattles and shakes. I smacked my head on the ceiling when the I hit an uneven patch on the road because the whole cab was bouncing all over the place. The door flew open going over the railroad tracks and I was hanging on to the steering wheel trying to get it closed. And the steering! It’s so loosey-goosey! It could definitely be tighter."

Then he calmly says, "Wanna go take her for a drive by yourself?"

…I declined, and then checked my life insurance policy.

Later, he worked on the play in the steering and it actually is a little better. This is where I’d explain exactly what he did to achieve this, but I have no clue. It doesn't drive like a modern vehicle of course, but I think in time I could get used to the 7,500 wheel rotations it takes to get it around a corner. No problem.

I also asked TD if the floor shifter could be tightened.

Let’s face it, I like gears 1-through-4 being exactly where they should be instead of just being in a vague H-patterned location.

I did my own research online and scoured forum discussion threads regarding this issue. My favorite sentence that exactly describes what I experience is this:

"Our shifter had very sloppy gates - it was like stirring a pot of stew to get a gear."




This is exactly how I feel when I am trying to find 3rd gear.
(Remember 1st is called the "stump puller" and not even used)

Article Here (worth the read)

I printed these discussion threads and left them in the middle of TD’s desk.

...Subtle.