Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[MotCO]

An old Ford Popular (sit up and beg variety) I had used the same system. It worked on manifold depression. When you put your foot down on the accelerator the wipers slowed right down - or stopped! On an even throttle or overrun they worked ok (ish)

My Dad also had a sit up and beg Popular. The wiper button was behind the sun visor, so to get the wipers to work, you hit the sun visor!

 

[McRhu]

Double declutching.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Oct 2024 ==

Locoshed books. Here's mine from 1958.
View attachment 168018

That's very impressive. Mine was the reverse of that: mostly gaps and largely only ScR locos and sheds (those being mostly Eastfield, Polmadie, Motherwell and an occasional foray to Haymarket or Shields Road).

 

[D6130]

A haaaandbaaaag?!! (cf. well written, anachrontastic plays and scripts)

Can anyone tell me the cheapest way to get from Bracknell to Worthing, using split tickets? (Oops, sorry....wrong thread!)

Double declutching.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Oct 2024 ==



That's very impressive. Mine was the reverse of that: mostly gaps and largely only ScR locos and sheds (those being mostly Eastfield, Polmadie, Motherwell and an occasional foray to Haymarket or Shields Road).

....whereas in @52290 's book most of the gaps are Scottish-based locos!

 

[Taunton]

Double declutching.

I can still do it (and occasionally, when renting a manual car, do so).

Loads of other things in cars. Hand signals. Holding it on the clutch. Starting with a choke. Column gearchange. Crank start .....

Vacuum wipers were a 1950s Ford thing at all levels. Even the uprange Zephyr had them. Relative had a 1939 Ford Prefect (I think) with it. Put up on bricks through WW2 when in the military, got it going again in 1946 when returned to UK, still had it (and nothing else) in late 1960s when he drove it from SE London to Taunton and back!

 

[AndrewE]

I can still do it (and occasiona lly, when renting a manual car, do so).

Loads of other things in cars. Hand signals. Holding it on the clutch. Starting with a choke. Column gearchange. Crank start .....

Vacuum wipers were a 1950s Ford thing at all levels. Even the uprange Zephyr had them. Relative had a 1939 Ford Prefect (I think) with it. Put up on bricks through WW2 when in the military, got it going again in 1946 when returned to UK, still had it (and nothing else) in late 1960s when he drove it from SE London to Taunton and back!

My dad bought a (at least) 2nd-hand Ford Anglia 100E for their first car in about 1965, for him and mum to learn on. It had a 3-speed box and no synchromesh on 1st at least. He passed his test 2nd time (the safest drivers, apparently,) she the first time and was very proud that the examiner told her she was the best he had ever had a woman double-de-clutch!

I still do it too, even though I learnt on an Escort and practised on dad's Cortina... our first car was a mini in 1972.

 

[3141]

I can still do it (and occasionally, when renting a manual car, do so).

Loads of other things in cars. Hand signals. Holding it on the clutch. Starting with a choke. Column gearchange. Crank start .....

Vacuum wipers were a 1950s Ford thing at all levels. Even the uprange Zephyr had them. Relative had a 1939 Ford Prefect (I think) with it. Put up on bricks through WW2 when in the military, got it going again in 1946 when returned to UK, still had it (and nothing else) in late 1960s when he drove it from SE London to Taunton and back!

Three-speed gearboxes - my Dad's 1954 Standard Vanguard had one, with the column-mounted lever. There was a Riley 2.6 litre with a front bench seat and the floor-mounted gear lever on the driver's right.

My 1949 Ford Prefect (my first car, which I bought for £25 in 1963) had no synchromesh on first gear and I also still do that occasionally. The switch to change from dipped headlights to full beam was on the floor to the left of clutch. There was a blind on the rear window, to reduce dazzle from cars behind at night, operated by a cord which ran above the windows on the offside and ended above the driver's door. The starting handle was very useful on a cold winter's day (the car had a 6V battery), and when you needed to set the gap in the points accurately. There was no heater, but there were various gaps in the bulkhead through which heat filtered. One day in summer 1964 I was out with a girlfriend and she said "Tony, can't you turn your heater off?" "No," I replied, "It's called the engine." When I passed the test in 1962 you had to use hand signals to show that you knew them Many cars still had semaphore flippers to signal left or right. In the Prefect the one on the left sometimes stuck in the up position, so I had the reach across and give a good thump on the pillar to persuade it to drop back. Wing mirrors that were actually on the wings were easier to use than those mounted on the doors, in my opinion, but were much more difficult to adjust to the right position - you really needed someone else to help you.

The Renault 4 I bought in Zambia in 1969 had the gear lever sticking out from the upper part of the dashboard, and you had to twist it to get the right position when changing gear. That was because it then passed above the engine to the gearbox mounted at the front, behind the grille. The indicators weren't self-cancelling. Slightly away from the topic, the service manual had mostly been well translated from French, but on the front of the car there was a decorative embellisher, which you had to remove to get at certain things, and the manual said "Remove the embezzler".

 

[Taunton]

Column gearchanges often went with a 3-speed gearbox, where the same model option for a floor gearchange went with a 4-speed box. Vauxhall were like this on their larger cars well past the mid-1960s.

Column changers had a range of interesting moments. The number of universal joints needed from handle to gearbox was substantial, these mechanisms would wear, and eventually unexpected results then occurred. A spring guarded against accidental selection of reverse, but after 10-15 years that could be fairly worn too; given that first and reverse were next to one another, starting off the wrong way was not unknown. The old Bedford van/Dormobile from the 1950s, always column change but same bits as a Vauxhall, seemed worst, this included the gearchange mechanism coming apart, or its close relation, the gearchange handle breaking off, especially when trying to overcome that spring to select reverse. Ham-fisted friend had both this happen, AND pulled the handbrake handle clear out of the floor.

In our Vauxhall the accelerator linkage snapped in two ...

 

[Killingworth]

Overdrive. Windows that wound down are quite recent but the front windscreen that wound out for ventilation and demisting would amuse a modern driver.

 

[MotCO]

Overdrive. Windows that wound down are quite recent but the front windscreen that wound out for ventilation and demisting would amuse a modern driver.

Do you remember the stick-on rear window demister?

 

[Ken X]

I find the floor mounted high/low beam switch on our Morris very convenient. Often wonder why it fell out of favour.

On an unrelated note the semaphore indicators are often missed by modern drivers so rumour has it one club member decided to fit a flasher unit to his Morris to make the lights flash rather than just illuminate. Unfortunately there was a bit of an oops in the wiring and, come the great reveal, he appeared to have the only Morris trying to fly.

 

[Western Lord]

Column gearchanges often went with a 3-speed gearbox, where the same model option for a floor gearchange went with a 4-speed box. Vauxhall were like this on their larger cars well past the mid-1960s.

Column changers had a range of interesting moments. The number of universal joints needed from handle to gearbox was substantial, these mechanisms would wear, and eventually unexpected results then occurred. A spring guarded against accidental selection of reverse, but after 10-15 years that could be fairly worn too; given that first and reverse were next to one another, starting off the wrong way was not unknown. The old Bedford van/Dormobile from the 1950s, always column change but same bits as a Vauxhall, seemed worst, this included the gearchange mechanism coming apart, or its close relation, the gearchange handle breaking off, especially when trying to overcome that spring to select reverse. Ham-fisted friend had both this happen, AND pulled the handbrake handle clear out of the floor.

In our Vauxhall the accelerator linkage snapped in two ...

Column gearchanges almost always went with bench front seats so that six people could be squeezed in (not necessarily adults). The worst column change I came across was the Morris J2 van.

 

[gg1]

Do you remember the stick-on rear window demister?

My dad had one of those on a 1974 Skoda, the earliest car I remember him owning. It only covered about half the rear window IIRC. I'm working on the assumption he wasn't impressed with it as he didn't bother getting one for his next car, a 1979 Skoda.

My dad's liking for Skodas did ensure I very rarely asked for lifts, as a child in the 80s I was embarrassed to be seen inside the things. Maybe that's why he bought them

 

[Sun Chariot]

I used a rental Toyota Previa in September 1998. It had a manual gear selection lever on the dashboard.

 

[swt_passenger]

Do you remember the stick-on rear window demister?

I did, and I posted about it a few weeks ago! Didn’t see any replies though…

 

[DelW]

I find the floor mounted high/low beam switch on our Morris very convenient. Often wonder why it fell out of favour.

The problem I had with them (many years ago) was that on a long main road journey I'd leave my left foot over the dipswitch, since I'd be using it regularly ... then when I reached a town and needed to change gear, my foot would press the dipswitch instead of the clutch. The result would be a loud graunch from the gearbox and possibly an annoyed and dazzled driver going the other way.

One anachronism that I'd like to see return is the indicator/dip stalk on the right, where it always used to be until a ridiculous EU harmonisation in the 1980s (?). The indicator/dip on the left makes absolute sense in an LHD car, but in an RHD your left hand is often busy with gears, handbrake or minor controls at critical moments. An indicator stalk on the right is virtually always within finger reach of your right hand on the wheel. It was the only Brexit bonus I could think of and it hasn't happened.

 

[gg1]

The problem I had with them (many years ago) was that on a long main road journey I'd leave my left foot over the dipswitch, since I'd be using it regularly ... then when I reached a town and needed to change gear, my foot would press the dipswitch instead of the clutch. The result would be a loud graunch from the gearbox and possibly an annoyed and dazzled driver going the other way.

One anachronism that I'd like to see return is the indicator/dip stalk on the right, where it always used to be until a ridiculous EU harmonisation in the 1980s (?). The indicator/dip on the left makes absolute sense in an LHD car, but in an RHD your left hand is often busy with gears, handbrake or minor controls at critical moments. An indicator stalk on the right is virtually always within finger reach of your right hand on the wheel. It was the only Brexit bonus I could think of and it hasn't happened.

Some Japanese brands had the indicator stalks on the right into the 00s.

Was there actually an EU directive they have to be on the left or is it just a case of the stalks being on the side of the car most suitable for their main markets, for any European or American made cars that's the left.

 

[cool110]

Was there actually an EU directive they have to be on the left

If there is it would have to be a very recent ones, since my instructor's Kia had them on the right. Was fun when I first borrowed the family car after passing.

 

[swt_passenger]

The problem I had with them (many years ago) was that on a long main road journey I'd leave my left foot over the dipswitch, since I'd be using it regularly ... then when I reached a town and needed to change gear, my foot would press the dipswitch instead of the clutch. The result would be a loud graunch from the gearbox and possibly an annoyed and dazzled driver going the other way.

I remember that exact problem.

One anachronism that I'd like to see return is the indicator/dip stalk on the right, where it always used to be until a ridiculous EU harmonisation in the 1980s (?). The indicator/dip on the left makes absolute sense in an LHD car, but in an RHD your left hand is often busy with gears, handbrake or minor controls at critical moments. An indicator stalk on the right is virtually always within finger reach of your right hand on the wheel. It was the only Brexit bonus I could think of and it hasn't happened.

I don’t think all UK built cars had the indicators on the right even in the 70s, I suspect it was pretty variable and I don't remember ever hearing about an EU directive?

 

[GordonT]

I suspect that there were a fair few belt and braces workarounds for specific failures of old style motor vehicles that might have limited worth with modern day vehicles.
Dimly remember something about manually rocking a vehicle if there was a jammed starter, some repair involving ladies tights, the driving technique in the event of loss of a gear or gears??

 

[Taunton]

I suspect that there were a fair few belt and braces workarounds for specific failures of old style motor vehicles that might have limited worth with modern day vehicles.
Dimly remember something about manually rocking a vehicle if there was a jammed starter, some repair involving ladies tights, the driving technique in the event of loss of a gear or gears??

I can do a broken clutch cable ... or, on a cold humid day, spark plugs in the oven. Half a potato all over the windscreen?

 

[Howardh]

The Chancellor drinking whisky delivering the budget!

 

[dangie]

Vehicle starting handles.

 

[Howardh]

Vehicle starting handles.

It had a specialist name; think it was "grandad".

 

[najaB]

One anachronism that I'd like to see return is the indicator/dip stalk on the right, where it always used to be until a ridiculous EU harmonisation in the 1980s (?).

Any chance you could point me in the direction of this directive?

 

[MotCO]

I suspect that there were a fair few belt and braces workarounds for specific failures of old style motor vehicles that might have limited worth with modern day vehicles.
Dimly remember something about manually rocking a vehicle if there was a jammed starter, some repair involving ladies tights, the driving technique in the event of loss of a gear or gears??

That was a repair to a broken fanbelt

 

[McRhu]

Do big-ends still go or is that anachronistic now too? I remember the words 'big end' were always accompanied by the sucking of breath through clenched teeth and a shake of the head.

 

[DelW]

Any chance you could point me in the direction of this directive?

No, it's a recollection from forty years ago, which is why I put in the question mark. But prior to about 1980 all my cars had indicator/dip stalks on the right, and after 1980 they all had stalks on the left. I'm sure it was alleged at the time to be a consequence of a European harmonisation rule, but maybe it was just an early anti-EU myth?

(Edited to add) Having looked at some old internet chats where the subject has come up, there seems to be a consensus that most cars changed sides in the early 1980s, but not why. Some suggested an EU directive, others that it was just European manufacturers standardising (with LHD models) for economic reasons. It does seem that far-eastern manufacturers stayed with switches on the right long after European ones changed.

Most but not all contributors agreed that a right-side switch was preferable in an rhd car though.

 

[GordonT]

Vehicle starting handles.

I vaguely remember my father giving the car engine the occasional couple of rotations of the starting handle even when not in use to totally fire up the engine. Unsure why he did this however.

 

[DelW]

I vaguely remember my father giving the car engine the occasional couple of rotations of the starting handle even when not in use to totally fire up the engine. Unsure why he did this however.

Before multi-grade oils were developed, engine oil could be quite thick and gloopy when cold. Turning the engine over a few times by hand first could make it easier for the starter motor. Starters were much less powerful than now, especially in cars with 6 volt electrics.

 

[Killingworth]

Dimly remember something about manually rocking a vehicle if there was a jammed starter, some repair involving ladies tights, the driving technique in the event of loss of a gear or gears??

This afternoon my wife and I were driving up the A1 towards Alnwick and I reminisced about my father's excitement in the early 1950s to be driving up the first bit of dual-carriageway in rural Northumberland just north of Felton (70 years later it's still not dualled all the way from Newcastle to Alnwick, let alone to Berwick and Scotland.)

However my wife shot back her earliest memory of that stretch of road when we'd borrowed her father's old Hillman Minx. The exhaust blew not far north of Morpeth and got noisier as we proceeded. Finally we stopped. Apparently I borrowed her tights to bind it together with sufficient success to get back home without the ear shattering din.