Shift lever

[Tom maxwell]

Also at the Orchard Beach Bronx NYcar show, I showed the other A model owners the method of swinging the shift lever all the way to the right which nobody was aware of. Problem was I wasn't able to give a proper answer on why Ford did this.
Was it to make more room for 2 in the front bench or was it to give a mechanic more room to work.
Any other answers

[Tom Wesenberg]

My guess would be that it just happened to be part of the design, with no intention of it being purposely made to swing around.

[ford3]

itt was not intensional, ford was such a moralist if he knew about that feature he would have scrapped the whole trans and built another one that couldnt do that, heck, he designed the body so narrow its imposible to lay down across the A, he wanted to be sure no funny business went on in his cars, LOL

[Nodakwalleyer]

I am not at home right now to try it, but Tom can you tell me the method to swing the shifter, thanks!

[30Ford]

An older gentleman showed me that a while back he said it gave more room for an another passenger ..If I remember he pulled it up and twisted it to the left

[ford3]

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30 ford, i dont think so , how did you shift when needed?

[jmeckel]

My grandfather always said it was so that a 3rd person could ride in the front. He had a coupe and always flipped it around when he shifted into 3rd. when he needed to shift down he just turned it back around. Once he got going, he said he did not shift out of 3rd very much. Based on the amount of people he packed into that car any extra inch was needed!!

[ford3]

LOL that sounds good, but if he did that to make room for another person, what did he do with that person when he did need to shift?

[Skrain]

Just wondering...was that something that was planned, or is it the same thing that mine does because of a broken weld on the bottom of a reproduction shift lever?
Mine swivels all over the place, but I can still shift perfectly well with it.
Going to get welded back into place very soon, though.

[Tom maxwell]

The method to get the shift lever to swing to the right is as follows...I have only done this with the motor NOT running...
when in neutral, lift up on the post.
it will rise after some tugging, and once it is up about an inch, the lever will swing to the right.
I dont think you can do this with the motor running as it raises one of the turning gears i believe.
I have been to many shows and only 1 perrson was ever aware of this feature.
Still looking for the reason Ford put this in, or maybe there wasn't any exterior reason, just internal workings of the trasmission.

[ford3]

if it was done on purpose Ford would have mentioned it in the owners manual or the sales brocher, i wonder who first found about it? a very resourceful young man i bet? LOL

[KGBnut]

Pop always told me that this was to fit a third passenger, but I don't buy it. It is much too clumsy to try and swing it to the side while moving...likely harder with someone crammed in the middle.

Also, here in New England, you rarely go more than a few minutes without shifting gears.

Is it a fun trick to show-off though. I almost never meet someone who knows about it... even amongst most knowledgeable Model A guys.

[Charles Coe]

I used to use my knee to push up on my hand to lift it up and then swing it around while driving. That seemed to make it much easier to do.

[green30coupe]

The driver-side door locks from the inside....meaning you could lock the door, swing the shift lever out of the way, slide across, get out and lock the passenger-side door with a key. Access to a locked car was done in reverse order. I understand there were laws in some places that made it illegal to exit a vehicle on the traffic side.

[clocey]

Can someone show a photo or video of this?

[zzlegend]

Well if they had drive in movies back then, I would say it swings out of the way to cop a feel! Just my warped 2 cents.

[Tom maxwell]

If nobody does a video by this weekend , I will post the shift lever shift

[Gunmetal blue2]

I was told in the 70's that it was so when you climid in you could swing the gear shift so you can slide from passager side of car to drivers side. my 2 cents

[eagle]

After some practice and the tranny loosening up a bit, it goes real easy. Just pull up on the lever and swing it to the right. When it is time to shift you just swing it back and it snaps back in place by itself. I used to do it with mine because the shift lever was bent too close to me. One day I got disgusted with it and bent it up and to the right, just where iI wanted it. I've heard people say not to bent the shifter or you'll break it, worked fine for me, bent surprisingly easily. All of the old timers used it when they had three people in the front seat. Grandpa had a 29 coupe. He would fit himself driving, grandma in the middle, great grandma in the passenger side, dad and uncle Joe up on the package tray, Arlou and Audrey on their laps, and Auntie Grace and Auntie Verna in the rumble seat. NONE of them were small people either! They would drive 45 miles one way to church meeting. I asked grandma about it in her later years and she didn't think anything of it, "Its just the way it was" "At least we had money for gas and plenty to eat, many people went hungry but we never did" Grandpa also used to send grandma to Miltona, about 15 miles, for ten 90pound bags of portland cement. She said she never drove very fast with that much in though, "I kept the gas all the way down but never got above 35 or so except down hill" is the way she descibed it. I now have the old coupe, its rough but some day I'm going to bring it back to life.