Drift start

    @CDCAMEL6, I learned to drive in a '68 Galaxy 500 with a fastback and hideaway headlights. I was 12 and it was dad's car. The first stick shift I drove was a 1966 Impala, maybe was a BelAir, but not sure on that. It was a 2 door, with a 327 and 3 on the tree. Good times. I wish I could get my hands on one like it today, I really liked that car.

    Kind of a coincidence. My first car of my own was a 68 Ford XL. The 2 door version of the Galaxy 500, if I am not mistaken. Automatic with the 390 and a Holly carburetor that we put on. Put Cherry Bomb glass pack mufflers on it with some cheap ass rims!! I was a styling mo-do in high school. I know I said "Hold my beer" more than a few times in that car!!!



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    Quote from harleyujoe

    There was a tree in the car???? I am 66 and been a long time since I heard that slang..LOL
    so was there a tree in the car ??? LOL Did you break any branches off.


    No oaks, maples, or evergreens!!! I think most of it was bush!!! Probably not, but that is how I will like to remember it!!!



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    When I was 25 I bought a 56 Chevy pickup with 3 on the tree. Always had to carry a hammer with me. About once or twice a week it would lock in gear when I came to a stop and I would have to hold myself off the ground by holding on to the running board, swing under, and whack the shift linkage to get it to release. 8o Frustrating at the time but now it's a fond memory of a pickup I wish I had again. :D

    Quote from CDCAMEL6

    Kind of a coincidence. My first car of my own was a 68 Ford XL. The 2 door version of the Galaxy 500, if I am not mistaken. Automatic with the 390 and a Holly carburetor that we put on. Put Cherry Bomb glass pack mufflers on it with some cheap ass rims!! I was a styling mo-do in high school. I know I said "Hold my beer" more than a few times in that car!!!



    Sent from my iPod touch using Polaris Slingshot Info

    XL, that was what dad's was. The 1964 was a Galaxy 500 and it was also a two door. The 1972 was an LTD. I've been away from Fords for so long that I'm forgetting things about them.... or maybe I'm just getting old! I've only owned one this century, even then was only for a few months.


    @dangerdarrell I had a 1978 Chevy step side that was like that! I didn't have a hammer, but used a long screwdriver to pry between the linkage to free it. Always stuck from 1st to 2nd, and usually if I was making a quick shift. If I would make the shift slow and pronounced, it never would hang. But I was about 30 then, and it had a V8 and headers with Flowmasters.... pretty difficult for me not to drive it hard.

    My first vehicle was a motorcycle...my first car had a push button shifter on the dash board...


    The song "back when " has nothing to do with drifting...it was to point out the way the meanings of words have changed over the years. I remember when bad meant something was good. That's bad turned into badass.. Badass was good or a mean/tough guy..


    3 on a tree sounds like "winner winner chicken dinner" has nothing to do with chicken or winning. 3 was the number of gears and the shift arm sticks out from the column like the limb of a tree trunk ...Or calling it a stick because it looks like a stick from a tree that everyone played with.. Don't play with that stick you'll poke out you eye..

    Quote from Bigdog

    The ground wire you speak of....is that the one where the black battery wire connects to the frame or is there other ones? The motor should have one.


    I did check that wire beside the clutch pedal...took me about an hour to get it unstuck...the wire loom was crushed and I had to slice the loom To check the wires...they are all OK

    Yes, it is the one back by the battery. And there is a ground wire hooked to the engine also. I believe it uses a Torx bolt. And there is a ground somewhere around steering column where all the black circuit wires converge.

    34 and none of the vehicles that have ever been owned in my family had one of those that I can remember, the only time I had seen a steering column shifter was in the movies but never gave it much thought since it was always on those boat size wagons.

    Is not that I am mean, I just don't sugarcoat what I say.

    Learned to drive in a 1976 base model Chevy truck. Inline 6 with three speed on the tree and the heaviest damn clutch ever put into a vehicle.
    If you can drive that thing you can drive anything is how my father put it.
    Few of the Jeeps in the vintage collection at my day job have the tree on the tree. Only a very few of us know how to drive them.

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    Hey @Ruptured Duck, I had a 62 Cherokee with column shift. Loved that vehicle. Had the 327 Bombardier engine. Had to argue with a kid at Autozone one day when he insisted Cherokees that year only had Chevy 350s. When I took him out and showed him the original labels on the engine he said someone must have changed it out. Went back in and asked for someone old enough to know something about engines.