Comical Transmission Article

[60FlatTop]

Google popped this article up during a search for Dynaflow related stuff. I read it and was reminded of the Cadillac Buyer's Guide written by Richard Langworth, reading his book you know he hates Cadillac.

I raised my children to be wary of articles since my observation has been the author's prime objective is to put a couple bags of groceries on the table.

 

Happy reading. Made me laugh: https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-of-the-worst-automatic-transmissions-ever/

I'd love to see the research notes.

[NTX5467]

The late David Corbin happened upon a Self-Shifter Buick at a swap meet in Arlington, TX years ago.  Turned out the car was sold about 65 miles south of Arlington, when new.  He traced the car's history, which was amazing.  BUT he also researched the history of that transmission, also used in Oldsmobiles (with rear leaf springs to asborb the shift-shocks, a key reason many more Oldsmobiles were sold with that transmissions than Buicks).  From what I recall David saying about the three years of production of the Self-Shifter, he might have some differences to discuss with the author of that article.  He also had determined the reason that the Self-Shifter sold bertter in Oldlsmobiles than Buicks, too.  Additionally, that it was the pre-cursor of the later 4-speed HydraMatic.

 

Regarding the "Ford-O-Matic", there were actually TWO different transmissions with that name.  The orig FOM was actually a 3-speed automatic of Borg-Warner design, but in normal "D", would start in 2nd gear, but if the accel pedal was floored from a full stop (or low speed), the trans would downshift into "full Low" and then upshift into 2nd and 3rd gears.  You could also use all three forward gears by selecting "L" and then shifting into "D" as road speed increased, which made a big difference in performnce!  I discovered that in my grandmother's '58 Fairlane Tpwn Sedan (292 2bbl w/FOM),  By bomparison, the upscale "Cruise-O-Matic", with its dual-range quadrant, would do similar if it was in D2, but using all three forward gears in D1.

 

The 1960 2-speed FOM, for Falcon use, was a different transmission, downsized to match the new Falcon's needs.  Only two forward gears

 

Just some observations,

NTX5467

[JBP]

The Hagerty article is pointless, as you rightly observe, Bernie; a smattering of Wikipedia tech history with a few additional sentences of sweeping condemnation. 
 

Falls under the “I owe one more piece before year-end and have to get something out the door” kind of writing. Yawn.