1949 Windor - Transmission Low and High ranges

[George Miller]

I recently acquired a 1949 Windsor with Fluid Drive. It has two ranges - a low range with first and second gears and a high range with third and fourth gears. At what speed should you shift from low range to high range?

[Guest De Soto Frank]

The semi-auto was designed for the driver to "pick a range and stay there"...

"Low Range" operates between 1st & 2nd gears, and is primarily for steep hill, snow, sand, or "quick getaway" (take that one with a grain of salt!)

"High Range" operates between 3rd & 4th gears, and is for most "normal driving": flat raods, highway travel.

The car will take-off at a very dignified pace when starting from a stop in "Hi-range".

No matter how you drive it, it's not going to win any drag races; this was constant "performance" complaint with the Chrysler semi-autos from about 1946 through 1954 (last MoPar semi-auto)... but up until about 1950, the only fully-automatic tranny that really performed any better was GM's four-speed Hydramatic.

The first Powerglides and Dynaflows were smooth, but slow...

If you want the quickest getaway from your "Presto-matic", start in Low-Range, let it go through the automatic upshift into 2nd, accelerate again, then manually shift into High-Range... essentially you'll be getting a "1-2-4" shift...

Bear in mind that all Chrysler semi-autos are four-speed MANUAL transmissions that have an internal gizmo that provides an automatic up/down shift between the two speeds of either range. You still have to take your foot off the gas and wait for it to up-shift, just like a stick. These will NOT upshift under load, like a true automatic.

The emphasis at the time of their introduction (1941) was relieving the driver of that terrible burden of clutching and shifting gears... Hudson, Studebaker, and Packard also offered various "semi-automatic drive" packages through about 1948.

Also, make sure the idle speed is not set too fast on your Chrysler: no more than 500 RPM. If the idle is set too fast, it will cause problems with the automatic up-shift.

Good luck !

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[Guest imported_BaronvonR]

As to what speed you shift from low to high depends what kind of speed you are looking for.....being consevative I find that between 25-30 is right....but I just leave mine in High and let the "clunk" happen...around the same 25-30 range.

BvR

[grog]

I normaly drive mine in 3rd gear and let off the gas around 20-25 mph and wait for the click...If using the 1st-2nd gear range I let off the gas around 10 mph for the click. Mark