Re: alfa-digest V9 #347

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, March 17, 2003, at 06:52 PM, alfa-digest wrote:

> Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 17:47:44 -0700
> From: alfacybersite <acs@domain.elided>
> Subject: Don't believe this applies to Alfas
>
> While hardly brought up to be a major flame (boy if I'd only thought of
> comparing Formula 1 to NASCAR...speaking of apples and oranges) I do
> have a few unanswered questions regarding  'preselective gearboxes
> (NAC)'. (What's a NAC?).
>
> Thanks Nicky, John, Bill, George, Will, James. Mind if I call you by
> your first names?
>
> So how comes the Coatal has 1 thru 4 and no R on their selector?
The Cotal Gearbox has no R on it because Reverse was engaged 
mechanically via a small lever on the transmission tunel IIRC.


> My 'Made in England' automotive encyclopedias states (under Cord):
> (We're talking 1935 here) "After all, the initial production target was
> around 1000 cars a month, and surely the transmissions would be ready
> soon. They were not...."
>
> Since the book's in English (as opposed to American English), I'm
> assuming they would have said if it was a Wilson (or even a Cotal)
> design. Did Auburn - Cord - Duesenberg start with one of the above two
> designs and try to modify or did they try to reinvent the wheel - or 
> did
> they start with one of the above two, try to modify, and then squeak
> by...eventually? I have seen Cords actually move (and assume) shift
> gears / have their gears shifted.
The Cord preselector gearbox was designed by the same company who built 
the Cord's V-8 engine (Lycoming, I believe, but it might have been 
Continental.) It was a vacuum operated design using manifold vacuum to 
actually shift the gears. My dad owned a supercharged 812 sedan for a 
while when I was away in college. I drove it a number of times. My main 
impression was that the thing didn't work very well (the car had 
recently been overhauled, and things were SUPPOSED to be as new, but in 
those days, who knows what passed for a restoration). It had the same 
problem that the old vacuum-powered windshield wipers had, they only 
really worked during times of greatest manifold vacuum, decelerating 
and accelerating. At sustained speeds, there wasn't much vacuum and 
most windshield wipers would stall. The gearbox worked the same way. 
Under hard acceleration, the gearshift worked as advertised - you 
placed the little gear 'switch' in first, let out on the clutch and 
gave it the accelerator and the car would take off in first, remove 
your foot from the gas pedal, and simultaneously pump the clutch and 
the lever would flick into second and second gear would engage. To down 
shift, you moved the lever to the next lower gear and then worked the 
gas pedal and clutch as you normally would in a manual transmission 
car. To shift up merely pump the clutch again. If you accelerated 
briskly, it worked fine, if you accelerated in a leisurely manner, 
there was a long pause and a big clunk as the car slooowwwwlllyyy 
changed gears. This is nothing like the vacuum-hydraulic Wilson 
pre-selector or the ultra-quick Cotal electric as far as I can tell.



> Biba
> Irwindale, CA USA
George Graves
'86 GTV-6
now with 3.0 liter 'S' engine
and Power Steering
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