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It's only fair to FHI (to make a honorable mention of a precursor of SX4)

Since I've been bashing and trashing the transmittion engagement on the US 2005 OBS It's only fair to FHI that I report that I did indeed find a 4WD 5SP car with the stick that works far worse than 2005 OBS for US. And that is the 2001 4WD 5SP Suzuki Boleno for the euro market. Not only the switches are slow but the 3rd gear is a bit offset against the 4th. Surprisingly the 4WD action is not as bad as one would expect from a normally FWD car (I'm making an assumption 100% of power goes to front on boleno and transfer occurs only when slip is detected). I did not detect much if any wheel slip on loose snow with the UltraGrips (dedicated studless winter tire). The 9 year old frame on boleno shows signs of rust. How do US 2001 subarus fair in the rust department?

My question to the group is: it is my understanding that the shift lever was directly engaging the gears in the early-mid last century cars, but at some point an onslaught of the rubbery shift linkages began with the subsequent loss of the shift feel. Could you enlighten me about the reasons for the switch.

Reply to
Body Roll
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The distance between the shift lever inside the car and the position of the gearbox increased.

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Reply to
bugalugs

From about 1940 until about 1970 it was common to have the shift lever mounted on the steering column. Only sports cars and trucks had floor-mounted shifters. Along with the column shifter, bench front seats that seated three were usual. Safety requirements for shoulder belts and then air bags forced the change to only two seats in front. This led to today's center consoles and movement of the shifter from the column to the console.

Reply to
John Varela

and that increase was the result of switching from the classic rwd scheme to fwd/awd layouts or what? do you know what has nessessitated the distance increase itself? Are there any modern relics that still do without the shift linkages? thanks

Reply to
Body Roll

The 'on floor' shift lever has to be within comfortable easy reach of the driver so its position in the car is relatively fixed. As engine design, orientation, and placement, changed (in most cases) the gearbox stayed close to the engine and complex linkages were necessary.

Generally most FWD cars would have linkages (original BMC Mini went direct to the gearbox) while a large number of RWD would be direct. (VW, Porsche. and some Alfas which had transaxels had to have linkages)

and transmission designs changed and

Reply to
bugalugs

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