"Martin Underwood" wrote in message
s.com...
"Bill Hayles" wrote in message
...

When you say "back to front" do you mean that the layout was:

3 1
4 2

That's the way some of the Guy Arab utility double-deckers were set out.

When people refer to "crash gearbox", do they literally mean one without
synchromesh (ouch!) or just a manual gearbox as opposed to a pre-selector,
clutchless or automatic? The thought of having to drive a car without
synchromesh shares me ****less. As a matter of interest, how long did it
take to acquire the sixth sense of how much to blip the accelerator while
double-declutching to allow the new gear to engage? With a synchromesh
gearbox, I've found the best way to do a clutchless gearchange is to
slightly over-rev the engine and let it slow down to the correct speed
when
the gear will engage under slight pressure on the gearlever; is the same
true of a non-synchromesh gearbox?

No synchromesh. If you do a clutchless change on a synchromesh gearbox, the
synchromesh cones will align the speeds if you are a little out of synch.

50 or 60 years ago, almost all cars had crash gears on bottom, and Rovers
had it on first and second gears, but they also had a freewheel, as I
recall. The Bedford OB, for example, had a crash gearbox, while the Dennis
Lancet III had a crash box on 1 to 4, but a pre-selector overdrive 5th
speed. Some were "constant mesh" gearboxes, where dog clutches engaged the
gears.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
75th Anniversary 2004, see http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/