I was quite amazed when I've seen in that old auto book that I have that you could use the throttle lever as a cruise control form. I don't know if you could add this option at "Renault" 12, but at the Romanian version, "Dacia" 1300 you could put some kind of it.
But why they quited this option on cars? So it could be used as for accelearation too?

But what put on the move those old windscreen wipers?: electricity or vacuum?

I see Horn, Lighting control, and spark control on that steering wheel... The spark control would have an effect on the engine output but wasn't the same thing as throttle...Basically vacuum advance wasn't a thing in Fords yet when the model-A came to be. So Ford connected a linkage from that steering wheel control to the distributor and the driver became the vacuum advance computer...The only real advantage to that system I can think of was that back around the time of the Models T&A gas was pretty inconsistent and could be rather lousy....Manual spark control meant the driver could easily adjust the engine tune to avoid the damage of pinging/detonation regardless of what type of fortified water/strong liquor was in the gas tank.

Telecolor: the wipers in the A were probably human powered just like in the model T....Vacuum powered wipers if they were a thing then would have been only for luxury cars and would have trickled down to cheaper berands gradually. Once powered wipers became the norm they were primarily vacuum powered up into at least the mid 50's IIRC. I believe a fair number of cars still had vacuum wipers into the 60's.

They likely stopped the throttle lever because of safety. In a panic stop, you'd have to have enough cognitive function to think that you need to put the lever down in order to stop. Especially on an old car with only rear brakes that could barely stop the car, nevermind the car AND the engine. That, or if you just died at the wheel, the car would keep going until it crashed into something.

As far as I can tell, Model A's had a vacuum powered wiper. It may have been optional equipment, not sure. The vacuum motor is visible in that picture, though. Google 'ford model A vacuum motor.'
It's hard to spot. Read the bit under 'Instrument panel light.'

Some people died with rhe foot on the accelaration pedal.
They could do a systmem that canceled the throttle lever when you pressed the brake pedal.

But I wonder if I can add on steering colum a throttle lever (at least one that have 2 positions: off - a liitle bit of fuel) so I will not be force to press the acceleration pedal when changing down.

Of course you could do that. Just a matter of rigging some parts together to do what you want. Have you learned how to drive a stick yet?

No. Some one sayed he will come with a car and going to me on the auto poligon, but he didn't (yet).

And in Romania you have to modify the car in order to have double command (meaning the person that seats next to the drivers haves command pedals too) in order to be able to drive it before you have the exam and to pass the exam. So I fail and want to try with a preselector gearbox, I will have too look for another country to give the exam.
Very many years ago the double command wasn't needed in Romania.

Well that sucks. That means you basically HAVE to use a driving school to get your license, right? Hopefully your friend will just let you drive his car around a parking lot or something :/

Yes, I must use a driving school.
In Bucharest we have an auto school poligon where you can go and drive even if you don't have a driving licence. Hope one day I will get with somebody there and get a drive. I would want to try a manual gearbox car with column shifter, but theese are rare today, since most of the old cars that had it went to scrap after the "increase of the standard of living" or are not roadworthy.
But how is U.S.A.?
And why in U.S.A. it's mandatory that new cars have to have sealed light beams.

I think the lighting laws go back to right before or after WW2... The Sealed Beam system was apparently MUCH better than what they had at the time, which varied tremendously across the country..

IIRC sealed beam headlights have not been mandatory for most of my life. I think they were mandatory from the 40's to the mid 80's here...Then the government created standards that the separate bulb and reflector/lense types that are now prevalent here use.

There are probably still new column shift cars sold here...My 2002 Chevy Suburban has a column shift automatic transmission as factory equipment...Same as my 1978 Lincoln.

Now sealed beams aren't any longer mandatory in the U.S.?

You are correct.
https://www.carid.com/articles/brief...hts-in-us.html

As a Europeanen I find strange some of the past regulation reguarding hadlamps in U.S.A.

The requirement for sealed beams dates back to the early days of electric light. Cars (if you were lucky enough to have that new-fangled electricity on your car!) used to have a small light bulb inside a big lens housing, just like today. But because of light bulb technology being rather poor back then, the filament burning off would blacken the inside of the glass bulb and it would make very little light, which would be very dangerous to drive at night. Especially since halogen lights were not a 'thing' yet. So for safety's sake, the government said you need to use sealed beam lamps, because the filament is in such a large space, that when it blackens the glass, it would only be a small part, and would still emit enough light to be safe.

Of course, light bulb tech was probably good enough by the 50s or 60s to not warrant this anymore, but it's just one of those laws that stayed on the books for too long a time. By the late 80s, the regulations were changed. Some new trucks still use sealed beams, probably just because they're easier to manufacture - and the carmaker does not need to have a headlight design approved by the Department of Traffic (DOT).

Sealed beams were a selling point for some makes pre-war but designers lost some freedom. Some makes in the late 30's had some very sleek headlight designs. Probably not that good at night, though.

In '57 some automakers designed 4 headlight systems but in some states there were laws forbidding anything beyond 2 lights. It didn't take long for those laws to get changed and soon 4 became typical outside of trucks and cheaper cars. Rectangular headlights started showing up on higher priced cars in '76 from what I've seen.

Another little oddity: halogen sealed beams aren't really one big bulb, just a glass bulb with the halogen bulb attached in the middle. Many, maybe most, now use a plastic shell and lens. Cheaper that way, I guess.

Most current sealed beams are also total garbage, made with molds that wore out in the 1990s. On the small round lights, old stock, non halogen ones are generally better than the junk Sylvania ones you can buy at AutoZone today.

Wagner did just start selling sealed beams made on new molds. I noticed them in Chevy vans on my way into work. If you pay attention to headlights you can't miss them... they have a cutoff and beam control! And like all good lights, the lens of the fixture doesn't look bright, the bright spot looks like it's behind the lens.

-J

My 2006 Jeep Wrangler still uses the large round headlights like were used in the '50's when the car manufacturers went to 12 volt. I guess they wanted the authenticity of the earlier models. Some of the 80's models, they went with the rectangular type that some of the others used. much to the dismay of the Jeep purists. :thumbsdn:

Oh, 'Jeep' Wrangler. Around 1998-1999 I've rode in one and wonder how could we go so fast when where doing 50. Well, after a time I realized that where doing 50 miles per hour, not 50 kilometers per hour.
And it had automatic gearbox. I thought 1, 2, 3 represnted the gears that you wanted to engage.

Most automatics have a low range and or a way to force a single gear for situations like being stuck in snow or mud or climbing or descending very steep hills...in most normal conditions 1, 2, 3 or Lo are not selected. Some people will manually shift through the gears of an automatic to check for damaged gears, or to try and launch faster (drag racing automatics are often designed to be used this way).

I don't know so much about auomatics. I think I only raided in 2 or 3 automobiles that hat automatic gearboxes (I rode automatic gearbox buses too, but they are different).

I wonder how did this taximeters worked (early on when I took another look on the site I've noticed they also had the picture of one used in Romania): http://www.fama.hu/index.php?mn=28&o...US-tegtlgsLBFo
The had a magentic stuff mounted on the axle like at the speedometer and then an electric cable camed or it was a far more complicated sytem.
What a mecahnical wonder inside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkahxS2HoZo

I believe the old mechanical ones would connect to the car's speedometer cable. Not sure about the newer ones.

True they where connected to the speedometer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Ib5efaw64
Now I have to find out what that cable connection did and how speedometer cable works.

Speedometer cables are driven by the output of the transmission. The cable spins, and rotates a magnet in the speedometer. It works a lot like a voltmeter... faster rotation makes more force and moves the needle further against the clock spring.

Cars with mechanical speedos, but with cruise control, will have an impulse sensor someplace... either on the back of the speedometer or in a little box in line with the cable. Then the cruise control unit counts pulses.

Electronic Taxi meters work the same way :) On newer cars they just tap into the vehicle speed signal.

Regarding selecting gear ranges in an automatic, that will do different things depending on the car.

In the 2003 F350 we had, the shift pattern was PRND321. From a stop, if you shifted into 2, the truck would move off in 2! And if you shifted into 3, it would move off in 3! Nice to have that control. It had a "5" speed automatic. Technically, it could make 6 different ratios: It was a 3 speed with an overdrive on the end. But 2 of the ratios ended up being very close. The "2" gear was actually 1st + overdrive, and 3 was really 2nd.
As the truck was warming up it would shift 1, 1OD, 2, 2OD, 3OD; when warm it would shift 1, 1OD, 2, 3, 3OD. 2OD was slightly shorter than 3, so it made the engine run 200 rpm or so faster.

In a friends 76 Mercedes, the shift pattern is PRNDSL (Drive, Slope, Low). It's a 4 speed automatic, but it moves off from a stop in 2nd in drive. If you shift into S / 3, it will move off in 2nd and then shift to 3rd only. If you put it in L / 2, it will move off in 1st, then shift to 2nd. From a stop in D, if you floor it it will kick down to 1st as the car starts moving.

In another friends 85 Mercedes, the shift pattern is PRD32. When you come to a stop in D, the transmission actually rests in 2nd gear. As you touch the accelerator, before the throttle opens, the transmission kicks down to 1st gear so you move off in 1st. This makes the car "pull" less as you're sitting at a light.

Some 78-80 Mercedes accomplished the same thing, but in a more rube goldberg method... they had a small computer box that read the pulses coming from the cruise control pickup, to know when the car was stopped. It looked at the brake light switch too. Like my friends 76, the transmission rests in 2nd gear in D at a stop. But the little box would look for the brake lights turning off after the car was stopped (ie, you took your foot off the brake), and energize the kickdown circuit to shift the transmission into 1st.

-J

And classical taximeters workes with that cable too?
How hard it was that adaptation?

I'm guessing they had the drive cable go up to the meter, then out from the meter to the car's speedometer.

Not too hard, but you'd need specialized gears, and cable ends.

And the cable spined or?

A speedometer cable has a thick outer casing, and an inner part that spins.

Here's some info from the Mk2 VW Service Manual:

http://eva2.homeip.net/eva2/BD01/ch4.1.1.html

The drive gear has a different number of teeth depending on the final drive / differential ratio of the transmission. This results in the same number of rotations of the cable for all transmissions.

-J

We call that the rabbit gear. It's completely stupid if you ask me. Most Mercedes all the way up into the 2000's start in 2nd, and are designed to do so. I've yet to find one that actually shifts to 1st when you pull off. They all start in 2nd and only drop down to 1st if you really gas it.

This leads to people thinking they have a transmission problem, and - quite frankly - making Mercedes cars really unpleasant to drive. Because even one with a big v8 feels like it has no balls.

On the 1980s gas S Classes, they all moved off from a stop in 2nd gear in the USA... except for the 500SEL which had the same type of auto kickdown module as the 78-80 300SD. But like the cruise control modules, bad solder joints and failed capacitors mean this is usually broken.

In europe, the Gen2 W126 (1986+) with the 722.3 transmission got a "program selector" on the gearshift. It would trigger a vacuum solenoid, which moved a pivot in the transmission throttle cable where it attaches to the transmission, making the cable shorter when in the "sport" setting and from the transmission's perspective look like you're giving it more throttle pedal. This would make it hold gear longer, and also move off in first gear from a stop. US cars never got the "program selector" until the 722.6.

The 2000s 722.6 transmission cars move off in first gear in the normal program, and use second when you select the winter program. Those are also a 3 speed + od trans, so they can apply the OD in reverse too, which it does in the winter program.

Chrysler used that transmission in all their cars until just a few years ago!

Part of the reason the 722.1 cars move off in second is the 1-2 shift is really firm. On the 300D I don't think it makes the car any faster moving off in first... it just makes more noise as the engine revs up, then BANG it shifts to second and keeps going.

-J

My Dad's 59 Mercury started in 2nd like that. The control box had no sophistication in modulating the down-shift to 1st (which it would do if you floored it), and it felt like it was going to destroy itself with the rough jerk that occurred.

I love preselector gearboxes with simple manual comand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ604sMV3Dk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_p3Y_oZMg