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1934 PE Deluxe Dash Knob Question


Jim34Plymouth
Go to solution Solved by TodFitch,

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Curious as to what the middle pull-knob between the choke and throttle is for.  I traced the cable to the engine compartment firewall and found it was cut off there.  I ordered the owners manual which will give me the answer, but it hasn't arrived yet.  The knob seems like it has 2 positions, half way out and a further stop.  And a button built into the knob that must be pushed in to allow the knob to be pushed back in.  Thanks in advance.

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Cool, I just read about auto clutch/freewheeling on wiki.  Does your 33 auto clutch/freewheeling work?  And do you use it often? I can see using it to coast down a big hill.  What other scenarios would you use it?   I wonder if they were very reliable or expensive to repair?  My 34 obviously had issues with it and someone (long ago) decided to eliminate the cable from the firewall to wherever it goes (clutch?). 

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8 hours ago, Jim34Plymouth said:

Cool, I just read about auto clutch/freewheeling on wiki.  Does your 33 auto clutch/freewheeling work?  And do you use it often? I can see using it to coast down a big hill.  What other scenarios would you use it?   I wonder if they were very reliable or expensive to repair?  My 34 obviously had issues with it and someone (long ago) decided to eliminate the cable from the firewall to wherever it goes (clutch?). 

As noted by @Doug&Deb the main purpose of freewheeling and automatic clutch was to make shifting easier. It wasn’t until 1935 that Plymouth got synchronizers in the transmission. With freewheeling to stop the wheels from spinning the transmission output shaft and automatic clutch to disconnect the transmission input shaft you could move the shift lever from one gear to the next silently without using the clutch even when stationary. If only the freewheeling was engaged (middle position on the cable pull) the you would need to use the clutch for when starting but could shift between gears without clutching or making grinding noises when the car was moving.

 

The automatic clutches were troublesome and got in the way of servicing other parts of the drivetrain so they usually were removed and discarded. I was able to find one that I was going to install on my car but the control valve mechanism was badly worn (no filter on the vacuum in port and driving on dusty roads would quickly do that). I installed it without hooking it up to the vacuum for show purposes only but it got in the way of other maintenance items so it now resides on a shelf in the garage.

 

As for freewheeling, it works on my car but I leave it locked out all the time.

 

If you want to scare the cr*p out of yourself, engage the freewheeling in hilly (or worse mountain) terrain. The tiny little brakes fade pretty quickly, really only good for one panic stop from 50 MPH or higher, and you then remember that to lock out the freewheeling you need to have the engine accelerating the car. Might not be so bad for later cars that had two inch wide brake shoes, but the 1.5 inch wide shoes on the 1933 fade pretty quickly. I think the 1934 still had the 1.5 inch wide shoes. Not sure when the went to 2 inch wide, maybe 1936 or 37.

 

I still remember the first day on my trip west in 1978 pulling a little utility trailer filled with all my (heavy) spare car parts coming out of the mountains of West Virginia. A long sweeping downhill curve ended at a traffic light which turned red just as it came into view. Normal service brakes were fading, so I gunned it enough to pull the freewheeling control then double clutched down to second, pulled the hand brake and pressed the brake pedal as hard as I could. Just barely stopped in time. And I resolved never to use freewheeling again.

 

With respect to control cable routing: The cable goes from the dash to a lever on the back of the transmission that controls the freewheeling. Another cable attached to that same lever then went forward to the automatic clutch.

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