Unknown floor button

[chasebh50]

I recently purchased a 1950 Coronet with the Gyro-Matic badge however I noticed that there wasn't any special linkage or sensors on the carburetor that you'd expect to find with the automatics. There is however is a button on the floor (that is stuck) right in the middle of the clutch/brake pedal. 

Does anyone know what that button is for? I couldn't quite see it last night looking in through the engine bay. Or is that just a footrest like what Ford used to do in the Model A/Ts? 

How do I go about figuring out if I have the Gyro-Matic or something else? Is the lack of stuff on the carburetor a giveaway that it's not?

[sidevalvepete]

Not sure what yours is but my headlamp dip switch lives there. 1938 version though....

[chasebh50]

I'll have to check again because I'm pretty sure the dimmer switch is in the usual place off on the upper left side of the floorboards.

[Plymouthy Adams]

check to see if possible aftermarket pump for windshield washer

[Doug&Deb]

If you don’t have the kick down switch and dashpot on the carb it’s probably not a Gyromatic. Check the casting number on the carb. For Gyromatic it’s a BXVES. With the 3 speed and fluid coupling it’s a BXVD-3. Coronet usually had the Gyromatic but I’m aware of one that has the 3 speed so it’s possible. I agree that the button is probably windshield washer.

[chasebh50]

Had someone else suggest it may be a manual kickdown button to make up for the fact I have a different carburetor on it.

The stamping numbers are some kind of DD series carburetor, it somehow got stamped twice so I couldn't quite read the full serial number. 

I'll do some digging tonight after work, think the best way to tell would be to pull the inspection cover and see if there's the two big soup cans on it. 

[Doug&Deb]

Is there a first gear position on the column? Gyromatic won’t have that.

[chasebh50]

The button has a larger cylinder underneath the floor but doesn't seem to be hooked up to anything. Almost looks like some kind of vacuum switch. 

I can also pull up on the shifter and shift down into 1st gear but without pulling it can (slowly) start off in 2nd and 3rd gear

[Frank Gooz]

Good chasebh50,

I also have a 1950 Dodge Coronet with a Gyro matic. and i do not have a pedal or button on the floor like yours.

This car has the dimmer on the left side of the clutch pedal.

Hope this helps.

 

Frank 

[Doug&Deb]

Have you checked the trans for the governor and solenoid? Also check the air cleaner brace. Gyromatic cars will have a circuit breaker attached. If you have first gear position you have a 3 speed with the fluid coupling. I have no idea what that button is. After 70 years it’s hard to tell what previous owners have done.

[Young Ed]

Is the part under the floor shaped like a football? That's the pump for a manual windshield washer as Plymouthy said.

 

[chasebh50]

Not football shaped and I couldn't find a reservoir for washer fluid. The carpet has frozen to the floor so I wasn't able to get to the inspection cover, I'll peel it out sometime this weekend.

[greg g]

Usually gyromatic cars had emblems on the dash board, glove box, or on the trunk lid, a for a year or two embossed into the rear bumper.  Any sign of them?

[chasebh50]

Has the emblem on the side fender by the doors on either side but I don't recall anything else

[MarcDeSoto]

If this is a running driving car, you can start out in 3rd, stick shift down, go up to 13 mph, let go of the gas for a second, and listen for a click and an upshift to 4th.  If it does that, you have a Gyromatic.  Also as said above check for the circuit breaker on the air filter support.  

[busycoupe]

It is possible that the extra button was installed to use an older starter motor that did not have a starter solenoid.  My 48 Dodge has just such a foot pedal.  Mine is higher on the firewall and goes through to no where on the engine side.  I keep thinking that I should remove it, but so far it has not caused a problem.  Does yours end somewhere over the back of the starter on the engine side of the firewall?

Edited February 2, 2022 by busycoupe
add photo

[Plymouthy Adams]

18 hours ago, Young Ed said:

Is the part under the floor shaped like a football? That's the pump for a manual windshield washer as Plymouthy said.

 

 

This is just of the aftermarket kits for the windshield washers......found seven of these once, NOS kits, in an old building south of Macon....bought 5 of them as eye candy/bait for my table at the swap meets.   NOTHING FOR SALE HERE....all were sold long ago.

 

 

 

 

 

[CaptainGTX]

I'm with Plymouthy.  Looks like a floor pedal for a windshield washer.  If so, and if it was ever functional, you should have nozzles on the cowl directed toward the windshield.

[Eneto-55]

My 62 Chrysler Newport (first car) had a manual windshield washer, but it was a rubber bulb (like half of a rubber ball), mounted to the right and above the dimmer switch.  (Naturally it was an automatic.)  I saved it when I parked that car for the last time, but a couple of years ago, when we were cleaning out Dad's shop, I came across it, and the rubber was totally deteriorated.  I should have kept it anyway, but I was in a rare element of cleaning up, and I tossed it.  (The water reservoir was a bag, hanging on the cowl.)  I remember that it already didn't work anymore when I had the car, because I remember stopping once in Iowa someplace (in a closed fast-food parking lot) to clean the windshield, and I had no more than gotten out and grabbed a handful of snow when a cop rolled up and asked what I was doing there at night.  I explained, but he just told me to move along.  ("We don't like your kind here." was the unspoken meaning.  I was a "Jesus Freak", so I looked like a hippie - it was in the middle to late 70's.)

[greg g]

Go to allpar.com, do a search for fluid drive, read everything there, them search transmissions and read all the M 6 related material.  Then go to the Imperial Club site, find the repair section, and check out the semi automatic sections for the M6 version.

[chasebh50]

The other side of the button has a canister that looks similar to the one Plymouthy posted. Guess that figures that out.

Now to get it up to speed and see if it shifts on its own.