can't find reverse!

[shelby987]

This is actually more of a funny/irritating story.
I have been really busy the last couple of days with work and trying to get my truck ready to go pick up another truck in indy, so yesterday I had to have my girlfriend take my truck to the hitch shop to get a hitch put on it (yes she drives my truck, and she is quite good at it....unlike some others). Well, I guess she got there (completely forgot all the stuff I told her to ask/request before buying the hitch), but she handed over the keys and was told it would be 30-45 mins. Well, 10 mins later a guy comes back from behind the counter and tells her that something is wrong with the truck, the kid trying to pull it into the bay can't get it into reverse. She walks to the back lot to find this 18yo trying to put my transfer case into reverse.....it was moved out of the space she had parked it in (so obviously he got it to move at some point......thank god I wasn't there I think I would have made the kid cry! She tried to explain, its a column shifter.....3 on the tree.....the guy didn't get it, so she ran it through the gears.....still didn't get it, I guess he tried to toss the linkage around like an automatic column shift.....she offered to pull it into the bay for him but was told "sorry, that's a liability".....my response....."how about you replace my syncro's and transfer case then....I am pretty sure you are now liable for those!"

If you don't know, ask! This is a new low from the guy that used a sawed off broom handle to prop up my hood a while back when he couldn't find the hood prop (then told me that they didn't put a huge dent in my hood with it.....but when you scrap the red paint off the broom handle under the hood of a black car....you don't have much ground to stand on)


I will step down now!

[1969K10]

I used to love my column shift for that very reason, built in theft deterent!!! There is a guy that works here, that I took to pick up his car after work one day. He just kept watching me shift. Now, he drives manuals, so he understands, but he never could grasp the shift pattern! I miss that old 3 on the tree

[TruckinDaddy]

Neighbors dont want to borrow an old truck with a 3 on the tree, either!

[LONGHAIR]

"Back in the day" my mom had a '70 Maverick that had the 3 on the tree shifter.....and a similar "but worse" story. She had it painted in '79 or '80, just because the original paint had faded. There was absolutely no damage to the car at all, strictly a scuff and shoot on a perfect car. Dad took her to the shop to pick it up when it was done. They pay the man and he sends his helper to bring it around to the front door for her. The kid comes back a few minutes later with the most mortified look you ever saw. The car had been backed up the the building in the storage area......right in front of one of those big Y shaped fire hydrants mounted on the wall. He apparently had never seen a 3 on the tree, and with it parked in reverse, he assumed that it was an automatic (in park). He turns the key............and you guessed it, backed it right into the hydrant. Killed the deck lid, taillight panel, bumper, quarter extensions and mangled the trunk floor and one quarter panel.
Expensive lesson and an even better reason for a clutch safety switch on the starter.
Speaking of that, has that ever become law? I know that my '98 S-10 has it, but I used to own an '86 Mazda truck that didn't.

[Longhorn Man]

yeah, it's federally required.