Having a Slush Box is not a bad thing.

[s1mp13m4n]

If your old enough to know what one is it's not so bad. Imagine the thought that went through my wifes mind when she herd me talking to a friend about the neighbors wifes Jeep. Sometimes having a German wife is funny.

For you younger guys it's slang for an automatic transmission.

Look it up and you will find no other definition.

It is when you have to measure the time it takes to find a gear with a calendar. My dad has a mint 92 Ford Flareside pickup all origional. It has the E4OD tranny in it. It shifts so soft and so slowly. The tranny slides in to gear as if you are riding a clutch. I hate it. LOL. That is how Ford set it up from the Factory. Now you can build those trannys and make them shift.

 

[DeathGrip]

It is when you have to measure the time it takes to find a gear with a calendar. My dad has a mint 92 Ford Flareside pickup all origional. It has the E4OD tranny in it. It shifts so soft and so slowly. The tranny slides in to gear as if you are riding a clutch. I hate it. LOL. That is how Ford set it up from the Factory. Now you can build those trannys and make them shift.

Trust me, it's a whole new world when it comes to transmissions. What used to be fluid and vacuum controlled is now computer just like fuel injection. Computer controlled everything. I actually like the new tech. but still like old school.

 

[BlueOvalBandit]

I still enjoy driving with a "hand shaker" myself. Sadly it's getting hard to find manuals in trucks now. I find it keeps me out of trouble. I have no free hands to play with my cell phone and all it's wiz-bang apps.

 

[DWFAN]

My dad had a '54 dodge with an automatic clutch operated first gear. He hated that car and sold it to one of my aunts. She loved it, go figure. I had a '54 Ford that operated in the same way if I remember correctly. Automatic with a clutch?
DW

 

[snubbyfan]

My '09 4X4 Tacoma's a base model 4cyl with power nothing and an MTM. The one thing I don't like is that the shifter for the transfer case is a little dial on the dash. I'd much rather prefer a proper transfer case shift lever. Other than that it's a great truck.

 

[DeathGrip]

Let's get real. I like to row my own with a poked and stroked flathead. Gotta High Boy looking for a run.

 

[Muley Gil]

My dad had a '54 dodge with an automatic clutch operated first gear. He hated that car and sold it to one of my aunts. She loved it, go figure. I had a '54 Ford that operated in the same way if I remember correctly. Automatic with a clutch?
DW

A friend of mine bought a '48 Dodge 4 door sedan that had a flathead six and a three speed tranny that had a torque converter. You could put it in third gear and dump the clutch and it would craaaaawl off. It was even slower than my Buick DynaFlow!!!!

 

[M3Stuart]

Was it the '63 Dodge Dart that had that mash-the-dash shifter for that slush box? Remember those things - looked like the radio with the buttons for the presets, but it was the shifter?

Edit: googled it, found a pic at; http://www.flickr.com/photos/davydutchy/179603649/

Turns out it was the '62 Dodge Dart...not sure if they put that on the '63 Dart...

 

[scooter123]

IIRC transmission controls were standardized in 1963 by the government and that did away with Chrysler's push button control. Prior to that standardization, shift patterns on automatics could be all over the map and in some cases people were getting forward and reverse mixed up with fatal results.

 

[NYlakesider]

IIRC transmission controls were standardized in 1963 by the government and that did away with Chrysler's push button control. Prior to that standardization, shift patterns on automatics could be all over the map and in some cases people were getting forward and reverse mixed up with fatal results.

I had a 63 Dodge Polara with a 383 4 bbl engine and it had the buttons on the dash. Car was a four door and for that reason it was a bit of a sleeper back in the street racing days of the early to mid 60s!

FWIW many of our state police cars had the #2 button removed as the troopers were winding them out too much in first gear and wrecked a lot of engines. My BIL was head mechanic at a large trooper base and he told me that!

I have or have had a 6spd MANUAL in my last 4 Vettes, but will check out the new model and if I make the switch will probably get a drive and point type trany.(auto to you non gear heads!)

 

[wundudnee]

I had a 1958 Plymouth with the push button torqueflight transmission and the golden commando DeSoto engine. The engine was factory 11 to 1 compression, big 4 barrel and dual ignition. It would only run on 104 octane gas, and it would run. It would leave black marks on the road when it shifted to second at 40mph and bark the tires when it shifted into third at 80. It couldn't be called a slush box.

 

[Gatofeo]

This recent talk about push-button automatics has me reminiscing.
I had a 1962 Chrysler Newport with push-button auto. All the instruments (gas, oil, temperature, battery) were under a bulging glass cover. Ahead of the wheel, it looked like a jukebox.
Weirdest turn signal I ever saw too: a slider on the left side of the dash. It wouldn't stay in position, and continue blinking, unless you held it.
I thought it was defective until I ran into the owner of a Chrysler 300 (the muscle car version of the Newport or New Yorker). He had the same sliding turn signal and, nope, it wouldn't stay blinking.
You turned the wheel one-handed, while the other hand kept turn signal slider to left or right.
Foolish system.
The Chrysler had lousy gas mileage, about 12 mpg from its 400-something engine, but it sure ran smooth on the highway. Got it up to 95 mph through Wyoming one time.
I was moving, and I had 5,000 rounds of assorted reloads and about 30 pounds of gunpowder in the trunk.
If I'd gone off the road, they'd STILL be hearing the echo from the blast!
Had to sell the ol' Chrysler when gas got up to around 50 cents a gallon! In 1979.
What was I thinking?
I miss the ol' cross-eyed beast (2 headlights on each side, at an angle).
The opening scene of "Love Shack" video by the B52s has a 1962 Chrysler with the band in it. Theirs is a convertible and blue, mine was a hardtop and red with a white top.
Miss that ol' beast.
When I had it, Dad borrowed it one time to take his Chrysler boat (red, with a white top) for a day's fishing in Idaho. He was grinning when he pulled out -- a red and white Chrysler towing a red and white Chrysler.
I still kick myself for not getting a photo of that!

 

[feralmerril]

I had a 1951 Dodge coronet business mans coup. It was built like a tank. It had a auto transmission. You also could shift it manually which I almost always did. If you wanted to go auto as I recall you would just leave the shift lever in third. It would go alright but it would take about 3 or 4 times as long to build up speed. I guess I shouldnt complain, seems I paid a uncle 60 bucks for it in 1963. It was sort of a car in between cars. I had limped home from out west to wisconsin with my 56 chev and she gave up the ghost when I pulled in my folks driveway! I was holding my breath the last 100 miles.

 

[CoMF]

I had a 1951 Dodge coronet business mans coup... It had a auto transmission. You also could shift it manually which I almost always did. If you wanted to go auto as I recall you would just leave the shift lever in third. It would go alright but it would take about 3 or 4 times as long to build up speed.

Just out of curiosity, did it have a Fluid-Drive transmission?

 

[therevjay]

" And then the other fella started pullin ahead. So I pulled 'er into R for race. And that's when the problem started!"

 

[skrazo]

slush box= auto
crush box= stick

In my area, it was:

stick shift = manual trans
slushbox = automatic trans

Those old Buick "Dynaflows" sounded like a guy was running a "stall converter", but the car would barely be moving.

 

[mjr]

Seldom even heard a manual called a manual. It's always called a standard. 'Round here, anyways.

A standard hasn't been standard for quite a while now. Sort of like the standard barrel on a Model 10 isn't standard anymore.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Man I haven't heard that in years!

 

[steelslaver]

Autos have came a long ways. My first car was a 55 Oldsmobile with a Turbohydromatic, then a 61 Chevy with a slippiddy slid Powerglide. Long ways from my 75 Trans Am with a built 455 and a built Turbo 400, it would spin a set of 60 series radials going from 2nd to 3rd at 95mph. The Allison behind my 7.3 is a real great unit.

Now days the drag guys are running autos and except for the real high end stuff they run high stall torque converters and a rev limiter and a line lock on the brakes. Set on the line with the rev limiter set at say 3500 and the line lock on sputtering away. At the light they release the rev limiter and line lock with a button and launch. You aren't going tto beat them with a clutch and a crash box. My brother has a Road Runner with a built 440 and a 6 pack with a 4 speed which used to be one of THE CARs and they can nail him easy.

 

[bhayles]

Well, for that matter, the only time I've ever heard a manual called a "gear box" is when it's on motorcycle.

Seldom even heard a manual called a manual. It's always called a standard. 'Round here, anyways....


Apropos of nothin', I have heard that we talks funny, 'round these parts.

A manual is either a stick or a stick shift.

Got any cackleberries down there in Florida? No? You sure? They are the same thing as rooster bullets...