At 02:26 PM 12/18/2014, Edward Maglott wrote:
>Loose Vanagon Transmission Inertia.  I took my van to have its automatic
>transmission rebuilt.  I had a spare automatic and offered that he could

Remember when power brakes felt it necessary to show off?  And had
very wide pedals as well, in auto-trans vehicles?  That particular
combination cost my dad some bloody children once, driving his
mother's Corvair Monza Spyder with A/T and loud pipes in a parking
lot.  And far from apologizing he shouted at them, curious
behavior.  Same thing happened when I split the end of my finger
because he didn't build a stem onto the replacement starting knob for
Grandpa's little Evinrude.  That scar lasted more than fifty years; I
kinda miss it.  And of course I understand about the yelling part
now.  I sure didn't then.

Twenty years later it startled me, driving Dad's Plymouth wagon home
with a load of concrete blocks in the back.  The wagon where he'd
bypassed the neutral-start feature with a pushbutton under the hood
(but it was my brother who got caught by that one).  When I
downshifted to come to a stop it suddenly got very cozy in the front,
but nobody was hurt.

Yours,
David