Strange Hillman auto box

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Sun 4 Dec 2005 05:20
Strange Hillman auto box - mrmender
Yesterday L'escargot started a thread about the Hobbs gear box, but i sort of side traked the thread with Overdrives!Anyway
Perhaps someone may remember these, and enlighten me
As a young boy in the 60's we were friendly with & lived next door to an old boy, who had become disabled,so had decided to buy a automatic car. He bought a Hillman Minx (the rounded one before the arrow shape)
He had difficulty reversing it. My dad was frequently asked to reverse it onto his drive and take it for a service etc
This auto box was like no other i have seen since as it has some sort of a clutch & a column gear selector lever. My dad used to hate driving it as he would say it was like driving a car with no gears and did not feel in control
This was defiantly a automatic car and not something modified for the disabled
Anyone remember these... Does anyone have one?

Edited by Pugugly {P} on 14/10/2007 at 16:40

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Sun 4 Dec 2005 07:59
Strange Hillman auto box - Buster Cambelt
I believe that it was called "Easydrive" and that it was some sort of pre-select arrangement. By the time the Arrow Minxes and Hunters came along Rootes had switched to conventional autos (Borg Warner I think).
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 09:05
Strange Hillman auto box - L'escargot
I believe that it was called "Easydrive" and that it was
some sort of pre-select arrangement. By the time the Arrow Minxes
and Hunters came along Rootes had switched to conventional autos (Borg
Warner I think).


Buster,

With you mentioning the name Arrow I assume that you had some connection with Rootes design/development departments. As I recall it was an in-house model range name which wasn't used outside of the company.
--
L\'escargot.
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 09:47
Strange Hillman auto box - mare
Buster,
With you mentioning the name Arrow I assume that you had
some connection with Rootes design/development departments. As I recall it was
an in-house model range name which wasn't used outside of the
company.
--
L\'escargot.


Hardly, pretty common knowledge like Rover SD1 and Range Rover P38 etc.
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 10:59
Strange Hillman auto box - Buster Cambelt
No I'm much younger than that. I thought that "Arrow" was a pretty common monicker for the "square" Minxes, Hunters, et al. Of course "Arrow" translated to "Paykan" when the Iranians took over manufacture.

There is an amusing website (www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk/) about the Rootes products. There is a simlar Austin-Rover one at www.austin-rover.co.uk.
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 14:05
Strange Hillman auto box - mrmender
So was it a fully auto sysytem or was it more pre select?...Or a bit of both! I'm as confused as my dad was when he used to drive it!
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 17:10
Strange Hillman auto box - mike hannon
See my contribution to the Hobbs Mechamatic thread.
I think the Smiths Easidrive (if that's the correct name) used some sort of system of magnetising iron filings to take up and drop the drive, providing a clutchless gearchange.
I'm sure it was listed by the Rootes Group as an option, if not by anyone else.
Am I right in thinking that there are now modern variations on the same idea in testing or actually in production?
Please, someone, put me right if I've got this garbled
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 19:25
Strange Hillman auto box - Sofa Spud
I remember the name 'Manumatic' in relation to Rootes Group cars. A quick net search confirms this.

Cheers, SS
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 22:48
Strange Hillman auto box - jacks
I remember back in 1972 looking to buy my first car, and going to view an advertised 1964 Hillman Minx (for £35) in the advert
were the words "easy drive" and I took this to mean that the car was easy to handle. On viewing it turned to mean Easidrive - ie It was a column change gear lever but no clutch. I didn't fancy that system at all (thought it would be unreliable) and walked away...........never seen another easidrive or heard of it again until reading this thread!

I did buy...........1961 Ford Classic 1500cc, Dark Green reg no 155 EWD........rusted out completely within 12 months!
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 22:42
Strange Hillman auto box - jc
I remember magnetic filing clutches on Renault Dauphines-called the FERLEC.
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Sun 4 Dec 2005 23:06
Strange Hillman auto box - AlastairW
Doesn't the Nissan Micra CVT have a magnetic iron filing clutch?
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 16:35
Strange Hillman auto box - peterjh
I was 18 in 1961. A friend's father had a Minx with Easidrive and I had a number of rides in it. It seemed to work very well. As I understood it, iron filing were churned up in a magnetic field by the engine and, when they were going fast enough the effectively solidified and this somehow caused the dry plate clutch to engage.
I also had a friend in Paris who had a Renault 4 with a Ferlec cluth, which probably operated on a similar principle. (Fer = French for iron, lec has something to do with electricity). This friend was a terrible driver and she managed to damage some gears on the drive shafts by putting her foot right down on the accelerator to get away from trafic lights (near Les Halles).
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 17:00
Strange Hillman auto box - Lud
If I remember correctly the Easidrive had an electric clutch that disengaged when the driver's hand touched the gearlever knob. The NSU RO80 had a similar arrangement although only three speeds.

I imagine one would get used to it eventually but in the few drives I have had in such vehicles I never did, and often made a dog's dinner of gearchanges and so on.

Although slightly easier to get used to, the DS Citroen's pneumatically operated gearchange was also awkward at first, as there were quite long pauses between moving the lever and something happening. You had to get the timing right.

Paris traffic is affected to this day by the leisurely timing of the DS gearbox. When the lights change to green in Paris, there's a 1.5 second pause before anyone moves, not like London where some are off like wheelspinning jackrabbits on the amber.
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 18:04
Strange Hillman auto box - Armitage Shanks {p}
Citroen gearbox was hydraulic LUD, just another part of the mechanical nightmare!
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 18:10
Strange Hillman auto box - Lud
Yes, hydro-pneumatic, worked off the same system that ran the suspension and brakes.

Not such a nightmare really. Citroen made a lot of examples, people loved the car and still do, and French mechanics coped with it all right. In the end though the last DSs had a five-speed column-change conventional transmission I think.

However the leisurely takeoff from rest was still necessary owing to the suspension, which didn't like wheelspinning starts.
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Mon 15 Oct 2007 10:53
Strange Hillman auto box - Clanger
However the leisurely takeoff from rest was still necessary owing to the suspension which didn't
like wheelspinning starts.


I have no experience of Paris traffic but leisurely takeoff could have been the result of the extensive adjustments to the gearchange and clutch engagement being neglected at service time because of the time the procedure took. Both clutch engagement and gearchange speed are adjustable to take account of wear in the clutch. The procedure can take up to an hour and is described in detail in my grubby copy of Autobooks Citroen DS manual.

The rallying Citroens of the '70s were almost exclusively fitted with the semi-auto box because it was much easier to get a snappy gearchange with the assistance of 2000psi of hydraulic pressure than waggling the long column-mounted manual lever.
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 17:18
Strange Hillman auto box - John S
Yes, I remember an Uncle had an 'easydrive' Minx. IIRC (I was very young at the time)it had only two pedals plus a button on the top of the gear lever knob. Pressing the button disconnected the (I believe) electromagnetic clutch.

The driver presed the button, selected first and the car drove away like an auto. Gears were shifted manually, the driver pressing the button as the gears were shifted.

JS
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 17:33
Strange Hillman auto box - Ruperts Trooper
My very first car, in '67, was a '56 Hillman Minx with column change manual gearbox - if the car referred to by OP had a clutch pedal then it sounds the same.
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 18:01
Strange Hillman auto box - jc2
A number of manufacturers used a vacuum cyliner controlled by a buton on the gear lever to operate the clutch.
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Sun 14 Oct 2007 23:07
Strange Hillman auto box - DrS
I recall that uncle Bill had such a motor, which he had 2 new gearboxes in, within a year.
Utterly hacked off with it, he tried to get a manual box fitted, but the guy at the garage told him it was impossible to do, so he sold him the "wreck" for a monkey.
A fortnight later, there was the same Minx for sale at £450, with manual gearbox fitted!

Further to other comments, I had an "Automatic" beetle, which had a hydraulic clutch actuation mechanism, triggered by moving the gear lever, just the two pedals, and "manual" gear changes. Also had a fluid flywheel / torque convertor, so you could crawl / stop / pull away again, just with accelerator.
Worked quite well!
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Mon 15 Oct 2007 01:14
Strange Hillman auto box - Pete M
A number of manufacturers used a vacuum cyliner controlled by a button on the gear
lever to operate the clutch.


I remember this was an available option for the Standard 10 that I had, and was known as a 'Standrive' system. I have never seen one in the flesh, perhaps they weren't popular. I imagine there must have been some system to modulate the speed of the clutch actuation, or some kangarooing would have been seen.

Edited by Pete M on 15/10/2007 at 01:16

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Mon 15 Oct 2007 07:52
Strange Hillman auto box - Falkirk Bairn
I remember this was an available option for the Standard 10 that I had and
was known as a 'Standrive' system. I have never seen one in the flesh perhaps
they weren't popular. I imagine there must have been some system to modulate the speed
of the clutch actuation or some kangarooing would have been seen.


When I was about 12 and on my way to school I passed a Standard 10 Easidrive - Black.
1958 or thereabouts. About 2 yrs later it was repalced - but ta that time 2 yrs was quite common to buy new as the rust would have started
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Mon 15 Oct 2007 08:36
Strange Hillman auto box - jc2
They were fitted with a one-way restrictor in the vacuum line so that the clutch came out quickly and fed back in slowly-very few were sold and the option was quickly dropped.Most manufacturers offered similar system-the Hobbs and a similar system were also dropped very quickly.
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Fri 7 Jun 2019 14:28
Strange Hillman auto box - Brian Rigert

Hi and greetings from the land of OZ,

I would not be too certain but there was a version of the Hillman Minx sold here in the early 1960s as a Hillman LDA. This model had what I recall as a Rootes Auto selectric gearbox that was very unusual in it's design and operation. It had a electrically energised coupling that contained iron filings that sat between two rings. When the current flowed into an energising coil, the powder locked the drive and driven rings. between gear changes, the power was cut and a massive solenoid made the change from first to second gear. Third was much smoother but I do not recall how that happened.

This was an up-market rof the car and it had the walnut trimming on the dashboard and other goodies that I can not recall as it was quite some time back.

What really impressed was the fact that the controller for the transmission contained transistors. These where only developed in the late 50s and early 60s and to see them in commercial use in '63 or '64 car was very surprising.

I seem to recall that these may have been assembled here by Commercial Motor Vehicles so models may not align with the English versions.

I hope this helps.

Cheers, Brian

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Fri 7 Jun 2019 14:43
Strange Hillman auto box - Brian Rigert

Hi there

Just located this link that really describes the transmission much better than I ever could.

It is a Smiths Easydrive in the UK.

www.andymurkin.net/Hillman/Hillinfo/Easidrive.html

The model that I am familiar with had a 1600 engine and a much upgraded electirics system to cope with the high electrical demands of the power coupling. Despite this upgrade, I remember having to use a crank handle to kick the motor over and the battery was regularly overloaded by the current drain of the gearbox.

Brian

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