3-on-the-tree?

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RTom

RTom

Depressingly A-Bodyless..
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There is a 69 Dart 4 door slant six with 3 on the tree for sale locally that I'm kinda looking into. I just have never had a 3 on the tree before. ( I've barely even driven stick shift cars ). What can you tell me about them? If I go check this car out, is there anything I should look for specifically? ( in terms of the trans/shifting, I know about the common general mopar stuff ). Is a 3 on the tree reliable? Would it be fairly easy to drive?

Thanks for any input guys...
 
Nothing inherently bad about 3-on-the-tree setup that I know of. It will take you no time to get used to it. Just treat it kindly, don't try to bang through the gears. Memike has a video that shows how easy it is to drive.
 
I bought a Dart Sport a few years back with a 3 on the tree.I never driven one before by the time I got the car home I figured it out.My wife also learned to drive it as well.

Jim
 
goldfish65 said:
Nothing inherently bad about 3-on-the-tree setup that I know of. It will take you no time to get used to it. Just treat it kindly, don't try to bang through the gears. Memike has a video that shows how easy it is to drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll have to check out his video. So does the 3 on the tree mean 3 forward gears or 2 forward and 1 reverse? ( Sorry, really have no experience in this area ).
 
nothing wrong with them. standard H pattern. make sure it all feels tight. when they get loose i have seen them get stuck between gears.

3 forward and 1 reverse.
 
It's the same 'H' pattern as 3 on the floor - R up and close, 1 down and close, 2 up and away, 3 down and away.

Look for slop in the column linkage. Shift from 1-2, 2-1, R-3 and 3-R severl times (through the middle of the 'H') to feel for bind. You will get the hang of pulling the lever toward you on R-1 and pushing it away on 2-3 to avoid the middle for smoother shifts.

If it does bind up on you, just pop the hood, grap the big, greasy linkage and kind of give it the old "indian burn", that usually frees it up, and usually happens when you are dressed nice. Mine would always catch in second. Couldn't take off from a dead stop, so you had to hope traffic didn't stop before you could pull over!

If you are not planning to restore the car to showroom condition, a floor-shift conversion is REALLY easy.
 
Oh, one other thing about it binding up. If the lincage does bind up, only use your hands to work it free. Don't get angry and jam a big old flathead between then and pop them loose. If you do, it just makes it sloppier and easier to jam. Been there.
 
Thanks guys! The guy sellin' the car is supposed to email me some pics and, if all looks good, I hope to go look at it saturday.
 
No real complaints about 3-on-the-tree. It is NOT the way to go for fast shifts. It should not be sloppy e.g. lever should not flop around when you drive. The 1-2 shift is the most difficult to get smoothly. Don't rush it, put a little push on the shift lever as you bring it up and it should drop through the neutral (cross-gate) position without a problem.

I don't know at what point Mopar quit installing 3s with no synchro on 1st gear. If you try to downshift to first at 5 mph or less, and you hear ugly noises, you can be pretty sure that the box has an unsynchronized 1st gear. Don't try to force it into first. No synchromesh on first means that to get into first, you have to be at a complete stop. It isn't an issue when accelerating.
 
I agree with the conversion being really easy, if it's something you end up wanting to do. I had 3-on-the-tree on the '68 Adventurer I once had, and installed a Hurst floor shifter in just a couple hours myself.

P.S. I'm not recommending you do that, just saying if you do, it's easy. Try to get used to it first. The only reason I converted mine is that it was sloppy and had issues, and at the time it was easier for me to just convert than fix it.
 
Just to give you an idea about three on the tree cars.

I bought this 71 swinger for something cool to drive while restoring the cuda.

I sold it shortly after i got the cuda on the road, but I am hard pressed to tell you which car is more fun to drive, the cuda with a big horsepower small block or the dart with the much slower, but just as fun to drive three on the tree.

I never drove a three on the tree either prior to that dart but learned rather quickly.

If you can drive a stick, this is easy to learn and much more fun especially when fellow motorists are checking out your car as you are slinging the shifter coming away from the red lights.
I had so much fun driving that car and I really regret selling it.

I became quite a pro at downshifting and not grinding the gears due to the non synchromesh 1'st gear, and the power was pretty impressive on the little 198 cubic inch motor.

The guy I sold it to put a roller cam 318 motor in it and a four speed on the floor, sold the original drivetrain and put a chevy rear end in it....kinda sucks but it was his to play with.
dart-1.jpg


Wish I still had it.
 
If you do a floor conversion, go ahead and spring for a good shifter. I went through 3 or 4 cheapo shifters and eventually rounded the "ears" on the transmission. Not sure what you call them, the D-shaped knobs that go into the trans to shift it. anyway, I ended up welding the linkage to the ears to get home, then made 2 shifter handles out of flat bar, one for R-1 and another for 2-3. The shift pattern was reversed and one of the levers had to be in neutral to move the other. Once I got used to it, I could bang the gears like an ape! Faster shifts and I was the only person who could drive her!
 
I'll guarantee you it's a lot easier (and more fun) to drive than the 5 on the tree farm truck I drove one summer when I was 16! :toothy10:

R 3 5

1 2 4
 
If I do get this, it would be to use as a daily driver, and I've always heard that a manual trans ( when driven properly ) gets better mpg than an auto...
 
I was drag racing (on the streets) my dad's 62 Studebaker Lark 4 dr when I was 12..........

170 ci 6 with a 3 on the tree with overdrive and Twin Traction posi.

Man, I was cool back then!!


Stude1.jpg


Stude2.jpg
 
Manual transmision can give you the edge in MPG if you drive it right, but driving style is much more important than trans type (or even engine size) for MPG. The great thing about a manual is that you choose your shift points, smooth or agressive, MPG or MPH, it's all up to you.

Did anyone see Top Gear when they drove a Prius flat-out around their track and tailed it with a BMW M3? The BMW got much better gas milage because it was not working very hard. The Prius got really crappy milage because it was being raw-hided.

Manual also can't be beat with glass-packs, Waaaaaaaaah-pop-pop-POP!! You can't get the same sound with an auto because you can't lift and stay in the same gear. Also, you can downshift to slow down going into a corner, and get on it on the way out. OK, these are not really MPG tips, but Gods knows they are fun things to do.
 
my old blue and white 58 pick up (in the pic to your left) was "three on the tree" with a 230 flat head six nice thing was I never had to worry about anyone stealing it because they wouldn't know how to drive it
 
My 3 on the tree 68 Satelitte didn't have power steering so the only drawback was you couldn't drink a cup of coffee, smoke or talk on the phone, which come to think of you shouldn't be doing anyway while driving. Loved it and wouldn't hesitate to buy another.
 
A friend of mine has a 67 Ford Ranger, 390, 3 on the tree, and he loves it. People definitely give him that 'What the hell?!?' look while driving it, and it goes pretty good!
 
Am I feeling old? People have videos on how to drive a three on the tree? It has been around since the 30's, I think it was a Mopar thing at first and it was cable operated. Idea was to make room on the floor for a third passenger.
 
2 Darts said:
No real complaints about 3-on-the-tree. It is NOT the way to go for fast shifts. It should not be sloppy e.g. lever should not flop around when you drive. The 1-2 shift is the most difficult to get smoothly. Don't rush it, put a little push on the shift lever as you bring it up and it should drop through the neutral (cross-gate) position without a problem.

I don't know at what point Mopar quit installing 3s with no synchro on 1st gear. If you try to downshift to first at 5 mph or less, and you hear ugly noises, you can be pretty sure that the box has an unsynchronized 1st gear. Don't try to force it into first. No synchromesh on first means that to get into first, you have to be at a complete stop. It isn't an issue when accelerating.
Click to expand...

One of these will help you learn how to "double-clutch"; one you master this, you can roll up to a stop light and slip the transmission into "1st" while rolling without grinding the gears. Harder to explain how to do it than it really is. Learned how to do it on a '61 Econoline pickup truck in the early 1960s, so a 65 Barracuda 225 six three speed was a cinch after that.
 
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