Carabela transmission.

[Jim B PEI]

I am certainly the Elephant Boy this week.

It has been several decades since I saw a pristine Carabela (Argentian Embassy, Ottawa ON) or a Carabela period (Burlington Vermont annual convention--Mike? Knittel's?? Carabela)

I know that they all came with straight shift, no overdrive (and no automatic), but wasn't it a floor shift? The one I saw in Vermont had one, but that might have been an after the fact fix. What model and make of 3 speed was it? B/W T86 or another model? If they came with a floor shift instead of a column shift, how was this attained? Again, I am thinking possible Studebaker interconnectivity  with Kaiser & Jeep

[joefrazer]

The Carabela was factory equipped with a column shift mechanism. Because it was made of pot metal and wore quickly, the chances of seeing a floor shift retrofit is pretty good. I've seen 2 done this way. Though I didn't have a chance to dig into how it was done, my guess is that BW 3 speed setup could be adapted to work.

[Fid]

Lance Johnson gave me a ride in his Carabella last year and I think it had overdrive but I can't be sure on that. It definitely had column shift. It's a very nice example with original paint on it.

[Jim B PEI]

Of course, fitting in an overdrive to a Carabela where none existed previously would be a very obvious and positive thing to do!