DRIVEMASTER?

Ol racer
Ol racer Senior Contributor
edited November -1 in HUDSON
FYI

I never had a Hudson with the Drivemaster option and curious if its a feature owners occassionally retrofit, or if a feature that gets disconnected and/or removed....

Thanks

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I think more often than not folk's give up on them and remove or disconnect them.
    They require by the book maintenance and adjustments.You read the old service bulitins and the factory was almost pulling thier hair out . Seems even the dealer service guys were not following the recomended procedures,
    Roger
  • Uncle Josh
    Uncle Josh Senior Contributor
    My 49 Commadore came to me in 98 with one all hooked up. Someone had tried to get the starter off and couldn't with the Drivemaster mechanism on.

    I removed it and it's stored in the shed. Anybody interested?
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I mentioned earlier in this forum that I am restoring a 1947 club coupe. It is the first car I ever owned. I bought it in 1960 and rediscovered it 50 years later. To get to your point,it had the Drivemaster option. I was the most popular guy at school because of the vacuum operated clutch,and the ability to shift it without using the clutch. You could also come to a complete stop in gear and not depress the clutch. All of this was done using engine vacuum. I guess it was close to the first automatic transmission. I don,t remember having any problems with it,but of coarse it was not that old of a car then and I was excited to have my own car at age 15. I am having a ball restoring it but I have replaced the drive train with a Twin-H Hornet set-up and a three speed o/d. I am nearly done,but thanks for jogging my memory back to a more fun time.

    Chuck
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    My '49 has this and after a lot of fiddling it does work. Originally they were only supposed to be installed at the factory. Retro fitting would be a task almost beyond comprehension.
  • Huddy42
    Huddy42 Senior Contributor
    I own a 1942 Hudson with drivemaster, I purchased the car from the USA in 1969, in all that time I have NEVER had to adjust anything and it works fine, the only trouble I find with it is, the slow take up when moving off from the traffic lights,probably not a problem in the early days, but, as everyone is in such a hurry these days they expect you to spin the wheels at every set of traffic lights you take off from.

    I don't use it all the time, but, when I do use it I find it a real novelty and a joy to use.


    Just my two bobs worth.

    Les.P.
  • SuperDave
    SuperDave Senior Contributor
    Huddy42 wrote:
    I own a 1942 Hudson with drivemaster, I purchased the car from the USA in 1969, in all that time I have NEVER had to adjust anything and it works fine, the only trouble I find with it is, the slow take up when moving off from the traffic lights,probably not a problem in the early days, but, as everyone is in such a hurry these days they expect you to spin the wheels at every set of traffic lights you take off from.

    I don't use it all the time, but, when I do use it I find it a real novelty and a joy to use.


    Just my two bobs worth.

    Les.P.
    Les, Your Hudson was the only Hudson I ever drove that had DriveMaster. It was almost "new" back then. about 12K miles? If memory serves me.. it starts from a standstill in 2nd gear? That may be why it's a bit sluggish on the "git-go". LOL
  • Aaron D. IL
    Aaron D. IL Senior Contributor
    I agree that if your car never had drivemaster from the factory putting one in would be a chore with the pieces and adjustments and whatnot. My '47 C8 had it originally then the motor and all was taken out at some point. Now with Dr. Doug's help I have it all back in the car and with an overdrive added and personally I look forward to having it all together and working the way it's supposed to. I'll be the only kid on my block with a fully optioned C8 sedan and it'll be as close to a time machine as you can get, the sights, feelings, sounds, and smells of driving this car. So I have a system to learn, that's fine because it's one of the quirks of owning this car. Also if you actually do appreciate Hudson engineering I would think you would want to preserve it. If you don't want to drive a car from 1947 then don't buy one because it will drive like a 65 year old car. I've had other guys say "Drivemaster is junk, it's always been junk, take it off, if Hudson had an automatic available then they would've used it." But there's some luxury sports cars out there today that basically do what Drivemaster did.... let you shift without using the clutch. In the hands of someone who learns and knows what they're doing there's probably nothing wrong with Drivemaster. So to me what they're basically saying is they don't want to deal with it or maintain it. If you're not willing to maintain or adjust anything though, why do you want to own an old car? No matter what trans you have the book basically says the car needs some type of attention every 3000 miles. My .02
  • Ol racer
    Ol racer Senior Contributor
    I have a complete Drivemaster set-up on Ebay now that I hoped someone would want to retrofit for nostalgia rather than just discard....
  • oldhudsons
    oldhudsons Senior Contributor
    as I recall a problem with them was that if you took off from a dead start it would be in 2nd gear, NOT 1st, & were therefore hard on the clutch. Is that not correct?
    I always thought DriveMaster, like Electric Hand, more of a sales gimick than any thing else.
    Perhaps the Drivemaster considered by management a way to bypass not having an auto. trans. & not having to kow-tow to those who made them? Of course in '51 gave in & offered the GM Hydramatic, the best auto. trans. available.
    Subjects to muse over,
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