3-speed or 4-speed?

[prossett]

Dumb question, sorry.

On my manual gear stick there's L-1-2-3 and of course reverse. Is this called the 3-speed or does the Low gear count as well?

1983 Jimmy.

 

[RootBreaker]

depends on you.... it is a smc465... I have the same thing... L-1-2-3..... most people call it a 4 speed with granny gear

 

[guido666]

I just call it "bombproof"!

 

[HarryH3]

It's a 4 speed. 3 speeds came with a column shifter.

Older 4 speeds had the shift knob labeled 1-2-3-4. Somewhere along the way I guess that GM had too many boneheads complaining that "1" was unusable most of the time so they changed the label.

 

[prossett]

Thanks guys, that clears it up for me.

I have stick shift, but also the auto tranny P-1-2-D-R thing on the steering wheel, with the lever removed, so I assume it was switched over to manual gears some time back. The problem is I have no reverse lights, and my Haynes was saying the 3-gear back-up switch was on the steering column, which confused me.

Now I know I need the back-up switch that goes on the 4-gear transmission.