[Keith Seymore]

Here's the story on mine.

Posting it here, since I already had it written up for a different reason:



Somewhere in the late 80's I saw that trans going down the line. When I saw that floor mounted Hurst shifter I knew I had to have one (this is one of the big disadvantages of working in a vehicle assembly plant!).

I ordered my truck in the fall of 1986. It was assigned to Flint Assembly (my plant) just by dumb luck, not because I had anything to do with it. I kept checking on the order to see when it was going to be built and everything was going along fine, when suddenly all communication stopped.

I was able to get ahold of someone in order processing and they informed me my truck had been "stop ordered" = stop build. I asked why and they said it was because Hurst was being bought out by Mr Gasket and they weren't sure they were going to get a sufficient supply of shifters, so they stop ordered the combination.

I was bummed, but starting thinking of alternate plans. I knew I could order the three on the tree M62/M64, and then install a Saginaw four speed with the floor shift, which is what I did with my '80 pickup. No overdrive in that setup, though.

One day during this time I was walking through the plant and went past the motor line. I looked over and noticed they had these MY6 trans in volume, stacked up like cordwood. I asked the supervisor "how many of these do you think you have?". He said "...prolly a hunnert". I said "don’t' you think we should run 'em out?"

He agreed, so I ran and found my boss and asked him to write a temporary deviation allowing the build of 100 vehicles with this transmission (which he did). My truck just happened to be one of the 100 vehicles, again, by random chance ;o)

So - my truck was scheduled to be built and I got to the plant Monday Sept 29 of 1986 about 4 pm, and found it coming down out of paint and ready to start in the trim area. I followed the cab through trim, then hopped downstairs and followed the motor/chassis through build, to body drop, and down the final line. I let the end of line driver do the roll test (even though he invited me to do it) and he drove it to the short repair line. I drove it off the short repair line to the shipping area myself, told Lloyd Flewelling "Lloyd - that's my truck" and left the plant about 1 am Tuesday morning. By 5 pm that day it was sitting at Graff's in Davison, 9 miles away. The truck got to the dealership two days before the paperwork. Still had to pay $525 in shipping, too.

Anyway - I say all that to say - it's a sweet little trans. My truck was a daily driver for nearly 30 years, and 250,000 miles of spirited commuting, light hauling and trailering. I never had to touch the trans and it still shifts smoothly with a satisfying "click" when going from 2nd into 3rd. There were a few occasions when I would have liked a little more first gear, or a five speed, but never enough to disrupt the original configuration.

K