There is hope!

I have three kids.  From 21 to 29. Such as my wife, they «like» Big Brother, no more, that’s it.
My wife can drive it (but hates to).  One of my son is able to move Big Bro a bit on the farm, but no way to make him try the road.
If I leave that world, Big Bro will become orphaned. Period.

BUT!

Today was the 27th birthday of my other son (the one who drives only automatic cars).  His girlfriend organized a surprise party at home, with some good friends of my son.  One of them came with his girlfriend, who simply LOVES old pickups.
She kindly asked if she could have a drive with Big Bro.  So we took the road all four (she, her boyfriend, Big Bro and I).  I left the kids on the front bench, just guiding them across the country, from the rear seat.

They enjoyed SO MUCH!

The boy’s drive was correct, enough precise, a bit "square" but ok.

The girl…. ahhh… she looked as Cinderella finding her shoe.  Really.  She drove Big Bro as if she always drove such trucks.  Smooth clutch, smooth speeds, soft steering.

Back to home, the kids didn’t stop to thank me about the ride.

There is hope!  There are young people behind us, who appreciate our trucks, and who LOVE to drive them!

Excellent!!  

My family is kind of like yours.  Janey hasn't driven Blue, which is easy to drive, much less Big Blue.  Our daughter grew up driving a stick, and lived in Nicaragua until recently where she drove a stick daily.  But our son doesn't YET know how to drive one.

However he wants to go overlanding.  In fact, we have a trip planned for this fall.  So he is going to learn.  And I know he's interested 'cause last fall when my brother and I took BB to Colorado there was a guy with a drone taking videos.  At one point he put his drone on BB's hood, leaned on the truck to watch, and then took off and shot a bunch of video.  When I sent the link to the video to our son he said "Why is that guy leaning on my truck?"  

Gary Lewis wrote

"Why is that guy leaning on my truck?"

Very cool!

Great story! I love hearing stuff like this.

My wife can't drive stick, and while I did try to teach her several times over the years it just didn't take, and she just doesn't like it. My current daily driver is a 2015 Tacoma with the 4.0L and auto trans, and she quite likes driving it. In 25 years together, it is the first vehicle that I have ever owned that she could drive. My vehicles have always been stick before this one.

I'm about to turn 30 (July 2) and have daily driven my '84 off and on for the last few years (lately it's been my go-to vehicle 75% of the time!). For every two eye rolls I get one compliment, so I guess I'm doing ok?

(Yeah, I'm cheating a bit as mine has an AOD... I've never driven stick )

I am 21, and got my first manual (my bullnose) in August. The first time I drove manual was this truck! Fast forward to now, I have put 1000 miles on it, and it was even parked for the winter! I get out to drive as much as I can. I plan to take it on a 750 mile trip next week!

I love driving it and continue to get better the more I do. My list of people that want me to teach them how to drive manual keeps getting longer and I am excited to teach them. Coworkers, siblings, friends, etc.!

I am a student, so once summer finally gets here I plan to be more active on this awesome forum and start attacking my list of improvements.

There's a lot to be said for manual transmissions.  For instance, they are more efficient than automatics, and especially so compared to the C6 of the Bullnose era.  And they are a built-in security device as 90% of the people out there can't drive them so can't steal your truck.

But I will admit that in traffic a manual transmission can be less than fun.  For instance, with the carb on Big Blue I really didn't appreciate when people slowed me down and made me shift gears.  However, now that I've added the EFI the shifting is easier and I don't seem to mind nearly as much.

That probably seems strange to you, and it surprised me as well.  But the engine pulls so much better from idle that shifting down is frequently no longer required.  I think that is more due to the design of the EFI manifold than the difference between carbs and EFI, but I can say that Big Blue is now easier to drive with the EFI.

And it is especially easier to take off from a stop with EFI.  Previously you had to rev the engine a bit and slip the clutch to take off in 2nd, which is the preferred starting gear as 1st is a granny low and you'll have to shift in the middle of the intersection.  But with the EFI you can almost come out on the clutch w/o giving it much throttle, and that makes taking off much easier.

Given that I think it'll be easy for my son to learn to drive Big Blue now.  He drove it some last winter with the carb on it and had a bit of trouble taking off from a stop.  But the EFI will help that a lot.  So I'm looking forward to the next round with him.  

Once I get my steering "squirrely-ness" sorted out (it's not safe until then) I'll be teaching my two middle sons to drive stick in Rocky. Both turned 15 in the past year and in Colorado that's learner's-permit time. To be honest, I'm not sure this is going to be a super valuable life-long skill... It's easy to say "it's always good to know stick, then you can drive anything" but as they get more and more rare maybe it'll be like my parents insisting I learn good penmanship - more useful in theory than practice. Anybody still hand-write letters?

I grew up with a stick - my first three cars all were manual Subarus, and I had one or two more manuals after that over my driving "career." So I've always been pretty comfortable with them, to the point where I guess I took it for granted that I was "good" at it. I totally agree on the points about traffic (and Gary, you're making me dream about EFI's now...) But the thing I recently re-discovered about challenges with a stick was a little unexpected for me.

Parking.

My driveway is a hill with a steep initial curb/apron (flash floods are a thing here) and then an angle up to the garage door. It's also not very long - I only have 1-2' of leeway when parking Rocky between clearing the sidewalk and the garage door, and I need to be absolutely kissing the left edge, to give my wife enough room to get in and out of the garage.

With an automatic this is no sweat - you focus on lining up, and let the car just ease into position. With a manual this is a real juggling act of idling up to the curb, "goosing" it to get over the edge, then easing off so I don't ram the garage door. I get one "go," because the driveway is steep enough that if I don't pull up far enough, the microsecond it takes me to get back off the clutch and ease forward more (I use 1st for this) makes me roll back a few feet. It's almost easier to roll all the way back out and try again!

I grew up with manual transmissions.  I learned to drive on a '34 Ford, then moved to a '54 Plymouth, '60 Chevy, etc - all with manual transmissions.  We did have a '57 Buick with an auto as the family car, but Mom usually drove that and I drove the manuals.

And all of those manuals had a carb, and all of them drove quite nicely.  So my comment about Big Blue's issues wasn't about the carb itself but the intake manifold, aka lower plenum.  It is apparently huge and, being designed for port-injection EFI, wasn't expected to have fuel in the air.  So there was no concern about keeping the mix moving for fear that the fuel would drop out of suspension as there wasn't supposed to be any fuel in there.  And even the interior surface texture of the intake would be different for a "dry" intake vs a "wet" intake.

Apparently what I was experiencing was what I've read about for decades - a huge intake on a street-driven engine.  Think single-plane, high-rise intake meant for high RPM, with torque dropping off dramatically as the RPM goes below about 1200, making starts and shifting more difficult.

On the parking, have you tried using the park brake to hold it while you ease out on the clutch and move forward?  And, have you considered a 2x4 block glued (lightly) to the driveway where you want the truck to stop?  It would be small enough you could easily drive over it, but maybe large enough to stop you as you are gently rolling forward.

ratdude747 wrote

I'm about to turn 30 (July 2)

I'll turn 58 on July 1st!
Happy to see young people on this forum (I was believing I was the "kid" here, my bad!)

te4gan wrote

I am 21, and got my first manual (my bullnose) in August.

Great!

te4gan wrote

The first time I drove manual was this truck!

Wow, what a school!  Impressive!

te4gan wrote

My list of people that want me to teach them how to drive manual keeps getting longer and I am excited to teach them. Coworkers, siblings, friends, etc.!

Nice!  You spread your enthusiasm on other young folks, that's fantastic!

te4gan wrote

I am a student, so once summer finally gets here I plan to be more active on this awesome forum and start attacking my list of improvements.

Good luck in your exams!

taskswap wrote

My driveway is a hill with a steep

I live in a two storey house, with a slightly sloppy driveway. Couple of years ago (largely before the restoration), I parked Big Brother, pressed the worn and not really working parking brake, engaged the 2nd speed and left to home. Just after going to bed, I saw, reflecting on my room ceiling, a red-and-blue-strobe… Woke up suddenly to take a look at the window. The policeman was turning around Big Brother which was half blocking the street. The guy was ok with me (I told him I was really sorry, I «forgot» to apply the parking brake). I took the fugitive back home and, for couple of years, blocked one wheel with a fireplace log.