[mike nixon]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thanks guys and especially thanks to you too, Mike Davis, for the kind words.

JLHarper and I had a little conversation going offline, but there was something I forgot to mention so I'll just post it here:

Back in 1986 I decided I wanted to get a new pickup truck, so I went down to my favorite Chevy dealer and ordered up a new 1987 model. I got a V6 with the RPO MY0 trans, which was a 3 speed manual with fourth gear as an overdrive (it even came with a production floor mounted Hurst shifter).

The problem was that was the timeframe when Hurst was being bought out by Mr Gasket. As a result, they weren't sure they were going to continue to build the parts and so GM put the option combination on "Stop Order".

I was pretty bummed when I found that out 'cause I thought it was a pretty slick setup. I begrudgingly started scheming "plan B", which was to order a column shifted Saginaw three speed (RPO M62 or M64) and then convert it to a four speed floor shift myself, like I had done with my 1980 pickup.

Well, one day as I was walking through the plant and passed by the motor line I noticed they had a bunch (!) of these MY0 transmissions, sitting on the floor and on pallets. I called the material office and asked "...how many of those transmissions do you think we have?". They replied they figured about 100. I suggested "don't you think we should build those out, so that we don't get charged with obsolescence or scrap fees?

They agreed and so we built (under a temporary deviation) 100 MY0 trucks for the 1987 model year (...one of which just happened to be mine...).

keith, i've got an 81 with that trans in it. it's gets awesome fuel mileage. i'd like to find one to stuff in my 68gto.

mike