[Keith Seymore]

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 (JL - clean some of your PM's out!) 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...).

I didn't mention it above but I drove that little red truck off the end of the assembly line myself.

An update: after driving this truck for about five years I sold it to my father in law. He had it for about 18 years. When he passed away in August of 2008 (just a few short months after the original post) the family asked if I wanted it back. It was pretty beat cosmetically but very sound mechanically. I spent from May to September of 09 redoing the appearance and this truck, since that time, has been my daily driver.

28 years on the road; 206,000 miles.

K