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The T’s transmission is a planetary type with two forward speeds plus reverse. Once rolling, the driver simply removes his foot from the clutch pedal and adds a bit of throttle, and the transmission shifts into high gear, much like a modern automatic

  1. Depress the left pedal with your foot to disengage the clutch.
  2. Move the emergency brake lever all the way forward to engage low gear, or partially forward to engage high gear.
  3. Release the emergency brake lever slowly while keeping the clutch pedal depressed.
  4. Once the emergency brake lever is fully released, slowly release the clutch pedal to engage the new gear.
  5. Press down on the accelerator pedal to increase speed, and repeat the process to shift to a higher gear if necessary.
  6. To shift into reverse, depress the middle pedal with your foot while the car is at a complete stop.
  7. To stop the car, depress the right pedal with your foot to engage the brakes

Drawbacks of a Two Speed Gearbox

In normal driving the two speed pedal operated gear change works very well. It gives a very simple easy gear change enabling you to nip up and down the gears with a minimum of effort. However it does have its drawbacks. The obvious one is the large gap between the gears, there are some circumstances when bottom gear is too low and top is too high. A Ruckstell two speed rear axle alleviates this to some extent.

Places where you may find difficulty are:
1. Changing up a gear on hills.
2. Going into junctions or roundabouts (traffic circles) where top gear is too fast.
Or
3. Going over rough ground or grass.

All that can be done is to grind along in low gear until top gear can be used again. The only other answer is to install an auxiliary gear such as the Ruckstell two speed rear axle. In practice a bit of coasting around obstructions and then with a quick burst of low gear before going back into high again will negotiate most of these situations with ease.

Source FordModelT.net