Re odd running

a2sumo

a2sumo

A2OC Donor
Hi all I'm always amazed at our a2's little quirks but today it has me baffled. It started as per any morning but no Rev counter- I then selected first to pull away and it went backwards. I thought I must have just selected reverse in error. But it's still the same but if I select reverse it goes forward !
I have now stopped and started it several times and still the same.
I'm at a total loss any ideas? Cheers in advance mike
 
Try twisting the gear knob through 180 degrees. Had this happen a few years ago on mine.
 
a2sumo said:
Hi all I'm always amazed at our a2's little quirks but today it has me baffled. It started as per any morning but no Rev counter- I then selected first to pull away and it went backwards. I thought I must have just selected reverse in error. But it's still the same but if I select reverse it goes forward !
I have now stopped and started it several times and still the same.
I'm at a total loss any ideas? Cheers in advance mike
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Yes
You got in the car facing the rear. Turn around and try again.
Steve B
 
No, no, no! You're all wrong! Did you turn the key clockwise while starting the car? That makes the engine run backwards. Try starting it with turning the key anti-clockwise instead.
 
GuruX said:
No, no, no! You're all wrong! Did you turn the key anti-clockwise while starting the car? That makes the engine run backwards. Try starting it with turning the key clockwise instead.
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I am not sure if you know this or not, but back in my younger days there were a lot of "bubble cars" tiny cars, tiny engines and three wheels.
One of the quirkiest of these was the Messerschmitt bubble car. It had a canopy like a Messerschmitt fighter plane and you sat behind the driver on a bench seat.
That car did exactly as you say, to get reverse you switch the engine off and turn the key the other way. It starts the engine up backwards (easy enough since it was a two-stroke engine.)
Then you effectively had 4 forward gears and 4 reverse gears!!! It was a HOOT!!!!


Steve B

One of the cute little cars

KR.jpg
 
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I can add a (true!) amusing story about my grandfather's misadventure in one of these. Must have been the late 1950s, coming home on a very foggy night (and of course the headlights were 6V and tiny). There is a large pond in Carshalton, S of London, which had a single railing round it.
In the gloom he went off the road, saw the water coming up and stopped.
Then he was stuck.
He couldn't reverse without getting out (it was starting handle only, no keyswitch IIRC).
He tried to lift the canopy but it was stuck under the railing.

After a bit of shouting with the side screen slid across he managed to get a passer-by's attention, and the car was pulled back to enable him to get out!

Mark
 
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Phew, lucky escape - thats why they called them "bubble" cars. If you drove into a pond and sank a bubble would form in the cockpit so that you could breath !. ;)
 
Birchall said:
I am not sure if you know this or not, but back in my younger days there were a lot of "bubble cars" tiny cars, tiny engines and three wheels.
One of the quirkiest of these was the Messerschmitt bubble car. It had a canopy like a Messerschmitt fighter plane and you sat behind the driver on a bench seat.
That car did exactly as you say, to get reverse you switch the engine off and turn the key the other way. It starts the engine up backwards (easy enough since it was a two-stroke engine.)
Then you effectively had 4 forward gears and 4 reverse gears!!! It was a HOOT!!!!


Steve B

One of the cute little cars

View attachment 18913
Click to expand...

Those "cars" must have been really fun to drive! =o)

Reversing the engine is quite common on modern two stroke snowmobiles with computerised ignition/spark. After hitting a button it'll slow the engine down until it almost stalls. Then it makes a knock and the engine starts running backwards and you can reverse.
 
Did you have to kick start them? In the 60's you could drive a car with 3 wheels, without reverse gear, on a motorbike licence.
 
I once owned an Isetta bubble car.

The door was the whole front of the car including the windscreen and it hinged outwards so you could get in and out.

It was driven by a BMW engine!!! BUT it was a single cylinder 238 cc engine with less than 10 BHP !!!!!

In 1955 it was a 3L car (as in 3L to go 100km, as in the 1.2 tdi) quite an achievement seeing as that was 60 years ago.

Steve B

Isetta.jpg
 
That was a wikipedia picture, mine was a violent green.
It looked like a huge garden pea!!!

I liked the one hey did on "wheeler dealers" that brought back memories.

When I owned mine I was a police cadet and me and my friend were on the way home from work (he had his head sticking out of the open sunroof as usual). I took the corner a little bit too quickly and rolled it over onto it's side. As we got out (both still in police uniform) a watching police sergeant was tapping his staff on his hand and shaking his head in shame!!!

One for the memory bank that was!

Steve B
 
Blimey - what a coincidence!
Said grandfather replaced the Messerschmitt with an Isetta - and rolled it!
It was minis after that.

Mark
 
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