Interestingly, or not, depending on your viewpoint? There is someone in the next street who has an earlier version of one of these. It's a diesel and boy is it noisy! bears a not dissimilar comparison to a diesel engine'd cement mixer! It's unique sound signature can be heard for a good few minutes as it accelerates away up the main road! Doesn't bother me I have to say.So here is my MGO, it is my Covid transport at the moment (we use it for essential shopping) no point in driving the Panda a mile to the shop (OH is disabled)
the gearbox end of the belt drive from underneath. gears are neutral forward and reverse max restricted speed is 72mph (which you can do in reverse if you had the nerve!)
Talk about Deja vu! If I screw my eyelids up a bit and use some imagination, I could be looking at a DAF 46 Variomatic unit here! (which was the only one to use just one belt, at least until they started development of the metal segmented "pusher belt" CVT system - which never, to my knowledge, saw use in a production DAF? but was later to see the light of day in other makes and, of course, is in use to this day in various forms.) How does it "do" the rear suspension? The DAF went from swing arms on the earlier 33, 44 and 55 to a de Dion beam axle on the later 46, 66 and Volvo branded offerings. It was a big improvement in handling but I didn't like the later transmission system with the differential in the secondary unit as it tended to make the engine hold higher revs for longer - especially on the small 2 cylinder engines but they actually accelerated slightly slower. (or so it seemed from the driver's perspective).
Closer scrutiny of your image interests me in that there seems to be a "positive engagement" element to the design of the secondary pulley inner cone? If you look at the flange on the inner end of it's driveshaft there is an interesting "flower head" shaped cup with angled "ramps" which seems to be engaged with a spur of some sort on the moving half of the pulley? Looks to me as if that's, at least partly, how the drive is being transmitted to the input shaft of the reduction/differential unit?
Thanks so much for posting this, I've enjoyed looking at it very much. I might even see if I can find someone up here who deals in them and pop along for a look. I must admit to having had increased desires, just of late, to find a DAF 33 - or even especially a Daffodil if I could find one at a reasonable price - Wikipedia has a good bit on them if you're interested - not sure how Mrs J would view this and it would mean Becky would have to be parked in the road, Which could be a problem as they are probably going to yellow line us soon. Ah well, it's a nice wee dream to have, and we all need some nice dreams just now don't we?
Kindest regards and satay safe everyone
Jock
PS. The earlier DAF's would go as fast in reverse as forward too. I tried it once in my 44 but got far to scared as it was impossible to stop it wanting to swap ends as the speed increased. I think I bottled out at about 30mph!
Last edited:
