Mechanic's Memories

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Ok, in honour of your interesting suggestion Portland Bill, I've decided to give this a go!

When we first moved back to Scotland after my first job down in the "wicked" capitol, I was given the opportunity to try car sales. The dealership, a small family business, sold DAF cars. I quite surprised myself by being moderately successful and will be for ever greatful to these people for the opportunity to experience car selling and that it allowed us to get a mortgage and re-establish ourselves. Car sales was OKish from a satisfaction point of view but after about a year I found I was really hankering after workshop life with all its challenges and the banter of like minded people. It wasn't long before I went back to the tools.

However there was one outstandingly amusing incident during my time in sales. These cars were not complicated mechanically but they were different. A petrol engine, two cylinder, horizontally opposed, air cooled 4stroke of DAF design (unburstable and impervious to frost!) Or a four cylinder in line water cooled unit derived from Renault, also a reliable unit. These drove through a dry centrifugal clutch and aluminium prop shaft to the transmission which was in the rear. The transmission used a system of expanding and contracting pitch pulleys (Variomatic they called it) to obtain infinitely (between limits) ratios. The interesting bit was that gear selection consisted of a simple lever between the seats which gave you Forward, Neutral and Reverse. If you wanted to go forward you moved the lever forward and pushed the throttle. The centrifugal clutch would slip briefly 'till you got on the move and then the more you pushed the throttle the faster you went! Reverse? Just pull the lever back and push the throttle, but be careful how much because, if you were very brave or foolish, you could go as fast in reverse as you could forwards! The gear selection between forward and reverse was a simple dog tooth type collar which slid between two gears much like a 'bike gearbox (old bike, don't know about modern stuff). The teeth on the dog could be damaged if neutral was selected with the engine running because clutch drag would cause the prop to spin so the input side of the 'box would be spinning, no synchro so no gear selection possible just spectacular tooth crashing noises and a ruined box. The manufacturer's recommendation was that neutral was never selected by the user/owner and was there for workshop personnel only. The vehicle was to be started with either drive or reverse engaged, foot off the throttle and the hand and foot brake firmly applied. Great emphasis was placed on this when a car was sold and I don't remember any of our customers ever reporting a problem. They were very popular as "shopping cars".

Because these cars were "different" a lot of the other dealers around us preferred to see if we would give a reasonable price on a trade in rather than retail it themselves. Being a very small garage the boss liked to negotiate these deals himself and one day he got a call from a dealer a bit further away, up in Fife if I remember, who wondered if we would like a slightly accident damaged one? The price offered was very attractive so off he went to have a look. When he got there he had trouble parking as there was a large glazier's van on the forecourt. They were replacing the large showroom window. It transpires that the vehicle was being shown to a customer who was impressed with it and wanted a test drive. The keys were obtained and the salesman went to open the main showroom door but something distracted the salesman who briefly left the customer with the car which by now had the keys in the ignition. Yes, you guessed it, the customer got behind the wheel, started the engine before being warned about the unique DAF proceedure (if this garage even knew it) and, with drive preselected, drove the car straight through the showroom window and out onto the forecourt! We didn't buy this car if I remember. There probably wasn't a single undamaged panel on it, although I never actually saw the vehicle.

As the wonderful Fred Dibnah would have said, "did you like that?" Anyone else like to contribute? Or is this a bad idea and we'll just let it die?
Kind regards
Jock

 

[portland_bill]

Intriguing, as I also started in a DAF dealership. A small garage on Portland in Dorset, hence my forum name. I loved the way the power (what little there was) was seamless, just push and go. The engine quickly revs up to max torque, and stays there while the car catches up. If driven properly they could be quite quick. A pause off the mark, due to the centrifugal clutch, but then a constant pull. Would embarrass many a larger car. My first two cars were DAFs, first a 44, 850cc air-cooled flat twin, then after six months I was offered a 66, 1108cc of Renault engine, and surprisingly good for over 90mph. (allegedly)
Many years later, August 2003, my Seicento was broken, and I wandered into the Fiat dealer in Swindon and was accosted by the sales manager. My requirements were four doors and aircon. Only thing he had was a Punto Mk2 auto. This was the CVT auto, a development of the DAF variomatic principle, in fact patented and built under licence from DAF. I think I'd bought it before the test drive, during which I explained to the sales manager how the gearbox worked. Sadly only had that nine months until I became a driving instructor, and could not afford two cars. Still miss it.
The DAF system used two belts (single on late 46 model) which pulled, like a big alternator belt. The FWD system in the Punto, also used in Daihatsu, Micra and Rover 100, uses a steel belt, that actually pushes from one pulley to the other. Used to have the Rover training notes, but passed them on to Most Easterly Pandas as they might be useful to him for the CVT Panda. Still remember the key details.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Intriguing, as I also started in a DAF dealership. A small garage on Portland in Dorset, hence my forum name. I loved the way the power (what little there was) was seamless, just push and go. The engine quickly revs up to max torque, and stays there while the car catches up. If driven properly they could be quite quick. A pause off the mark, due to the centrifugal clutch, but then a constant pull. Would embarrass many a larger car. My first two cars were DAFs, first a 44, 850cc air-cooled flat twin, then after six months I was offered a 66, 1108cc of Renault engine, and surprisingly good for over 90mph. (allegedly)
Many years later, August 2003, my Seicento was broken, and I wandered into the Fiat dealer in Swindon and was accosted by the sales manager. My requirements were four doors and aircon. Only thing he had was a Punto Mk2 auto. This was the CVT auto, a development of the DAF variomatic principle, in fact patented and built under licence from DAF. I think I'd bought it before the test drive, during which I explained to the sales manager how the gearbox worked. Sadly only had that nine months until I became a driving instructor, and could not afford two cars. Still miss it.
The DAF system used two belts (single on late 46 model) which pulled, like a big alternator belt. The FWD system in the Punto, also used in Daihatsu, Micra and Rover 100, uses a steel belt, that actually pushes from one pulley to the other. Used to have the Rover training notes, but passed them on to Most Easterly Pandas as they might be useful to him for the CVT Panda. Still remember the key details.

The dealership I worked for was a small family business on the south east outskirts of the city. I had a lovely time there, just like a large family, customer care and satisfaction very high on the agenda, very high percentage repeat business. The owner was a Baptist and, one Christmas, I came across him singing Christmas hymns to the customers round at the petrol pumps. All sounds a bit strange doesn't it? But actually it was all very nice.

When I started we sold the 2 cylinder air cooled 33 and 44 and 4 cylinder water cooled 55 models as well as used cars. The boss's father ran around in a DAF Daffodil! How cool! These all had, as you say, two drive belts with no differential! At very slow speeds both rear wheels turned at the same speed then as speed increased, I would guess at about 10 mph upwards, the pulley systems could start to vary the ratios so you had a form of "limited slip" differentiation going on as speed increased. An interesting feature was that, no matter what speed you were going at, if one wheel was turning the other had to turn too. The outcome was that they were very good indeed in slippy conditions and considerable success was achieved in rallying. They entered modified 55's in the London to Sydney Marathon and completed the course - much to everyone's amazement as DAFs were seen very much as little old ladies cars. They produced a rally replica which the public could buy and my boss promptly bought one. I drove it a few times and it was very nippy indeed. The suspension was "fettled" too and it went round corners rather nicely whilst the standard car, with its standard swing axle rear suspension could be "interesting" if driven with "spirit". Although I never really pushed it as it was the bosses car. The exhaust was a little more "fruity" than the standard car and it always drew looks when you floored it away from the lights. As you say initially a modest rise in revs as the centrifugal clutch bit and moved the car away from a rest. Then a very rapid rise in revs, up to, I don't know but probably around 5,500 to 6,000 rpm. Them, as long as you kept the pedal buried to the floor the revs stayed constant and the car accelerated rapidly towards the horizon. It could give most of the hot small cars of the day a good run for their money! Later the 66 replaced the 55, a less quirky looking car, but I liked the 55's looks. The 66 still had 2 belts but had a differential in the final drive which made it better to drive at very low speeds where the locked up rear axle on the earlier models produced "interesting" driving characteristics, but it also lost the limited slip effect. The 46, which replaced the 44, used a modified version of the 66 transmission with only one belt (less powerful engine). I didn't like the new transmission so much as it had a tendency to hang on to the high revs even when you were feathering the throttle when cruising. There was also a 66 Marathon, I never drove one.

Then one day the boss's son came back from a factory "jolly" to tell us he'd seen the new 77 and we'd be getting it soon! I'm confused as to what happened then, and it all happened fast, but it started with us finding out that DAF was taken over by Volvo. What the boss's son says he saw as a 77 arrived on the scene as a Volvo (the 340 series) still with the Variomatic transmission but also the option of a manual transaxle! The supply situation became very complicated!! In the end the boss gave up and we sold used cars for a while. Then, all of a sudden, or so it seemed, we were Polski Fiat dealers! Suffice it to say that didn't work out well for us! That was when I went back to the tools at the BL agent.

Various people experimented with the Variomatic in competition applications and I once saw the F3 single seater at a practice day, Brands I think, when I worked for Firestone. The engine note, on open pipes in those days, was like nothing I've heard before or since. I believe they were having problems with the belts getting too hot. I never saw it again.

I myself bought a 44 shortly after joining the garage and we travelled all over the country in it. Holidays in south Wales (At David's), trips to west London/Camberley to visit friends, etc. Long distance stuff. Never a hiccough and excellent fuel economy! In later years I bought a 33 van, just because I fancied it, and experienced the same excellent reliability. What rather killed them for me was the way the spares prices went through the roof after Volvo acquired them.

Towards the end, just before we saw the 340 series arrive, there were lots of rumours of a flexible metal belted Variomatic and I remember some very interesting conversations with our workshop manager about how that might work. Then, just before I left, he showed me a schematic of the segmented belt and explained how it worked by pushing the segments rather than pulling, as the existing rubber/canvas belts did and I remember thinking, "well yes, that might just work, maybe?"
Regards
Jock