Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

Reading the From The Archive article on threewheeler vehicles reminded me of my experiences of various three-wheel vehicles I had dealings with as an apprentice auto electrician in the 1960s. One of my favourite memories involved the ignition timing of a later version of a Bond fitted with a

SIBA dynastart. This was a starter fitted on the crankshaft that worked by a rocking motion. The dynastart had two sets of ignition contact breaker points, one for forward and the other for reverse.

The points for the direction of rotation of the two-stroke engine were selected by a forward/ reverse switch. The correct timing for the ignition was quite difficult to get right, and failure to get it right could result in backfiring.

One day a fellow apprentice had repaired and refitted the dynastart and was having difficulty with the timing. He had set the points and started the engine but, when he increased the revs, he heard banging. He stopped the engine and restarted it in the opposite rotation, but the same thing occurred, more bangs. So he started again with the timing being very precise. But to no avail, yet more bangs.

What he didn’t know at this point was that a third apprentice was standing behind a partition wall with a sports starting pistol in his hand and was firing off two or three rounds as the engine revs were increased. In present times that type of behaviour would result in disciplinary action but at that period of time it was considered a bit of a prank. Even the manager had a chuckle.

Stephen Burwell, Northants