Steven and I have been attempting to understand why his Mini Comtesse does not work. Clearly I have been a sounding board as I have no real experience of these cars/engines yet. The info on the net is - sketchy. A Norwegian manual, a few mixed Sachs parts books but nil on Comtesse, so as you notice, in terms of hard information. We have, I think found the faults and determined from first principles how the engine should work. However this still does not seem to tie in with the arrangement of controls in the car. The only offer of comparison had is with Stuarts old car. That now seems to have had quite a few mods on it too. My car is unavailable for sometime, so the question is, all those who have bought one of these cars or associated paperwork is;
a/ What does the paperwork offer as the array of controls. I know folk value their paperwork from copiests but the information is what we need, not the document as such.
b/ What controls are actually on your example and does it look original?
c/ Has anyone got the pedal power assembly intact
d/ Does yours have a decompresser
e/ Does yours have a hold down gear for descending steep hills and bump starting.
f/ Does yours have facility of starting without the electric starter?
g/ The biggy. Is there someone who actually knows these things inside out who is prepared to help.
This will go some way toward rationalizing the info on these cars and at last Steven can attempt to get his under its motive power with some sort of known control suite as a driver. There must now be at least 7 of these cars in Britain. Are they all just to be ornaments? I know I am guilty as well.
Anyway Steven is waiting for me to send him some info on parts suppliers so that the bits broken by a previous owner can be replaced. Theory is, tried to tow start the car at some speed, enough for it to change up to second. Not recommended if your tempted. Having bust it, passed it on for someone else to find out its inoperative.
