All Cars Charley/Snuggy

[Big Al]

His name is Denis with one 'n'
You can message him through his website.

www.microcarfan.com

At the moment it seems to be down - probably off collecting Citroen BMX's before their price goes through the roof.

The swine. There all mine, I tell you!

Is the BMX the 4x4 one? Green puddle power to the rescue!

[Big Al]

Odd lever theory

A friction drive reverse engagement, friction starter engagement for an unconverted fizzy engine or handy baguette slicer for that irresistible nibble on the way home.

I would love to say James Bond ejector seat but that would be ridiculous in a single seat car, make a right charley of yourself. My Brother suggested it lowers the lawn mower deck, a cutting jibe there, coming in.

[Barry]

Odd lever theory

A friction drive reverse engagement, friction starter engagement for an unconverted fizzy engine or handy baguette slicer for that irresistible nibble on the way home.

I would love to say James Bond ejector seat but that would be ridiculous in a single seat car, make a right charley of yourself. My Brother suggested it lowers the lawn mower deck, a cutting jibe there, coming in.

Where would we be without your humour Al ? How many can you get-in in one sentence?  Must be a record. 

[steven mandell]

Al- one week of fiddling under the car has put to rest all of your fanciful meanderings re: functions of the car's controls except for one.
As seen in the picture below we have from left to right:

1.) A big pull up and back lever as used most often for a parking brake that causes a clunk to be heard in the rear differential box, and the wheels to reverse their direction of rotation when spinning the unutilized end of the input shaft that protrudes from the diff box casing.
This of course must mean that it is a selector engaged reverse gear engagement rather than a friction drive type.

2.) The next identical looking, but this time - ratcheting lever, is indeed the hand brake that engages both rear wheels.

3.) The much smaller scaled, left most and most forward mounted lever is a cable operated starter engagement device that replaces the function of a modern electrical solenoid, and thus allows an exposed starter sprocket to drive a small bicycle sized gauged set of chains and sprockets that allow for a gear reduction effect.

4.) Its Siamese twin lever mounted directly to the right on the same pivot shaft and concentric return spring is the choke actuator.

5.) There is a conventional hydraulically actuated brake pedal in the forward footwell to be operated by ones right foot.

6.) There is also a conventional accelerator pedal in the right and forward most aspect of the footwell.

7.) There is a shifter shaft that also sprouts a pivot for the T handle that actuates the clutch disengagement.

8.) And last but possibly not least lies that mysterious sliding pedal that lies betwixt # 6 & 7, but on a floor mounted track that allows a good 10 inches of travel along a diagonal path that pulls a heavy cable.

[steven mandell]

Might as well show the view from the rear that displays the unutilized rightmost aspect of an input shaft protruding from what looks like a differential housing.  Interesting in that it is equipped with both a woodruf key, that has miraculously avoided be spun out of its slot for all these years, and a retaining bolt that doesn't retain anything.
A perfect time capsule car dating from 2 years later in series production also has this useless appendage, sans woodruff key and retaining nut.

The mystery sliding pedal actuated cable end shown in the last preceeding picture, extends almost to the rear axle centerline in its furthest rearward approach.
Adding more to the mystery is the fact that a 1976 time capsule car shows not a hint of ever having been equipped with this awkwardly placed mystery sliding pedal.

[richard]

to all those who like me had NO IDEA what this car is/was heres some online info - quite fun , wish i'd known all along . still no answers from me but even that must be more helpful than al's recent suggestions   good luck steven , a pity you cannot contact the new owner of this car

http://classiccarweekly.wordpress.com/tag/snuggy/

headmaster AGAIN despite steven being the owner of one of these it appears not to be as titled " All Cars Charley/Snuggy " but in fact " an All-cars Charly/Snuggy " it may be similar but ......quite different for researching

[steven mandell]

I found this, "the perfect time capsule car" both at its Mecum auction website, and the East coast U.S. dealer advertising it for $12, 500 by searching under the title "All Cars Charly/ Snuggy".
It is referred to as a 1976 model elsewhere.  Unfortunately, this one shows no trace of the by now infamous sliding pedal, as I stated previously.
However a picture of the subdash wiring could still be helpful.
Perhaps a call to the East Coast dealer could still be worthwhile as they have not responded to my email.

[steven mandell]

A phone call revealed the new owner to be a resident of Brazil.   The dealer said that he would relay my email address and phone number, so may be possible to get a picture of the wiring if I get lucky.
Just took off the wheel and brake drum to see why the brakes arn't working, and got a better  look around.
You can see the end fitting of the cable from the sliding mystery pedal at full extension in the first photo, and minimally extended by fully sliding the pedal forward in the last photo.
There is a conspicuous hole in a horizontal bracket that extends a few inches rearward of the rearmost extension of the cable housing.
There doesn't appear to be any wear pattern on it, so I don 't know if it is supposed to be a pivot point, bolt hole, spring anchor or what.
Anybody have any ideas about this yet?

[Big Al]

Are we looking at the remains of a never fitted hand power option to fit in with this sans permis ruling that seems to have later been dropped? If so then the car may be thus converted in production to have the reversing diff axle of the 'standard' upmarket car? This seems to have kind of happened in the case of the Comtesse/Acoma we looked at. The bracket with the hole looks like it could be a return spring mount to aid action of a ratchet/one way drive system. Just an idea.

[cuscus47]

That is my thought as well, Alan.  All the Sans Permis vehicles I have, have the vestiges of the hand-propulsion ability.  It looks as this is the most probable explanation.  Ian.

[Big Al]

Found no info on wiring etc. Really only 4 Websites of reportage/sales patter. Someone importing them into the States? The best option looks to be the French chat room, in French.

[Denis]

Dear Steven, dear all,

Sorry if I give you a reply after such a long time!
From another way, this is the best solution to let you discover all specificities of  Snuggy ;o)
And if I well understand, you have found reply to your all questions!
The diagonal pedal is there to entitle this kind of “ car” to be conceded like a moped…
From French law of the 70/80: The car must can be moved from the human power from his driving place to be accepted like a “cyclomoteur” and so like a without license car.
My Snuggy was at the back of my garage => Impossible for me to take in out for pictures.
Now holidays are here so I have put outside few microcars and taken pictures.
Attached: One about dash board.
And copy about specification of Snuggy ( sorry for quality of this documentation, I don(t own a best one)
For the History, you will notice than Snuggy was sold in France under the Name of Addax, an other builder of sans permis.
I stay at your disposition for all other information about this kind of sans permis and also older microcars…
My  web site is now working well: www.microcarfan.com

Best regards.
Denis  ( with only one “n” ;o)

[steven mandell]

Hey Denis,
Thanks for posting.
I'd love to see a picture of the linkages from the sliding pedal to the differential.
Does yours still have this?

Also what exactly are the small chrome switchboxes on the dashboard supposed to controll?
On my car theyare highly underutilized.

[richard]

Hi Denis if you want another " n" maybe the schmitt club sell them as well 

[Denis]

I see pages 1 to 5 are missing in my first message