Seab Flipper Microcar

[Barry]

The small connector chain was missing, I replaced it before it was sold.

The belt is to the starter.

I will look into the other points.

[steven mandell]

Barry,
A belt driven starter - that's a new one on me!
Had no idea that you sold it, or I wouldn't have bothered you to try to look up difficult to discern details.
Thanks, as always for being so helpful.

[Barry]

Yes.  A belt driven 12v starter / generator. (Blue)

The cable is the speedo cable I think but the drive is not connected to the back drive cog.

There as a small lever on the left inside the cab (with the missing chain   )  I dont know what happens at the other end.

I still have one Super Comtesse in the Bubble Car museum

[steven mandell]

OMG, the starter motor is larger than the engine!
Seriously, there are electric motors of that size that are way more powerful than your sub 50 cc two stroke..
I see no provision for disengaging it from the engine's crank pulley.
Does that mean that it freewheels when not in use?
Or is it acting as an alternator in that mode.
Curious to know, as in that event, and provided larger electrical storage capacity, with the provision of being able to select a single lower pulley ratio, it seems awfully close to being able to claim rights as the first modernish gas electric hybrid, and should be able to achieve astonishing mileage, as well as keep up better on hills/ attain higher speeds.
Especially so if you could cheat by plugging in first.

Did this vehicle come with a reverse gearing?
If so, the lever on the side could have something to do with engaging it.
Or you might reverse polarity to the electric motor and engage a compression release for short juants.

The possibilities are intriguing.

Hey, here is a another of my even more unreasonable requests:
Any possibility that you could get your Super's unnecessesarily  bulging hood (in your speak - front bonnet), over to Andy Carter or some other reasonably competent fiberglass (glass fibre) fabricator for a price quote?
Mine came without one of these.

[Barry]

The starter is also the generator so it does stay connected.
It is not very powerful as the 50cc engine still needs the decompressor to allow it to spin up to speed for starting.

The Super Comtesse has a transfer box so that, once the engine is on tick-over, the lever is used to reverse the drive.  All had this feature, mainly, I think, because the steering lock is not as good as on three wheelers.

No chance of helping with a mould I am afraid.  My car is in the Bubblecar museum in Lincolnshire about 2.5 hours away.
I have too many projects waiting for my time to get involved in manufacturing one-offs.
Better if you try to get a new one from France.

[steven mandell]

More modern electric motors can be much more powerful, efficient and compact.
However doubling it's function as a generator may add to it's size requirement.
Then again maybe not, as I suspect that now the same windings can now be used for both generating and starting currents.
Another 10 electric horsepower might be all it would need to attain highway speeds, although doing so might not be such a good idea.
Seems that  I guessed the reversing lever's function correctly.

Barry, we're you not aware that the Acoma motor company has been out of business for the last 34 years?
If I could have bought a new front bonnet new, I wouldn't be bothering anyone to try to get one made.

Seems awfully silly that they used the same detachable proboscis needed to clear the engine that sits on top of the single central front wheel on my three wheeler, as they do for your four wheeler type that has the engine under it's front seat.
Go ahead and show us a picture of the battery and pedals that it over spaciously encloses as an excuse for not having to more properly revise the design to one that does not bother to include a front bonnet. 
Hey that means that you could get away with a flat piece of plywood, and sell me your unnecessesarily protruberant front bonnet after all!

[Barry]

For clarification there is a Mini Comtesse single seater.  Very small
There is a Super Comtesse two teaser with four wheels.  Engine under the seat.

In between there is a Comtesse that looks like a Super Comtesse body  but only has one wheel at the front

Is this what you have Steven?  I always assumed that this had the engine under the seat?

Also, I think there is a Mini comtesse widened to accommodate two.  Three wheels and also known as a Willam Cyclo

I love your joke about my bonnet Steven.......................
Have you tried for a second hand one from France?

[Barry]

Here is what lies behind my bonnet...........

[steven mandell]

There is a Super Comtesse two teaser with four wheels.  Engine under the seat.

In between there is a Comtesse that looks like a Super Comtesse body  but only has one wheel at the front

Is this what you have Steven?  I always assumed that this had the engine under the seat?

Also, I think there is a Mini comtesse widened to accommodate two.  Three wheels and also known as a Willam Cyclo

I love your joke about my bonnet Steven.......................
Have you tried for a second hand one from France?

Yes my Super Comtesse has only one front wheel, with it's engine sitting atop it.
Unlike the front bonnet of your four wheeler, it has rubber bands that attach it to the body instead of lower hinges and an upper latch, so that it can be completely pulled off for better engine access.
It also has grille that allows for better airflow to the engine, instead of the vestigial indented vertical solid panel on the four wheelers that have the engine under the seat.

Curiously the MiniComtesse has a ventilation grille less than a quarter that size in it's bonnet, but seems not to suffer from too much heat accumulation as a result, even though it has essentially the same size engine.  Perhaps it serves more to ventilate out oily fumes that are inevitably condensed into a tarry mess inside the engine compartment in the Minicomtesse.  These accumulate due to the necessarily very short exhaust system, that accompanies an engine that pivots around inside it's compartment.

Fascinating about the Williams Cyclo.
Does this design require both driver's and pasenger's legs to lie in a very small space askew of the huge central bulge that accommodates the central pivoting engine and front wheel assembly?
Does it also have a pedal provided for occupant supplied motive power, and if so...whose feet are the ones so obliged?
And I thought that they couldn't get more ridiculous!

Speaking of jokes - finding a front bonnet in France.  Remember these are the ones that come completely off the car every time you want a peek.  So in addition to being the first to become damaged in any front end contact, this protruberant proboscis would be the first to fall off and get run over by an 18 wheeler, or simply misplaced and subsequently thrown away as an unidentifiable piece of useless hen's dentition.

[steven mandell]

Here is what lies behind my bonnet...........

Whoaa, an actual rubber weather strip seal, and two very stout pedals posing as footrests for the unwary passenger.
That makes perfectly clear where the extra power needed to drag along a passenger comes from....the passenger!