My First Car

[hershy314]

This is what it looked like when I got rid of it

Still need some work, but it wasn't running well and needed something dependable. Only reason I sold it, or else I would still have it.

 

[ibclare]

For a moment, I thought the background car was part of it. Now that s a photoshop morph job.

 

[chrisdesign]

Chris - I remember being absolutely shocked when I first saw the bizarre suspension systems on some of their models, particularly, the two long, large diameter cylinders that connected the front and rear suspensions on the same side.

In fact, I remember sitting in that Ami for about 10 minutes in a blizzard one night because every time I put the car in reverse to back out of the parking space, the driver's seat started to move upwards. The more I backed up, the higher it got, until I was worried about my head being crushed against the ceiling. I then would go forward a few feet, and the seat would come back down. I couldn't believe this was really happening, so I repeated it several times, and indeed it was repeatable!

I finally figured it out, :redface:, but I'll buy anyone who figures it out in this forum a virtual beer, LOL!:mrgreen:

Tom

Hi Tom
I googled a lot, though I couldn't figure it out. I can only guess, that you still had the hand break locked.

 

[Tom Mann]

@Hershey & Chris - As I mentioned, that car was given to me by a friend and had sat unused for several years exposed to the harsh winters of northern New York state on her farm. When the the mysterious raising and lowering of the driver's seat occurred, I was absolutely stymied until I got out of the car and looked underneath. The floor of the car had rusted out, and the rear end of one of the seat rails (ie, that the seat rides back and forth on for adjustment) dropped down and touched the ground. So, when I started to back out of the parking place, it jammed into the ground and essentially tried to pole vault the seat into the air. In contrast, when I went forward, the seat went down, and the back end of the seat rail then just dragged on the ground. The problem had absolutely nothing to do with the suspension, LOL.

Over the years, I've probably asked 100 or more friends, car enthusiasts, and professional mechanics if they could come up with an explanation for the strange behavior, and only one guy, an old mechanic, knew what probably caused it, and that was only because years before, it happened to one of his clients and it stood out in his mind.

Cheers,

Tom