Ever See a Saw Run Backwards?

[maulhead]

Snowmobiles have been using that for reverse for about 10 years now. Push a button and the engine kills for a sec and fires up backward

Ski doo introduced RER, in 1998.

(rotax electronic reverse)

 

[tree monkey]

lol, your not the only one. we pushed started the thing backwards and tried to ride it in reverse, oh the good old days

 

[Homemade]

The chainsaw karts of yesteryear that ran two engines had one that ran backwards?? Would start down the track in one that started normally, then flip on the ignition for the second engine that was “pop” started.

 

[Deets066]

lol, your not the only one. we pushed started the thing backwards and tried to ride it in reverse, oh the good old days

Clutch doesn’t work so well spinning the wrong way huh.

 

[Deets066]

I broke my recoil rope when I was on a trip. So I just wrapped my tow rope around the clutch a few times and could get it started. The more stops we made it got harder to remember which way to wrap the rope. Lol

 

[tree monkey]

I had it happen on my IT 175 Yamaha back in ‘82. I had just rebuilt the top end and hooked the two wires from the coil up reversed. Fired it up, revved a few times, dropped er down in 1st and dumped the clutch. Front fenders don’t taste very good.

Clutch doesn’t work so well spinning the wrong way huh.

no problem with the clutch. landing a jump in reverse …………………………………...

 

[Deets066]

no problem with the clutch. landing a jump in reverse …………………………………...

Yours must have been different. The rollers and weights spinning in the primary backwards wouldn’t close it

 

[Terry Syd]

I've only run into it once. I tried kick-starting a big Yamaha two-stroke (465, 490 forget) and it kicked back on me, my foot slipped off the kick starter and the damn thing was running. I revved it and it felt really slow. I put the thing in gear and it wanted to go backwards.

Figured out what happened and hit the kill switch. Restarted without a hitch (it was already warmed up, LOL).

 

[MarcS]

Smashed a golf cart (old two stroke) into another cart years ago when I was well into a six pack smuggled in the golf bag. I swore at the time that I didn’t have it in reverse but of course nobody believed me. Lol.

That’s how they operated, just flipped the timing for forward or backwards rotation. Somehow my cart just got the beans above the frank and took off the wrong way.

 

[qurotro]

I once cold start a 460 and didnt pull fast enough. It fires and snap the rope very rapidly. I think it would run backward if the rope didnt stop it.

 

[Bigmac]

A fixed timings saw would run poorly in reverse at a 25 degree after tdc but would and ignition with an advanced curve built in care about the direction? The ignition that has an advance curve is really just retarding the timing at low rpms and back to the fixed timing at higher rpms(at least on saws and cdi bike ignitions, I guess I have never thought about ignition advance in reverse! Lol the computer controlled ignitions could trigger the ignition in reverse to run properly and make an effective reverse gear. Have heard a few guys say they had four strokes run in reverse.....think of the oil pump! Lol

 

[~WBF]

Yes, on a 372 once. Coil was shot. It is the only time I have heard of it. Very rare thing to happen in saws I have used & other pro saws around jobs in the last three decades

 

[94BULLITT]

Are You certain the chain is on correctly?
Maybe You just have to turn the chain around.

A video of the saw running in reverse would be cool.

Here is the video.

 

[Bigmac]

Here is the video.

Cool vid, it must be the ignition! It started pretty easy considering!

 

[Gary Courtney]

On those older stihl saws it is bad on the oiler gears as it will unscrew them and cause damage even doing the chain by hand.

 

[RI Chevy]

Well sheite. The saw don be in reverse. Shift it into forward gear and let her rip!
Glad I could be of help. Lol

 

[lehman live edge slab]

The reverse running engine on a snowmobile started back in the 70’s. Mercury had motors with dual ignitions one for forward and one for reverse. Had to turn key to reverse side and pull start backwards with a strap on the clutch. Didn’t want to run that direction long because of reduced cooling from the fan though. Similar system was used on their old direct drive outboards. The 6 cylinder tower of power mark 75’s had no gears just shut off the engine and start backwards to slow boat coming into the dock. Only problem is if it didn’t start right away you ran into the dock or shore. They were known as mercury dockbusters and a few years later had full shift gear cases.

 

[94BULLITT]

Cool vid, it must be the ignition! It started pretty easy considering!

It actually started very hard. I pulled the not out of the crank hand then I tied a bigger one in it, then the one on the recoil gave out, I I had to tie a bigger one on it. I was about ready to give up, I may have messed with it for 15 minutes, then it started. I just left all of that out.

 

[94BULLITT]

On those older stihl saws it is bad on the oiler gears as it will unscrew them and cause damage even doing the chain by hand.

I bet it is. I have another 031 this guy owns that need an oil pump, I think.

 

[Nutball]

I had an rc plane with a glow engine that you could trim the idle speed down till it kicked back, then you could rev it up and back up the plane. It had a timed rotary valve, so it didn't run well backward. I have also run a 4 stroke glow engine in reverse, just connect the fuel line to the exhaust pipe.

Running a chainsaw backward can also be hard on the chain and sprocket as some chains will get their drive link hooks caught on the sprocket teeth.