"engineman" wrote in message
...
John,

Here is a question for you and your metalhead group.

Q: Say you had a 2 CYCLE motorcycle and you wanted to push start
it. Suppose that you got on it and turned on the ignition but didn't
hit the start button. Instead you depressed the clutch lever and put
it in 1st gear. Then four of your not so bright friends, two on each
side, pushed you and the bike BACKWARDS!! Remember there are two each
side so they should be able to keep you from falling over. After the
bike gains some momentum you pop the clutch. Now, the question is:
WILL THE BIKE START WITH THE ENGINE RUNNINGBACKWARDS??!? If not, why
not? The reason that it comes up is that I read about a new class of
ULCCs (UltraLargeCrudeCarriers -- Way big mutha oil tankers) that
have 2 cycle diesel engines with NO transmission, clutch or reduction
gears of any sort. The drive shaft comes out the back of the engine
and goes out the back of the hull and the propeller is bolted directly
to the end of it No gears, no clutch, no nothing. The way that they
reverse it is by shutting of the engine and then restarting it
BACKWARDS!!?! It is designed to do this, I'm wondering if all 2
cycle engines will run backwards or not? Inquiring minds want to
know.

Bill

From Engineman

Polaris & Ski-Doo (maybe others now) both have "electronic" reverse on
their snowmobiles and possibly ATV's, too.
You can see here that it stops the engine briefly and instantly re-fires
it in reverse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opwQ15uic_g