Michael and Mike,
Yup, I clearly had a senior moment there. Thanks for clarifying my error. But my main concept is correct. The early Alpines, indeed, have reverse on the left and down. And SV has the Reverse on Right side and down. But as clearly noted in WSM124, the early Alpines had a Reverse lockout (or Isolation) switch to prevent engaging OD while in Reverse. And the SV also has a Lockout switch. But, surprisingly, on an SV, even though the Reverse is then on the same side of the shift lever as 3rd and 4th gear, the switch still opens when put in Reverse position. I just checked on my SV Alpine. I'm not sure how that is accomplished, maybe an extra "notch" on the shift shaft or something.
So, it makes no sense to think that the OD "warning" lamp was eliminated on SV as "no longer needed". It was clearly a cost saving move, similar to eliminating curved corners on doors and hood.
And I still suspect that explanation for the sad story related by jdoclogan (Reply #16), is that the Isolator switch was defective, absent, or mis-wired, possibly in the conversion from a standard SII to the Promotional Harrington Le Mans.
Tom
Yup, I clearly had a senior moment there. Thanks for clarifying my error. But my main concept is correct. The early Alpines, indeed, have reverse on the left and down. And SV has the Reverse on Right side and down. But as clearly noted in WSM124, the early Alpines had a Reverse lockout (or Isolation) switch to prevent engaging OD while in Reverse. And the SV also has a Lockout switch. But, surprisingly, on an SV, even though the Reverse is then on the same side of the shift lever as 3rd and 4th gear, the switch still opens when put in Reverse position. I just checked on my SV Alpine. I'm not sure how that is accomplished, maybe an extra "notch" on the shift shaft or something.
So, it makes no sense to think that the OD "warning" lamp was eliminated on SV as "no longer needed". It was clearly a cost saving move, similar to eliminating curved corners on doors and hood.
And I still suspect that explanation for the sad story related by jdoclogan (Reply #16), is that the Isolator switch was defective, absent, or mis-wired, possibly in the conversion from a standard SII to the Promotional Harrington Le Mans.
Tom