hand cranks on cars.

[Shortround6]

TO keep from derailing the WW II pictures thread.

1967 TR-4A with hand crank hole in the grill.

The 68 TR-5/TR250 don't have the hole.

I know because we stuck the front end of a TR-4A on my TR-250 after an accident.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool!

 

[soulezoo]

Also in 1967, I used to have a Nissan Patrol with a hand crank. Too bad I don't have any remaining pictures.
I'll tell you what though, it was damned hard trying to hand start a straight six with a 4 1/2" stroke!!!

 

[GrauGeist]

The low compression engines of the Teens and Twenties were really easy to hand-crank.

 

[Gnomey]

Cool!

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I'll tell you what though, it was damned hard trying to hand start a straight six with a 4 1/2" stroke!!!

My '64 TR-4 had evidently been "hotted up" a bit, though I wasn't warned about it. The first tank of gas I put in it set it to pinging unmercifully, and the starter had a hard time cranking it. I had to run hi test in it and keep the mixture adjusted just a little rich of spec. It no longer had the crank recepticle on its pulley, but I turned it over with a breaker bar when I was adjusting timing, and it took a lot of muscle to overcome compression. Way more than my friends in the sports car club said it should. It also didn't run happily on "book" ignition timing. Fun car to drive, but I seemed to spend more time under the "bonnet" and under the dash than I ever did behind the wheel. And the damn British hardware didn't fit my tools! Two years after I bought it, leaded hi test went away, and it never ran happily on any flavor of unleaded, and I got in trouble with the base CO for putting the Flying Club's 100LL in it, so it became somebody else's problem. (Unloaded it on a rich young Ensign just out of the academy who was used to paying the long dollar to keep his toys in order.)
Cheers,
Wes

 

[soulezoo]

Hi test. lol, Hi test. To describe a grade of gasoline.

You are not a young man Wes. There are at least two generations who have no idea what that means.

No worries... I do.

 

[MIflyer]

I've been told that the early VW bugs had a place for a crank in the back. We had a 63 convertible Bug that you could see how that could be done.

I believe at one time you could buy a lawnmower-style starting rope you could wrap around the generator pulley to start VW Bugs. However, unlike airplanes, cars mostly use distributor ignition systems rather than magnetos so you cannot get it started unless there is enough power in the battery to get some spark. Generators are better than alternators relative to that aspect because they will still produce power even if the battery is stone cold dead.

 

[GrauGeist]

Cars with a generator can be push-started even if they don't have a battery, as the generator acts like a magneto. A battery in the system acts like a capacitor to equalize the current beyond the regulator.

As far as hand-cranked VWs, I believe the last year was '63 and several Eastern European cars, like the Lada, still had provisions for hand-cranking as late as the 80's.

 

[billrunnels]

Going back to the Model T Ford, better not have the spark set to high or the crank handle would kick back in your hand. A broken arm was not uncommon.

 

[GrauGeist]

Very true, Bill.

Most people also cranked on the right, not the left as you're supposed to. Also, keep your thumb next to the index finger and lift, never grip the handle, so in the event of a kick-back, the handle rolled out of your palm.

 

[billrunnels]

Very true, Bill.

Most people also cranked on the right, not the left as you're supposed to. Also, keep your thumb next to the index finger and lift, never grip the handle, so in the event of a kick-back, the handle rolled out of your palm.

You make a good point about the grip.

 

[soulezoo]

Fortunately on my Patrol (ok, well fortunately I only really HAD to hand crank a few times) the fitment on the crank was designed so that in case of kick-back, it pushed the crank handle out of the fitment and out of the way.

 

[GrauGeist]

Fortunately on my Patrol (ok, well fortunately I only really HAD to hand crank a few times) the fitment on the crank was designed so that in case of kick-back, it pushed the crank handle out of the fitment and out of the way.

The reverse-cam nut in theory is supposed to push the crank handle out, but sometimes that could go wrong in a hurry!

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I believe at one time you could buy a lawnmower-style starting rope you could wrap around the generator pulley to start VW Bugs.

When I was in college and a brand new driver (late bloomer), I borrowed my parents' '66 VW 1300 for a week when they went off to visit friends in England. I hung out with a slightly "racey" crowd and couldn't stand being stuck with a prosaic VeeDub, so I set out to "customize" it a little. I put an extension on the gearshift, an RPM decal on the speedometer, a 4-way flasher in the dash, and in hopes of placating my dad's cold weather starting issues, a Katz block heater and generator pull starter. The drive from home to the office wasn't enough to recharge the battery after a cold start, and by the end of the week it would need jump starting. He got to be very good friends with the guys down at Perry's Shell.
So my folks got home, saw what I'd done to their "little buggy" and went ballistic, making me take it all out. A week later, on Ground Hog Day, my dad came to me and said maybe the heater and pull starter and flasher weren't such a bad idea after all. I put ALL the gear back in, he stopped spending so much money at Perry's, and I never heard another word about my "hot rodding". In fact, he didn't object later when I installed an aftermarket tachometer, a high capacity oil pump and cooler, and a Mallory "Hot Spark" ignition coil.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[XBe02Drvr]

The reverse-cam nut in theory is supposed to push the crank handle out, but sometimes that could go wrong in a hurry!

My Bristol 30 sailboat has an Atomic 4 flat head gas engine (by the same designer who brought you the WWII Jeep engine), and it has a crank start capability with a reverse cam nut fixture (anything like a Squirrel Nut Zipper??) that's allegedly capable of giving you a nasty jolt. Mine is such a low compression pussy cat that I've never had a problem. "Ah, complacency!"
Cheers,
Wes

 

[MIflyer]

A friend of mine had an Aeronca Chief with a 65 hp Continental that had a knob hooked to a Bowden cable that you pulled on the instrument panel and it kind of "twitched" the prop, not making even half a rotation . I could no believe that much movement could start it but I saw it happen.

The first time I decided to see how easy it was to start my Ercoupe I had it tied down three places and chocks in place. I did not even prime it but just turned on the ignition. Then I flipped the prop through half a turn, not winding up and kicking back with my leg like I would for a real propping., Flip, Flip, FlipBRRRRWOOOOW!

Now, do you think it has ever started that easily when I really needed to?

In contrast, a few weeks back I propped a friend's J-3. First pull, with the ignition off and I knew it was ready to start. Second pull, ignition on and it fired right off.

I was told that up north somewhere some years ago an Ercoupe went to a small fly-in at a grass field and on takeoff failed to lift off, running through a barbed wire fence, The owner sold the remains right there. A man bought the engine, took it home and hung it, prop and all from a rafter in the center of his garage by means of the lifting ring on top of the engine. He called his neighbor over and said he was going to build an iceboat and power it with the engine. His neighbor asked if the crankshaft was still straight. He replied he thought it was and pulled on the prop to see. The P leads were dangling from the magnetos and thus ungrounded. The carburetor bowl was still full of fuel. The engine started right up and "flew" around the garage, cleaning off walls everything that was mounted on them..

 

[billrunnels]

When I was in college and a brand new driver (late bloomer), I borrowed my parents' '66 VW 1300 for a week when they went off to visit friends in England. I hung out with a slightly "racey" crowd and couldn't stand being stuck with a prosaic VeeDub, so I set out to "customize" it a little. I put an extension on the gearshift, an RPM decal on the speedometer, a 4-way flasher in the dash, and in hopes of placating my dad's cold weather starting issues, a Katz block heater and generator pull starter. The drive from home to the office wasn't enough to recharge the battery after a cold start, and by the end of the week it would need jump starting. He got to be very good friends with the guys down at Perry's Shell.
So my folks got home, saw what I'd done to their "little buggy" and went ballistic, making me take it all out. A week later, on Ground Hog Day, my dad came to me and said maybe the heater and pull starter and flasher weren't such a bad idea after all. I put ALL the gear back in, he stopped spending so much money at Perry's, and I never heard another word about my "hot rodding". In fact, he didn't object later when I installed an aftermarket tachometer, a high capacity oil pump and cooler, and a Mallory "Hot Spark" ignition coil.
Cheers,
Wes

You are quite the mechanic. Our son had a "bug" that required constant maintenance in the Winter. Had to bleed the lines to keep the breaks working properly. That garage floor was cold.

 

[Shortround6]

Not a car but the old fire house had a hand cranked 2 cylinder Lister diesel for it's auxiliary generator.
A compression release lever was on each cylinder (held a valve open) and once you had cranked the engine up to a fair speed with the hand crank you reached over with your other hand and flipped one of the levers, if it started firing you flipped the other one then carefully eased the crank handle off the shaft.
Much like this

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuWTPbG_myI

Ours was in a heated building and we generally got it spinning faster before hitting the compression release.
Started easier than our 2 cylinder and 4 cylinder Onan gas generators. Mondays were equipement check day. (All in service trucks and equipment were checked every day, Building aux generators and equipment on spare trucks was checked once a week).

 

[GrauGeist]

SR's video reminded me of a few videos I've seen out there of both Luftwaffe aircraft and Wehrmacht (or SS) tanks being started by hand-cranking.

Now those took a heck of a lot more effort than it took to start my 1919 Metz!