Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
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.)I'll tell you what though, it was damned hard trying to hand start a straight six with a 4 1/2" stroke!!!
You make a good point about the grip.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.
The reverse-cam nut in theory is supposed to push the crank handle out, but sometimes that could go wrong in a hurry!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.
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.I believe at one time you could buy a lawnmower-style starting rope you could wrap around the generator pulley to start VW Bugs.
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!"The reverse-cam nut in theory is supposed to push the crank handle out, but sometimes that could go wrong in a hurry!
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.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