hand cranks on cars.

[swampyankee]

Back when I was in college, a sixty-ish man who worked in the shop wher I had summer job said that Chrysler radiators had holes for hand cranks in their radiators into the models produced into the 1960s.

 

[MIflyer]

Of course there were hand cranks on airplanes, too.

Even some electric starters for aircraft engines had the option of plugging in a crank through a hole in the cowl and using a crank to wind up the starter, which the pilot would then engage once it was spun up. A friend of mine had a starter for his Waco that was like that, although the configuration would have required you to lay atop the upper wing to plug in the crank,. so he always started it electrically. He had no generator on the airplane, so he charged up the battery on the ground.

The odd thing about the starter was that it was positive ground. He got it from the USAF Museum in return for some stuff they wanted. Since the Waco had no electrical system it did not matter if the starter was negative or positive ground

There are pictures and films of crewmen cranking away on the side of airplanes to get them started. Those were inertial starters that spun up a disk to high RPM rather than driving the engine directly, whether the energy was supplied by a crank or an electric motor.

 

[GrauGeist]

Most 6V automobiles (especially American) were positive ground until the mid-50's, too.

 

[billrunnels]

Of course there were hand cranks on airplanes, too.

Even some electric starters for aircraft engines had the option of plugging in a crank through a hole in the cowl and using a crank to wind up the starter, which the pilot would then engage once it was spun up. A friend of mine had a starter for his Waco that was like that, although the configuration would have required you to lay atop the upper wing to plug in the crank,. so he always started it electrically. He had no generator on the airplane, so he charged up the battery on the ground.

The odd thing about the starter was that it was positive ground. He got it from the USAF Museum in return for some stuff they wanted. Since the Waco had no electrical system it did not matter if the starter was negative or positive ground

There are pictures and films of crewmen cranking away on the side of airplanes to get them started. Those were inertial starters that spun up a disk to high RPM rather than driving the engine directly, whether the energy was supplied by a crank or an electric motor.

Years ago I turned the crank for a guy who in turn gave me a ride. He was eighty years old and later killed on a cross country trip. Don't remember type of aircraft but was low wing cockpit.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

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.

Not that much of a mechanic. It was all pretty much bolt-on stuff, except for the oil pump. That was a bit more of a job.
Nice thing about the beetle, it sat tall enough so you could get under it with a creeper between you and that cold floor. Don't you just love those VeeDub drum brakes?
Cheers,
Wes

 

[billrunnels]

Not that much of a mechanic. It was all pretty much bolt-on stuff, except for the oil pump. That was a bit more of a job.
Nice thing about the beetle, it sat tall enough so you could get under it with a creeper between you and that cold floor. Don't you just love those VeeDub drum brakes?
Cheers,
Wes

I do remember tuning up the bug. That was easy to do as everything was convenient to reach. It was a fun car to drive except in the Winter. The heater was not efficient and smelled of gas fumes. Our son sold the bug to his brother and acquired a Carmen gia. Now that was a sporty little car.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

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 .

As we taxiied up to the terminal in Watertown NY one day on a single engine turn, my FO pointed out a guy over in the tiedown area trying to hand prop his Chief (or Taylorcraft; it was too far away to see clearly). While I "babysat" our plane with its running offside engine and copied our clearance for the next leg, I watched this guy struggling to get his plane going. He would get it to pop over a few times, but it wouldn't stay running. Numerous trips to the cockpit to tweak the throttle seemed to have little effect. As we taxiied out we decided to give him an "A" for effort.
Just before Center handed us off to Syracuse Approach we heard a request to a passing plane in the Watertown area for help locating the "missing aircraft".
By the time we made it to Newark, it was all over the news. He finally got it going, but the friction lock wasn't tight enough, and it got away from him, ran through the gap in the unfinished chain link fence, took off, and flew wide orbits around the east end of Lake Ontario until it ran out of fuel and landed, largely undamaged, in a pasture near Sacketts Harbor.
Let's hear it for armstrong starters!
Cheers,
Wes

 

[XBe02Drvr]

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,

Was that Weedsport NY in May of 1977? A student and I were at a pancake breakfast there on a dual cross country from Oswego County Airport for the student's first off-pavement experience. (With nutritional benefits!) When we taxiied out, there was an Ercoupe a couple planes behind us. We were still on Unicom frequency when we heard somebody say "Omigod, he ran off the end!!". Then the frequency turned into an unintelligible babel, but it was clear that there was a gaggle of planes orbiting over the scene, so we beat feet for thinner territory.
We later learned that the circumstances were pretty similar to what you described, except we never heard about the "wreck?" being sold on the spot.
Cheers,
Wres

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I do remember tuning up the bug. That was easy to do as everything was convenient to reach. It was a fun car to drive except in the Winter. The heater was not efficient and smelled of gas fumes. Our son sold the bug to his brother and acquired a Carmen gia. Now that was a sporty little car.

Winter was the most fun time to drive a Beetle/Ghia! Once you got used to the rear engine handling (There's nothing better than a large empty icy parking lot!) you can "drift" it consistently and reliably, steering with the throttle. I used to enter my parents VeeDub in ice trials and beat Corvettes and Shelbys. Two-stroke SAABs, OTOH, were a tough nut to crack.
Your son's car needed a new muffler and heater muff. That was a "no compromise, no excuses" necessity in the north country in winter with those cars. "The Mono" took a lot of lives unecessarily.
I had a Karmann Ghia for a while. Fun car, but a little cramped for my size, and its body literally dissolved in our road salt. Oddly enough, despite its sexy appearance, it was out-performed by the beetle, which was 200 lbs lighter, and had a stiffer body, less susceptible to torsional distortion. Both were limited at the top end by engine RPM, negating the Ghia's aerodynamic advantage. My Ghia got a little light and squirrelly at top speed, not a confidence-inspiring feature at all.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[MIflyer]

A student and I were at a pancake breakfast

I heard that story at a pancake breakfast at Okachobee Airport, around 1996.

 

[billrunnels]

Winter was the most fun time to drive a Beetle/Ghia! Once you got used to the rear engine handling (There's nothing better than a large empty icy parking lot!) you can "drift" it consistently and reliably, steering with the throttle. I used to enter my parents VeeDub in ice trials and beat Corvettes and Shelbys. Two-stroke SAABs, OTOH, were a tough nut to crack.
Your son's car needed a new muffler and heater muff. That was a "no compromise, no excuses" necessity in the north country in winter with those cars. "The Mono" took a lot of lives unecessarily.
I had a Karmann Ghia for a while. Fun car, but a little cramped for my size, and its body literally dissolved in our road salt. Oddly enough, despite its sexy appearance, it was out-performed by the beetle, which was 200 lbs lighter, and had a stiffer body, less susceptible to torsional distortion. Both were limited at the top end by engine RPM, negating the Ghia's aerodynamic advantage. My Ghia got a little light and squirrelly at top speed, not a confidence-inspiring feature at all.
Cheers,
Wes

Our son's Ghia also dissolved from road salt.