Hand Cranking

[awander]

I always see the advice to crank with left hand, and keep your thumb on the outside.

I don;t see how the thumb enters into it. If the engine kicks back, seems to me that it will be pushing against your palm or fingers, not the thumb.

In other words, the crank will push against the part of your hand that you are pushing it with.

What am I missing?

[Peter J]

With your thumb wrapped around the crank, it'll pull you back around with it. In highschool, I always parked mine on a hill if starting was an issue.

[Tom Wesenberg]

I always crank with my right hand and with my thumb around the handle, just as I would grasp a hammer handle. I guess if the thumb isn't wrapped around the handle, then the crank can more easily leave your hand if it kicks backwards, otherwise if the hand is still grasping the handle it can pull you down with it.

[Marco Tahtaras]

I've been hand cranking Model A's since I was about thirteen, so a bit over forty years. It's never been a big deal. However I learned many years ago that with high compression they will still tend to kick back at times with a good charge of gas in the cylinders such as when choking. For that reason I made it a habit with a cold engine to leave the ignition off for the first pull of the crank and choke pulled. Then I release the choke and turn on the ignition for the second pull and the engine will start without incident. I describe this on my hand cranking web page.

A few years ago I was doing this on a car with just under 6:1 compression and having a problem getting the car to fire. Well, it finally fired and kicked back. The crank pulled from my hand as it should but did so with so much velocity that the crank went full circle hitting the back of my arm and producing a pretty painful bruise. Not life threatening but not fun.

BTW, it turned out the engine had quite a charge of gas and had flooded when it shouldn't have. I found the carburetor had a loose compensator jet just hanging on by the last thread so it was feeding a considerable amount of gas.

[C26Pinelake]

My dad told me that if you don't have something good to say then say nothing. Does it make you feel better to belittle this Barner. If you thought other Barners would be impressed with your stupidass remark you are wrong ! You are the one that looked bad and not the poster !

[Bob Johnson]

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I have made a video showing how I hand crank a cold engine. Go to my Movies web page and select the "Hand crank" video. See link below.

Bob


Model A Movies

[Bob C]

Originally Posted by Charlie Stephens

If you can crank your engine in either direction something is wrong. Looking at the front of the engine you should be able to crank it clockwise. Turning it counterclockwise should push the crank out of the front of the engine. If this doesn't happen there will be a big problem when the engine starts and the crank spins with the engine.

Charlie Stephens

Check this video with the crank spinning, not a Model A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzbxc...ture=endscreen

Bob

[Milton]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

if the hand is still grasping the handle it can pull you down with it.

And then, depending on your height, the pull down would end when my chin bounced off of the radiator shell. Another good reason, I learned early on, to keep ones tongue in ones mouth when cranking.

[Mike V. Florida]

I hand crank often at shows.

[Patrick L.]

I've written these before,, but what the heck.. I'll try and keep them short..
As a youngster we kinda stole my friends parents Farmall A with no electrics.. I was crossing a big ditch and it [or I ] stalled it and it stopped with the nose very high.. I couldn't get it to start.. It seemed to have fuel but the carburetor was actually higher than the fuel level which took this 12 yr old too long to figure out.. I got fed up and just grabbed the crank with both hands and started spinning.. It fired and ripped the crank out of my hands and came around and promptly shattered both wrist bones.. That wrist has since become a great barometer.. My friend and I then set the wrist ourselves by strapping a full fuel can to my hand and I would raise the arm and we would try to slip the bones into place,, it worked pretty good as the x-rays later showed..
I had a similar incident trying to start an old motorcycle and didn't know which way to set the spark lever,, I found out in short order..
About 10 years ago the old Ford let me down for the first and only time.. It wouldn't start/crank in front of the local diner one wet morning.. So I dug out the crank, stuck it in the hole and gave it a tug.. I slipped on the oily wet pavement and broke my nose on the radiator shell.. JoAnn says its an improvement,, so maybe something good came of it..
I've finally figured out that I'm not meant to hand start anything,, so,, now I don't/ won't..

[twilder]

To Bill Williamson,
I in no way meant to say anything "idiotic" sir. I was only asking a question that I did not know the answer to, as I am new to Model A's and am just trying to figure them out by posting on here to people who are much "A" smarter than I.

[twilder]

Thanks guys for all your responses. I'm sorry Mr. Williamson