Last car produced with a starting handle

[John F]

Micrashed, on 13 Dec 2013 - 10:32 PM, said:

iN FAIRNESS THOUGH, THAT SET UP IS AN INERTIA fucksocks

As I was saying, an inertia starter - you wind a geared flywheel mass up to a given speed , then drop it onto the crank of the engine and "thunk" you are not actually trying to turn the engine by hand.

 

True, but I wouldn't fancy my chances of swing-starting a 23.9 litre V12 engine, even if it is petrol...!

[lennyhope]

Up to 1980 the VW 181 'Trekker', Kubel, Safari, Thing..... had a starting handle.

[Wilko220]

I was going to put this in "stupid questions" but I thought I'd resurrect this absolutely top thread instead.

 

I'm pretty sure the answer to this is NO - but can anyone confirm fo sho whether it is possible to start one of these with a handle please?

 

[sutty2006]

That Tiger tank is pure PORN

[meggersdog]

Depends what crank pulley bolt you have Wilko220.

If the bolt has a tube on the end then yes it's possible.

Commer/Dodge vans still had the hole in the bumper so a bolt off one of those and the appropriate hole in the valence should do.

Have a look under the car,it's usually the pulley bolt rather than a different design of pulley.

[Talbotman]

Imps still had the ability to be started by handle right up to the end.of their production run in 1976 with the aid of a factory starting handle,crank attachment and bumper strengthening bar kit.

[Guest Pippin]

Possibly the biggest (and heaviest) vehicle that has a starting handle is the early 1940s PzKpfw VI 'Tiger'... here's a video clip of one being started.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROnb5ouBjNc

... except that the Germans replaced the already massive Tiger with an even bigger and heavier tank, the Tiger II, which apparently needs two people to crank it:

 

 

[cros]

Was reading a thing in Car magazine about 'you don't know how lucky you are' about features that were seen as common on cars years ago.

The early ones had knobs on the steering wheel to adjust the ignition timing! Never knew that.

Now they have knobs on the steering wheel adjusting knobs on the steering wheel.

[RichardK]

Used to to start my Dyane6 with the handle regularly, the ignition switch was hopeless. And my GSA was crawled around the village I lived in using the handle alone.

[cros]

For your post apocalyptic motoring needs look no further than the diesel Fordson Major. Though not fitted with a starting handle, if a rope is wrapped around the side mounted pulley wheel two people can bring the 3.6 litre engine to life. Imagine wafting smugly past motionless Priuses at 12mph as you feel the first effects of radiation sickness...

[PhillipM]

... except that the Germans replaced the already massive Tiger with an even bigger and heavier tank, the Tiger II, which apparently needs two people to crank it:

 

 

And it still starts easier than the rotary in the buggy did.

 

 

[UltraWomble]

Of course real men use cordite assistance to start their vehicles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Sr8S9uQMc

[barrett]

Probably something really utilitarian like the Trojan - these went into van form into the 1950s but I think by then they had electric start.

Trojans don't have a handle! Thats the whole point. "The patent unreliability of the electric starter is replaced by a few simple levers' - not sure where a handle would go, given the position of the engine under he drivers seat.

'50s Trojan vans are totally different and utterly conventional. Most were diesel, too

[John F]

Of course real men use cordite assistance to start their vehicles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Sr8S9uQMc

 

Grrr! Keep the fucking camera pointed at what you're supposed to be filming, twat!

[cros]

Trojans don't have a handle! Thats the whole point. "The patent unreliability of the electric starter is replaced by a few simple levers' - not sure where a handle would go, given the position of the engine under he drivers seat.

'50s Trojan vans are totally different and utterly conventional. Most were diesel, too

The Trojan van latterly had a 2.5l 3cylinder Perkins which the factory hadn't developed for automotive use- it was solidly mounted in various industrial and agricultural machines. With rubber mounts in the Trojan start-up is a sight to behold, it looks as if its trying leap out of the bonnet. I'd like one.

[SOUL]

 

Possibly the Oltcit Club made up to 1995?

[DSdriver]

Moggies did have them right to the end - I had a '69 car with a dodgy starter motor which I had to start with the handle. 

 

I'm not sure how a crank handle would work on a Renner Four, what with the gearbox being in front of the engine an' shizz.

 

Somewhat late to the party, but I can answer this. If it is the same as the Citroen DS that is. All DS could be hand cranked except those with a five speed gearbox. There was a little knob under the steering wheel which would lock the clutch (a useful anti-theft device). The fifth gear when added meant that they could no longer have the starting dog on the end of the gearbox. The starting handle was put together using the wheel brace and the long bar also used for centering the wheel on the hub.

[Taff]

I'm sure this has been posted here before: how to start a truck with muscle using inertia, no HANDLE required.

 

 

we have started CVR(T) like that, using a crowbar in the drive sprocket. You get an anxious moment when it fires up but no-one has been hurt yet.

 

Would a car with a starting handle work in the event of a nuclear war? In that event normal cars would be fooked because of the electro magnetic pulse wouldn't they? I suspect that there were a lot of cars made for people in the 80's that had this capability with the ongoing cold war. 

 

There probably still is. I wouldn't know about it though as I am wearing this tin foil hat.

 

my Galaxie is '59 model year and the radio has two distinct markings on the scale, which apparently were earmarked for government public service anouncements in the event of America & USSR ever throwing buckets of instant sunshine at each other.

[colino]

I don't remember the last one I had, but those Lada 1200s and 1300s very handily came with one to help you, "fix" the timing chain whose death rattle had sent it prematurely to the auction.  (The standard toolkit also had what you needed to adjust the manual timing chain adjuster too).

[michael1703]

I await paykan hunter to reply to this thread and tell us the hunter also holds that record

[SOUL]

I await paykan hunter to reply to this thread and tell us the hunter also holds that record

 

Aparently the Peykan tools were sold off to the Sudan so it could still be in production for all we know by a man in a shed.

[martc]

 

It's not a car, but it's still in production and looks to me like it has a starting handle (or at least the hole for one...). The strangely named Zoomlion RX160, from China of course.

 

http://www.china-tractors.com/Zoomlion-RX160-Tractor-pd484264.html

[bolognasal spray]

Just skimmed the sit up and beg thread and saw mention of needing starting w/ keep fit handle. Which reminded me - growing up, there was always a starting handle floating around our diddy little garage at home. I remember asking my dad what it was for and seem to remember him saying it belonged to the morris oxford he used to have - the one that looked like this:

 

 

The other vehicle he owned at the time (late sixties very early seventies) was a black moggy thou van - so it could've been for this.

 

Quick tie-in to another recent thread - I think my first ever car journey (i.e. coming back from hospital a few days old) was in the oxford. There was for many years after a generous tin of green touch up paint in the garage, with a brush in the lid. I used it to repaint a Spot-On diecast 1:43 Rover 3 litre that my gran got me from a church jumble sale in about 1973. That was my all-time favourite diecast car - the suspension was superb on those Spot-Ons, and iirc very different from Dinky and Corgi. The Rover had originally been a shade of pink (!), if memory serves - and it was mostly gone when it fell into my hands. Suffice to say, the Morris Oxford touch-up tin brush was not designed for fine detailed work, and the poor old Rover looked pretty sorry afterwards. As did several other of my toy cars - all of which passed through my inexpert refurbing shop. These included a Dinky Rolls Royce Phantom V (that came in kit form, I think), and a Corgi mini.

 

Okay - that's enough digressions for one morning. Looking back though, I do start to feel ancient - and it's not helped by my dad's penchant for old shite. Please note that this didn't last very far into the '70s - he ran a Victor 101 (bench seat) after getting rid of the Oxford and Moggy van, until about '75 when he got a new Viva. Which he disliked quite strongly due to a vibration issue that could never be tracked down and which he was told they all do that sir. Iow, it was probably my dad's paranoia and unwillingness to live with a very slight "problem". So the Viva only lasted a couple of years until he bought a mkII escort in Miami blue (wow that paint was terrible after the thick, generous coat on the Viva). Iirc he bought this in '77 and ran it through to ooh, '86-ish when I was old enough to drive. And it passed into my hands. With 180k on it (!!). I wrote it off one dark wet evening rushing down London Rd in Stoke - a gimmer turned across me. Think I got thruppence ha'penny off the insurance. So '88 saw me get another mkII this time in Cordoba beige - much better with flat paint.

[Rocket88]

My 403 has a starting handle hole which goes through the number plate......

[UltraWomble]

The Bedford had one. Kept with the spare wheel in the back.

]

[Stinkwheel]

My 1985 GSA has a starting handle hole (and starting handle)

Is this the newest mass produced model to have a handle? I am ignoring 2cv as they were an old design that went on a long time.

[Richard]

IIRC my 1979 Viva had a pair pair of weights hanging off the back of the rear axle. I wonder if that was their cure for the vibration.

[Richard]

My 1985 GSA has a starting handle hole (and starting handle)

Is this the newest mass produced model to have a handle?

The Mighty Dacia is a 90s car and has a starting handle.

[Stinkwheel]

The Mighty Dacia is a 90s car and has a starting handle.

Wow, I did not know that.

[Richard]