It Feels Great When Something Works When You Get Done

[Mag Man]

Hi EveryOne,
Happy New Year,
Thanks to the guys that helped me to design my cub Hand Crank. I made one yesterday and she was a little hot when I got done with the torch so I let her set till this morning. Went out this am and put it in then I had to un hook the up down thing on the plow and raise the hyd all the way turned that puppy over like SUPERMAN. She fired right up with no broken bones.Actually she never kicked once I wonder if its becuase it has a dist and not a mag. It sure was nothing like cranking the H or M.
Now let me get this straight what do you do with your thumb when you crank a motor I forget stuff like that. Do you put it straight along the crank above your hand ? I dont have to worry about the plow no more I lent it to the lad today. Now I dont have hardley any gravel in the driveway its all at the end . LOL
Just a little note when I was a young boy I talked my brother into taking me up to my grandpa's so I could drive my moms H home he had to crank it for me. He turned the crank she kicked and the crank flew off and hit him in the temple and almost killed him. So Beleve me I know how dangerous they are. It was a long time before I heard the end of that one. JON

[Donny M]

Keep your thumb on the same side of the cramk handle as your fingers. Don't hold it like a baseball bat and if it does kick-back the handle will pop out of your hand

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

If engines are properly timed they will very seldom kickback whether they are mag or distributor. the kick comes when the plug fires before tdc.

[John Niekamp]

Mag-man,

I learned the hard way when I was younger, not that I am real old now 38, but I grew up with antique cars, trucks and tractors with hand cranks. However, I never broke my arm, but it really hurt for several days. Most of my hand-cranking skill came from the ever so famous "Model T" Ford" and my "Model A" Ford. I have had a couple of old tractors that had either hand cranks or places on the flywheel for starting the engines.

Most of the old cars and trucks had a "spark control" lever. what this was is a lever on up on the steering wheel column and many people would forget to push the lever back up which in most cases was the "retarded" position and they would try to hand crank the engine and this was when they really like to kick back and break your arm. I can't think of or know if there was ever any tractors with a spark advance lever or not, none of mine did.

As like John *.?-!.* cub owner said a well tuned engine will "ALMOST" (and that's in quotes) never kick back. I have also learned that if the engine is tuned poperly, all you have to do is get the enigne on a compression stroke and just pull up on the hand crank and it will start.

I know more people who have gotton hurt by hand cranking an engine if they crank full revolutions. Just like Donny said, keep that thumb on the side of your crank, don't wrap it around.

On our "Model A and T's I will get it on compression stroke with the choke on and then if it doesn't start, that usually leaves the carb. spewing out gas and I will take off the choke and give it another half turn and it's running.

Now, I haven't used the crank on my Cub yet, but it's so easy starting, I doubt if there will be any problems. I just have to do a little work on the bolster, it froze up once and cracked everything either some brazing weld got inside the hole or the hole itself is messed up because of the freezing up, so I have to run a reamer in the crank hole and hopfully that will fix the problem.

You know stop to think of it, I have actually gotton more hurt kick starting the old Harleys that I use to own than I have ever using a hand crank on an old car or tractor engine. My knee still goes out on me because of them dang old Harleys I once had. Thank God for electric start on my newer one.

Happy and SAFE hand cranking,

John Niekamp