Can you hand-start a Yanmar?

[snowleopard]

After all the discussion I'd be interested to see how many have actually managed it (I haven't).

If you have owned one of the following models - 1GM10, 2GM20, 3GM30, i.e. raw water cooled with hand crank, please complete the poll.

 

[steve_cronin]

You\'re obviously out to prove something, I wonder what?..........nm

?

 

[pessimist]

Re: You\'re obviously out to prove something, I wonder what?..........n

Used to hand start an IGM 10 with no difficulty (swinging mooring and dodgy battery). 'Course that was in a proper shaped boat with easy access to the front of the engine, rather than stuck down a little narrow tube /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

Once hand started a Bukh 20, but I was really, really angry.

Edited Sorry, meant to reply to SL not SC.

 

[Relax]

C'mon then all the yes-men - wots the trik??

 

[bendyone]

Could hand start my 1GM10 on my own. Piece of string to decompression lever held open by foot, when spinning quickly lift foot and stand back

 

[snowleopard]

I've never managed to get it over the first compression however mightily I crank before dropping a valve lifter. Those who have managed it - does it get easier with age (of engine!), are the 1 & 2 cyl versions any easier than the 3?

 

[pragmatist]

Pessimist doesn't like to brag (summat about the year(s) gap in age between u both /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif). However the 1GM we had from new actually started on its crate in the back garden ! Sir started it and hey off it galloped - had to be stopped pretty damned quickly as there was no briny to cool it ! Since it had a v serious Japanese label saying "not to be started by wimmins or children" (verbatim - will dig out the label if you don't believe me) I dutifully didn't try. However Sir did start it pretty easily on several occasions as we tended to sail off the mooring and forget the battery a lot. And yes, it did get even easier over the one season we owned it/the boat. However, you have 3GMs ? Surely (wot would I know as a mere female) these are much more difficult ? Or praps as Pessimist sez - as he did with the Bukh - maybe you just have to get to be Mr Angry ?!

 

[Dave99]

only done it on a warm engine!

 

[snowleopard]

On the face of it a 3GM is just a 1GM with 3 pots instead of 1 but I suspect that the friction of moving 3 pistons is enough to stop you getting up enough speed for the flywheel to kick it over TDC. I haven't tried in the last year or 2 but after 1500 hours it hadn't loosened up any. Perhaps I should get CB in and tell him that woofters can't start it! (I used to get my main hoisted by various youngsters by telling them 'this isn't a job for girlies/croquet players/Oxford students')

 

[snowleopard]

It looks as though the questionnaire needs some work. Those who said they had succeeded - anyone claim to have done it with the 3-cyl? (please say no ore I'll feel very inferior)

 

[Grajan]

You do need strength wether it be two or three pots you are trying to fire up
my system was to lift decompressors spin engine as fast as possible then drop one lever but be ready to pull the engine over the first compression remembering to keep thumb out of the way! mind you had lots of practice with an old Rover prior to going yachting

 

[mcframe]

1GM10, normally practice a couple of times a season.
Decompression lever, spin at least 4-5 turns to get up speed, then drop lever - normally starts 1st or second time.

I am, however, used to kickstarting recalcitrant motorcycles...

 

[Adamastor]

I've cranked a 1GM10 and 2GM20 and the three-pot Yannie as well! Very easy with stuff for starting truculent engines called Quik-Start. It's basically ether and castor-oil in aerosol form. (I wonder if it'd be good for hyperactive kids? 1 squirt to calm em down and it's make them wonderfully regular!)
Basically, just a tiny squirt of quik-start in the intake, lift the valves, give her a rev to get some diesel in the pot, and give her about 5 turns quite quickly. Then as the flywheel's about to hit TDC you drop the first valve, then second then third. No fear or trickery involved. And my long-time sailing buddy (who's 70 and slight and taught me the trick) says: "it's toys!"

 

[ShipsWoofy]

With our 3GM I found it easier to hand start than my 1Gm's. The main trick is (I found) to first start it on one cylinder drop it in slowly and then drop in the second as the first is popping away and then the third.

The habit of spinning the engine as though trying to get it up to silly speeds before letting go does not seem to help, a steady rotation and a bit of luck with the timing when you start dropping levers. Listers used to have the levers joined but yanmars never do, different design? I don't know.

We used to have a rope start Lamborghini in one of our boats, that was fun as it could drag you back in if the rope did not release. The engine would bounce and start backward occasionally too. No decompression on that, 8hp, makes me wonder why yanmar don't use a rope on the pully wheel as it gives much greater leverage, the lambo was a doddle to start.

If the crap hits the fan, try some easy start first, it might even start running with the compressors off!

 

[cliffordpope]

I haven't yet tried starting my new 1GM10, but I have hand started old cars and tractors in the past. It is always said that the trick isn't speed, but flicking a piston over a compression, like starting a toy glo-motor or a WW1 biplane.
May be the technique is different when the engine has a decompression lever, but all the same, the heat necessary to fire a cylinder can only be developed on one rotation - the speed without compression does nothing to encourage starting other than build up momentum. The disadvantage is that it is injecting fuel all the time, which has to burn off when the engine does fire.