Hand cranking a 1GM10 - can anyone do it?

[ducked]

I managed to manually start my boat engine after I changed the oil to Mobil 1. (0W60 ) oil. The oil makes a lot of difference to the effort required to turn the engine over and the lower the first number the better. It’s also much easier when it’s warm. So my advice is go to the thinnest oil. I know that this will be synthetic which some regard as a herassy but it worked for me for years and being able to start is a fundamental requirement!

If its not possible to hand start it otherwise, going for skinny oil is probably an acceptable compromise, but its one that I'd be rather reluctant to make.

It means you are, I suspect, compromising the engine protection all the time for a very seldom, perhaps never used (but admittedly important) emergency capability.

I'll be investigating all other options first.

 

[ducked]

It all sounds to me like a lot of faff - and potentially dangerous faff at that. Far simpler to have a dedicated starter battery, isolated from the domestic system, with a VSR to charge it. That way, it's highly unlikely you'll ever need to hand start your engine. Yes, my first car had a starting handle, and my Dad made sure I knew how to use it effectively and safely, but I don't think I ever used it in anger, and that car was only a year or two younger than I was, back in the 60s

My fourth car, a Lada 1200 Mk1, had a starting handle, which I used quite a lot.

They took it out in the Mk2, added some extra rot traps, and replaced the timing chain with a rubber band.

The lugs for the starting handle were still on the end of the crankshaft but you couldn't get to them because they'd filled in the hole in the radiator.

Western decadence.

 

[ducked]

Come on it’s Christmas

Not here it isn't

Extending the starting rope idea, it occurs to me that, with a suitable sheave to turn the rope through 90 degrees, I would then have the whole length of the cabin up to the forepeak available as a rope run.

If I used heavy bungee chord of the type they used to use to launch gliders off Sutton Bank, with some kind of tackle to tension it, I would then have an equivalent of the Gucci spring-starter coveted by posters above.

I'd also have a fairly efficient means of hurting myself, but those are hardly a novelty on boats, and this seems at least more controllable than tying the rope to the boom and gybing.

 

[Poignard]

Not here it isn't

Extending the starting rope idea, it occurs to me that, with a suitable sheave to turn the rope through 90 degrees, I would then have the whole length of the cabin up to the forepeak available as a rope run.

If I used heavy bungee chord of the type they used to use to launch gliders off Sutton Bank, with some kind of tackle to tension it, I would then have an equivalent of the Gucci spring-starter coveted by posters above.

I'd also have a fairly efficient means of hurting myself, but those are hardly a novelty on boats, and this seems at least more controllable than tying the rope to the boom and gybing.

The snag with that idea is that if, as happened to Tranona, the engine were to start, but run backwards, you would be whisked aft and find yourself wrapped around the flywheel.

 

[ducked]

The snag with that idea is that if, as happened to Tranona, the engine were to start, but run backwards, you would be whisked aft and find yourself wrapped around the flywheel.

In this (hypothetical, unless it proves possible to actually build it) I wouldn't have been touching anything. My involvement would have been limited to pulling the greased release pin from the wound up flywheel flange, and smartly cowering clear (maybe also dropping the compression release, if that proves necessary, but it should be possible to do that remotely too, as someone mentions above).

You could secure the other end of the (nylon) starting rope so that a backwards running engine first over-extends the starting bungee and then snubs on the starting rope. If the engine is at less than half throttle I'd hope that would stall it, but I have not yet started my engine so I could be horribly wrong.

There would be quite a lot of potential for damage in that scenario, if the wound backwards bungee starter and rope cant be relied on to stall the engine. If not, you'd need some means of releasing it and stopping the engine, but you need a means of stopping the engine anyway.

With a direct "hands on" starting rope (without a recoil starting clutch) I suppose getting entangled is a risk, but these have existed, so I suppose it always was.

 

[DinghyMan]

I used to hand start ours regularly, and I have a nicely arthritic left wrist from breaking it when hand starting a dumper during my apprenticeship

I think its practice and method as much as strength, years spent hand starting dumpers, wagons, cars, and assorted plant, particularly after breaking my wrist doing the silly thumb wrapped around the handle trick

Best backup device is a spring starter fitted alongside the normal starter but you would probably struggle to fit both on a GM10 - a proper wind up spring starter not a recoil starter

E.g. Kineteco | Springstarter – Providing lightweight, hand starting solutions throughout the world and a UK company

 

[rotrax]

Many years ago - 2003 - I had a 1/3rd share in a Hunter 27OOD. It had a 1GM10, with a starting handle. I would regularly start it by using the decompressor lever and the handle. I could JUST reach the lever with my left hand to operate the decompressor, stand far enough back to swing the handle in front of my body to get up speed. The throttle was set full. When it was going as fast as I could do it with my right arm, I would release the decompressor, put my left hand on the handle as well, and keep turning. It never failed. It was technique, a black art, if you like. It was clear that cranking turned the motor faster than the little starter motor on a cold day! It is very probable that 50 plus years of experience of Decompressors on old motorbike single cylinder engines helped.............................

 

[Halo]

If its not possible to hand start it otherwise, going for skinny oil is probably an acceptable compromise, but its one that I'd be rather reluctant to make.

It means you are, I suspect, compromising the engine protection all the time for a very seldom, perhaps never used (but admittedly important) emergency capability.

I'll be investigating all other options first.

Fair enough. I think the compromise is paying more for the oil but in aGM10 that’s not a biggie

 

[SaltyC]

Not here it isn't

Extending the starting rope idea, it occurs to me that, with a suitable sheave to turn the rope through 90 degrees, I would then have the whole length of the cabin up to the forepeak available as a rope run.

If I used heavy bungee chord of the type they used to use to launch gliders off Sutton Bank, with some kind of tackle to tension it, I would then have an equivalent of the Gucci spring-starter coveted by posters above.

I'd also have a fairly efficient means of hurting myself, but those are hardly a novelty on boats, and this seems at least more controllable than tying the rope to the boom and gybing.

Clutch as it leaves the cabin, A few blocks fore and aft led to sheet winches to tension. Hey Presto May need a tripping line on the clutch, released from the forecabin behind a closed door.

 

[Marsali_1]

Actually, it makes more sense to connect the starter cord to the anchor, trip the brake on the windlass and let the weight of the anchor and chain pull the the rope. That way you are safe on the foredeck and nowhere near the flywheel. If the motor happens to backfire into reverse it will wind the anchor back in while you go to the cockpit to steer yourself towards your destination.

 

[Stemar]

It is very probable that 50 plus years of experience of Decompressors on old motorbike single cylinder engines helped.............................

Memories of a mate with a Velocette Venom. He used to joke that, in top gear, it fired every second lamppost. He loved that thing until the day he went to start it, and it kicked back and threw him off, bending the steel plate on the instep of his boot.

 

[rotrax]

Memories of a mate with a Velocette Venom. He used to joke that, in top gear, it fired every second lamppost. He loved that thing until the day he went to start it, and it kicked back and threw him off, bending the steel plate on the instep of his boot.

Yep, been there, done that!

 

[Sailing steve]

I managed to manually start my boat engine after I changed the oil to Mobil 1. (0W60 ) oil. The oil makes a lot of difference to the effort required to turn the engine over and the lower the first number the better. It’s also much easier when it’s warm. So my advice is go to the thinnest oil. I know that this will be synthetic which some regard as a herassy but it worked for me for years and being able to start is a fundamental requirement!

The 1GM10 engine was designed around the use of an old specification mineral oil and the running clearances and choice of materials would have been optimised around that oil.

Whilst synthetics are unarguably a better performing oil in a more modern engine the reduction of friction they provide might well be counterproductive when considering the increased risk of bore glazing, particularly with an engine that's run under light loads or that rarely comes up to working temperature.

I'll be sticking to basic mineral oil in mine.

 

[Greenheart]

I find it surprising that manual spring starters aren't universally popular on cruising boats.

The enduring interest in starting the smallest Yanmar without a charged battery shows that yachtsmen like being ready for failures, yet most skippers rely on flipping to their domestic battery (which may likewise have been failed by the charging arrangement), or nearness to a powered pontoon (and a tow) rather than fit something that might almost make the engine-start battery redundant.

Evidently manual starting needn't be limited to the relatively easily hand-started baby Yanmar.
.

 

[DownWest]

Think I remember one of the RTW racers starting his donk by wrapping a rope round the flywheel tying it to the boom and giving it a pull by gybing...

Used to start lots of Listers, often a 16hp twin, but they have substantial flywheels, so easy.
More recently, low battery on a 1GM10 going into La Rochelle.. But, just enough volts to get it spinning with the decompressor lifted and fired (correct rotation!) when dropped. Then found that the gear selection was out of kilter and no reverse. So an interesting approach to the reception pontoon in the wind. 90° and a sharp turn at the last second ( Fin and spade) Crew thought it very good, I, a bit relieved... But snugged up nicely.