Hand starting a Yanmar

D

Darran1967

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2004
Messages
35
Location
Sunderland UK
www.wearboating.co.uk
TOP TIP!!!

I have posted threads on here before saying that I find it impossible to hand start a Yanmar GM10, well i`ve now cracked the problem.

I went down to my boat yesterday and found that I had left the 12v supply switched on, this has lead to a completely flat battery.

In order to start the engine, I had three choices, either get the battery from the car, put the battery on charge from the shore power charger or hand start it. Having had no success at hand starting in the past, I thought I was on a hiding to nothing but I still gave it a go.

Keeping the compression off, I started winding up the engine....no problem getting it turning to a decent speed, then on with the compression........yup......stopped dead. I tried again, this time releasing the compression button slowly and guess what........yup......stopped dead.

At this point I was about to give up, then I had an idea to start it like a motorbike.....use a kickstart!!!

I turned the engine until the cranking handle was at about 5 to the hour (if you know what I mean), then I put my foot on the crank handle and pushed down hard to crank the engine over. I did this twice, then on the third go it started. I was pleased as punch with myself.

Let me know if any of you have the same success. It is worth trying to start with the hand crank as you never know when you`re going to need it whilst out at sea.
 
My yanmar has a pull cord start like a seagull outboard. It is apparently possible to start the engine using this cord and the de-copression lever, but certainly beyond my abilities. Mind you it is a 3 cylinder 27 hp!
 
I admire your innovative thinking, but there is always someone out there (not me) who has gone and done it better........
The ultimate manual starting of a diesel engine was in one of the early Vendee Globe/Around alone races. Phillipe Jeantot or one of this breed of amazing French sailors had run out of battery and needed to start a reasonably big engine (50hp or so). Southern Ocean has a distinct lack of electrical connections so some very inventive lateral thinking came into play.
He wound a line around a pulley on the crank, hooked this up to his boom and then gybed the boat. The power of the boom coming across gave enough tension and enough length of pull to fire up the engine.
The whole idea of gybe-starting your engine has somehow always appealed to me.....don't know why
 
I have a Yanmar YSB8 That I found almost impossible to handstart as the part of the handle that you held onto was only big enough for one hand. I lengthened and increased the diameter of this part with a length of Aluminium tube. I can now get two hands on it and get some real effort into it.
The difficult part is holding open the decompression lever with a length of rope under my my foot.
 
I guess your engine turns anti-clock wise, does it? I might try your method on our 13HP Volvo, except it would be 5 past in my case.

You did this with the decompressor released, I assume, so you're kick-starting against the full compression.

On the Volvo you're supposed to wind away like mad with the engine decompressed, then flip the decompressor off and let the inertia of the flywheel do the work. It doesn't work too well in my experience, although it is do-able. The Volvo handle goes on the crank, so one turn of the crank equals two turns of the engine.
 
A simple trick is if there is a little in the battery but not enough to turn the engine over smartly. The first thing is NOT to keep trying with the key and only turning over slowly. You set up to hand start and at the same time turn the key the result is you are able to increase the cranking speed and effect a start much easier. I have used this method on a number of occasions after a long over night sail and run the battery down another thing that helps is to turn off all electrics for 10/15 mins any reasonably good battery will have some recovery if left off for a while, then give it a go.
 
[ QUOTE ]
My yanmar has a pull cord start like a seagull outboard. It is apparently possible to start the engine using this cord and the de-copression lever, but certainly beyond my abilities. Mind you it is a 3 cylinder 27 hp!

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you trying to bring all three cylinders back on line together?

I used to start our 3GM by hand quite often, it was in our angling boat and I had a habit off playing the stereo all day, that and the VHF and fishfinder (old CRT type) running and the battery would be goosed by evensong.

I found it fairly easy, but only dropped in a cylinder at a time, try it and see what happens.

Our old Lambordini engine was rope start, 8hp, about the same as a yanmar cylinder on the GM series, that was really easy on the rope, but could if the rope did not clear start pulling you back in, scary if you didn't know to let go of the rope when it did that!
 
I recently watched the crew of a ship I was on with their hand-started, emergency diesel fire pump, a 3 or 2-cylinder Yanmar (sorry can't remember more, pretty sure it wasn't a GM series tho'.). It had some sort of latch on the decompression lever and a pull cord so that you set the latch and pulled the cord. The engine spun and then the compression came on and it went. With practice (i.e. when the mate did it) it started first time, and it was he who started it second pull when it was cold. I've no idea if it dropped the cylinders in all at once or one at a time.

It was a lot easier than I've found using the handle on the 1GM, which I've yet to successfully start by hand from cold, but I guess the key is to practice. I wonder if anyone does a pull start add-on for the GM series?

I'd be wary about the kickstart method having had the handle stick and go round and round like a propellor when the engine fired, as well as the danger of a backfire catapulting you into the deckhead.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Are you trying to bring all three cylinders back on line together?


[/ QUOTE ]
only one de-compression lever

It is an outboard!
 
The 1GM10 (mine anyway) doesn't have a glow plug as is traditional on diesels, so is dependent on a good cranking speed to achieve the necessary rise in mixture temperature to fire.
A trick I remember my father using to start our Perkins 4/99 the first time of the season was to soak a rag in parafin and hold this lighted next to the air intake as the engine was cranked. The flame was sucked into the engine, which then started with a terrific bang and a most satisfying cloud of black smoke from the exhaust.
 
Decompression lever is a small lever about 3 inches long on top of the rocker cover, its spring loaded so will return to a closed position. It has to be held open then released when you have sufficient momentum in the flywheel from hand cranking. The best method is to try to continue cranking after releasing the lever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top