Or a pull-lever /cord under the hood would do.
I wonder why car manufactureres have not tried such a simple solution yet ? It is much better than pushing the car around.-- VJW, Jan 10 2012 Car with kick start http://www.psychoon...co.uk/tag/cyclecar/1920s Carden cyclecar [pocmloc, Jan 10 2012] Batteries not needed Closely related idea [pocmloc, Jan 10 2012] Inertia Start http://www.youtube....fu_in_order&list=ULThis is my favorite, just because of the sound it makes. No danger of broken thumbs. [DIYMatt, Jan 10 2012] Coffman engine starter http://en.wikipedia...fman_engine_starterJust about the best way ever of starting an IC engine. [8th of 7, Jan 10 2012] Kinetico starters http://springstarter.com/default.aspSpring driven starters for industrial engines [cajunfj40, Jan 11 2012] Startwell starters http://www.startwell.com/Different source of spring-driven industrial engine starters [cajunfj40, Jan 11 2012] How the Russian rednecks do it http://youtu.be/VRpPPobJEe4 [Klaatu, Jan 12 2012] You used to be able to crank-start cars, by inserting a crank-handle through the radiator grille into the front of the engine and turning the engine over rapidly to make it start. I was doing this well into the 90's as the car I owned had a faulty starter motor.-- hippo, Jan 10 2012 I think the type of direct mechanical start is dependent on engine size. Pull cords are great for single cylinder lawnmower engines. Kick startes are super for motorbike engines. Car engines work best with a crank handle. Smaller aero engines can be started by turning the propellor. Bigger aero engines need a power plant to turn the engine over. And, as [hippo] says, the retention of direct mechanical start as a backup was very common after the introduction of electric start - it's just that we are now so complacent and alienated by our technology that we are not even aware of the possibility any more.-- pocmloc, Jan 10 2012 For this to work the car would have to have a motorcycle engine. Crank starters on modern cars would have too many reliability issues in addition to being redundant. My 15 year old car has broken down a few times while driving but I have never actually had a problem starting it.-- DIYMatt, Jan 10 2012 Compression ratio and piston volumes would be difficult to deal with, as would skirting the complex timing management that goes on in modern engines at cold start. And the crank-start was dangerous in that it frequently resulted in the operators breaking their thumb from doing it incorrectly.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 10 2012 Back in the good old days of Model Ts, which had an engine that is small by today's standards, the smart fellows would use their foot to kick over the hand crank.
My dad has an old Farmall Cub tractor that has an accessory hand crank and the slot for it, even though an electric starter is built in. He can hand crank it, and sometimes does, just to show it off. The model is the "Cub", which says something about size. (I also recall him swearing and fighting to hand start a newer and bigger John Deere (still a small tractor).)
I've seen a few other old vehicles which had crank slots on the engine, but had no holes in the frame for a crank to fit.-- baconbrain, Jan 10 2012 Many cars restart when pushed ahead. But is moving the entire weight of the car really necessary ? All we need is engine wheel to be turned, which should take much less energy than required for pushing the entire car.
Many times people get dead batteries because they left lights on for 1/2 hour when they left for running errands. Probably in such situations, it could be easier to restart the car than cold early morning dead battery situations.-- VJW, Jan 10 2012 That's why they have light timers now.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 10 2012 //is moving the entire weight of the car really necessary// I think the point is that the weight of the car (at least, the momentum of a moving car) is a convenient way to store a large amount of energy and dump it to the engine to start it.
When you let the clutch out during a bump-start, the car slows down quite dramatically - to me, this suggests that an awful lot of energy is needed to turn the engine over enough to start it.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 10 2012 Several solutions present themselves, apart from the old-fashioned crank handle (a sadly missed feature).
One would be a tiny 4-stroke single-pot air cooled engine, capable of recharging the battery, located in the engine bay, with a recoil starter. It could spin the alternator, so no extra generator would be required.
Another would be to use a compressed air motor for starting. They are lighter and more reliable than electric motors. If the air reservoir becomes depleted, it can be recharged by means of a hand pump.
Best of all would of course be a Coffman starter. <link>.-- 8th of 7, Jan 10 2012 //Coffman starter. <link>// <Reads link> Yup, knew it was going to involve explosives.-- mouseposture, Jan 11 2012 One time I was at the Experimental Aircraft Association's fly-in at Oshkosh, just wandering around in the early morning, and happened upon a hand-cranked inertial starter up on a stand. It was quietly turning over, evidently from the last person who had cranked it, although nobody was in sight, nor had been for ten minutes or so. I decided to give it a go, and needed several macho minutes to get it up to a good speed. I left it spinning, only gradually winding down, and went off to find a second breakfast.-- baconbrain, Jan 11 2012 I seem to recall a foot-powered starter that stored multiple footsteps of energy in a ratcheting spring towards releasing it all at once towards starting a car engine. (?)-- csea, Jan 11 2012 Besides all the reasons mentioned, the reason is the move from magnetos. The lack of magnetos requires a battery of at least some power.
I have crank started a tractor with a sizable four cylinder engine (Farmall Model M) and despite [8th/7] comment //apart from the old-fashioned crank handle (a sadly missed feature)//, the reason they don't exist is that they killed many people. The problem is preignition, which would drive the handle back at the operator with often deadly results of broken ribs and concussions. My old Honda 350XL would sometimes launch me back in the air if it was feeling especially nasty that day and even my mower has given me pause and tingly fingers. Many of these problems can be avoided with good design and service, but not all. So unless the motor is weed wacker scale or smaller, I wish good riddance to the accursed manual start.-- MisterQED, Jan 11 2012 // often deadly results of broken ribs and concussions // ... symptomatic of poor technique.
Yes, they are undeniably very dangerous if used improperly.
The main risk from crank-starting a larger diesel engine, if done correctly, is likely to be nothing more than a hernia.-- 8th of 7, Jan 11 2012 There are industrial spring-driven starters available for many common industrial engines. Two sources available (see links to Kinetico and Startwell)
Easily start up to 12 liter direct injection diesels with no electricity required.-- cajunfj40, Jan 11 2012 We reckon that's a wind-up, mate.-- 8th of 7, Jan 11 2012 Yes, it is a wind-up. (early or other versions of the Kinetico, if I recall correctly, actually have a pull-cord for starting - pull several times to wind the spring, then hit the release to turn the engine over).
However, it would be relatively trivial to design the necessary linkage to hook up a foot pedal that one can repeatedly kick until the spring is wound. A bit more trickiness and you could have it actuate the release on the last kick once the spring is fully wound. Sort of a force-multiplier for a kick-starter.
Apologies for being too practical on my first anno. When I get a chance I'll stick my "nuclear parking brake" idea up on its own...-- cajunfj40, Jan 12 2012 Welcome to the halfbakery, [cajunfj40]. It's OK to be practical here, but it's not obligatory.-- spidermother, Jan 12 2012 Good work, [cajunfj40]. I was going to suggest that very thing, and I slowly scrolled all the way down the anno column verifying that no one had beat me to it, and was almost there when WHAMMO the idea released the accumulated potential and turned over.
Welcome the 'bakery. Perhaps we could add some foot-pumping music to the feature.-- normzone, Jan 12 2012 random, halfbakery