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Does anyone know which was the last car sold in UK to have a starting handle and approx when were they phased out.
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The last one I can think of was the Morris Minor through the 1960s? My 1964 Renault definately had one - like most 4 cylinder cars it can kick a bit when it fires. Crank starting an 8 cylinder car was actually much easier!
Gareth
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I remember an A40 that had this and on occasions my Dad used it.cant remember the date though will try and find out.
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Was mech1
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The apparently up to date handbook in my DS built in 1974 made a reference to one, and there was indeed a starter dog on the crank pulley, but no hole in the bumper/valance though, so that hardly counts then.
Very useful devices, starting handles. Meant if a starter motor failed or battery became unreliable you could go a payday or two before replacing it.
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My Wolseley 6/110 MkII, registered end December 1967, has one. It was a very good way to check the health of the engine. If the timing had drifted it would not start first time. Also, replacing the ring gear is such a pig that to reduce wear I used to either bump start or on the handle. The dogs are a bit too worn to do it now.
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>>The dogs are a bit too worn to do it now.
A pack of Huskies? That's a way to tow-start a car!
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My first car an Austin A40 Farina, (posh name for estate) had a starting handle, a god send.
Edited by xtrailman on 24/01/2016 at 10:44
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I was an apprentice fitter at a main dealer in the 60s and can remember Hillman doing a starting handle kit as an optional extra for the Imp range into the 70s.
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Not sure but I'd guess the Renault 4, which was still being built in the early 80s - maybe C-reg were the last.
I'm glad to be old enough to have had a car with a handle - my first ever car, a much-loved Austin A50. It was higher compression ratios that put an end to starting handles, or we'd all have had broken arms.
The Austin's compressions were perfectly healthy, despite being ancient, but som low that you could swing the handle without any force whatsoever and it would start, first time as always. I used to start it on the handle sometimes for fun (I was young and foolish), never from necessity.
Also, transverse engines and starting handles wouldn't have been the best of companions....
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Whatever car was last to have a starting handle, it was probably one with a longitudinal engine, rather than transverse!
Early (1971 onwards) Range Rovers had a hole in the bumper for a starting handle.
The first time I went to France, in 1969, every other car on the road was a Citroen 2CV. Many of these were of the older type with the corrugated bonnet and no window in the rear quarter panel.
I was surprised to see people starting these cars by opening the bonnet and pulling a cord, like with a lawnmower! I kid you not!!
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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I'm sure that 2CV's had facility for a starting handle, and they were made up to G reg, so 1989 / 1990. I could be wrong.
I like the idea of pulling the cord though!
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Hello
The only problem with starter ropes (like a lawnmower)
If it kicks back, it breaks your wrist
Alternatively, if a mouse etc. has been around the cord it may be frayed and you pull it, it breaks, and you end up falling on the floor in a heap of laughter
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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>>I like the idea of pulling the cord though!
The 2CV's in question were early ones, probably built early to mid 1950's. They had a smaller capacity engine, I think 435cc as popposed to about 600cc of later models. Maybe a search of the net might yield pictures or references to starting cords on 2CV's. I'll have a look now!
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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I've just done a bit of net searching. The original production 2CV's from 1948 onwards had a 375 cc engine! The designer, a Monsieur Boulanger, decided that a rope recoil mechanism would suffice as the only means of starting the engine. However, a lot of people found this hard to operate so before long electric starters were fitted.
I would assume that 2CV's continued to have rope recoil starters fitted for some years as the back-up means of starting. The engine size was increased to 425 cc, and later on a 602 cc version was added, which was the type that was imported to UK in big numbers.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Lezebre - if you had removed the front number plate on your DS you would have found a hole in which to insert the starting handle; many French-registered cars had/have a hole between the digits so the handbook wasn't as remiss as you thought.
Mare - my 1986 2CV had a starting handle which was used when the battery was flat.
When the starter motor on my mother's Morris Minor failed, I removed it, put a cardboard blanking plate over the hole, took the motor to an auto electricians for rebuilding and went to collect my stepfather (who had lent his vast Morris 1800 to Mum) from work.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Ah, thanks Hawkeye, probably that streamlined bodywork ('shark nose') made it less than obvious from the engine bay side too. Plus if my rather doggy example had had a complete toolkit, which might have included a handle, I'm sure I would have looked harder. It had a column gearchange, which along with a 70's Renault 16 I once tried, was a pleasure to use, unlike the Morris, Hillman and Victor I had where the stick 'on the tree' was in all these cars slack and obstructive in use.
French cars seem to have had no qualms about continuing with starting handles and column shift long after most had consigned both to the skip.
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I had a 1969 Hillman Imp where a starting handle was an optional extra which I bought.
If I remember, they sold you a different crankshaft pulley (or was it just a differently shaped nut?) together with the handle.
Of course you started it at the back. I found it very useful when had to replace the timing chain and sort out the right link on the right cog.
As a student 1972 I remember carting around a 50lb bag of aggregate in the front bonnet (it was the boot) to stop the front lifting / sliding.
Happy Times.
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My friend bought a cheap used Lada circa 1994 (sorry can't remember when the car was made). It had a starting handle which he said was great for winter, it would always start using the handle if the motor wouldn't do it.
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For a good many years after starting handles were phased out from cars it was a source of constant moaning from the "They don't make 'em like that anymore brigade". It was the same when the first bikes began to appear without a kickstart, almost two decades after electric starters became common fitments on Japanese machines.
"New fangled jap rubbish, fit for girlies. Give me a high compression engine with a kick start and the odd broken leg anyday".
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Electric motorcycle starters were of course what were the death of the motorcycle industry in Britain. So obvious, yet it took the bowl of rice a day chaps to do it.
I swear to this day my right leg is shorter than my left. Anyone who managed to kickstart a BSA Gold Star should have got an OBE for supporting British industry. It was so difficult most owners bump-started 'em.
Oh the joys (not) of cranking a 1953 Ford Prefect with a flat 6 volt batt on an icy morning with no response via the handle when already late for work. Glove essential to avoid terminal blisters.
As I recall the Morris Minors had starting handles even in their later years.
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"French cars seem to have had no qualms about continuing with starting handles and column shift long after most had consigned both to the skip."
Therein lies a story! When Peugeot began numbering their models from 1929 onwards, the prevailing convention amongst manufacturers was to use HP (real or "fiscal") as the model name. The metal 2 and 1 digits of the "21" model sat rather awkwardly on the front grille either side of the large hole for the starting handle, which inadvertently created the number "201", which Peugeot finally chose as the official model name. Model names all sprang from this and remain to this day as a Peugeot hallmark (except for the RCZ!) I read somewhere that Peugeot's legal eagles even managed to persuade Porsche to adopt 911 as a model name instead of 901 which looked too much like a (future) Peugeot model.
Edited by Bilboman on 29/01/2016 at 00:52
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<snip> The metal 2 and 1 digits of the "21" model sat rather awkwardly on the front grille either side of the large hole for the starting handle, which inadvertently created the number "201", which Peugeot finally chose as the official model name.
That's great! I love these snippets one learns here.
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The Citroen 2CV featured a starting handle, which also served to operate the jack and as a wheelnut brace until 1990. The Citroen GSA had one until 1986 and the Citroen DS had one on models with a four-speed gearbox until 1975.
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Welcome to the forum, c@rnut: nice to resurrect an old thread, especially when there's a post of mine on there, soon after I joined and long before I became moderator.
You'd think that by 1986 the GSA had a high enough compression to break an arm or two!
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They were fitted to car-derived vans long after they stopped fitting them to cars.
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Some firm marketed a conversion for the Mini but you had to put the car on full lock to use it;I owned a 1938 Hudson(3.5 litre-straight six) which I used to start on the handle as a cell was down in the battery(12v suprisingly)-it started easily.I eventually bought a new battery.The last time I started a car with the handle was about 2000-a 2CV6.
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Hillman Imp's had the hole in the rear bumper and rear panel for a starting handle until the end of production in the mid 70's but, they were not fitted with the starter dog and the starting handle was not supplied.
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I could be way out, but I'm sure my dad had a Fiat 126 (tiny thing!) and that had a starting handle and choke just below the gear stick.
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