A visitor to my website just e-mailed me this. I'm really tempted to try it with the Polo when I get home, just to see if it works.
"One time I broke down with a broken fan belt in the Spitfire, in Banbury, on my way back to Solihull, at midnight on a winter's Sunday night. It was a flat bit of road (so I couldn't push start it myself), nobody else around and the engine wouldn't turn over because the battery, which probably was not in its prime of life, had been flattened. I fitted another belt I had floating around in the back, jacked up a rear wheel, put the car in gear and placed my toolbox on the accelerator (as you need to give it a half throttle to start it when it is hot). I then wound an old length of seatbelt-type webbing I had as a tow strap round the circumference of the tyre and pulled it like a lawnmower, being VERY careful not to pull the whole car off the jack. (Images of the thing driving down the road without me - heavy toolbox keeping the throttle open nicely.) After a few over-cautious attempts, the engine started and within half an hour of breaking down I was on the road again with a huge grin of relief and self-satisfaction."
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Sounds like total wossname to me.
IF it would start like that, it would also start from a small bump start, even if you had to push it to a walking pace on your own.
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Yes.
The story sounds like that IT guy from 'The Office' came up with it. Did he mention Bruce Lee at all?
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"One time I broke down with a broken fan belt in the Spitfire"
You didn't get a look at the Valves did you?
;-) ;-) ;-)
--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
www.private-eye.co.uk/innews
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"You didn't get a look at the Valves did you?"
I was wondering that, too. Anyway, I thought Spitfires had cartridge starters...
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Ingenious, but a pretty scary solution.
As I student I used to run a Honda C90 step-through scooter as my transport. I spent a lot of time taking various bits apart, sometimes to repair, sometimes more out of curiosity.
Once I was completely unable to start it after disassembling and greasing the throttle assembly, so I wheeled it into a back road and attempted a running bump-start. The instant it started I knew I was in trouble - I had jammed the throttle cable wide open with my DIY efforts and I was dragged off my feet and pulled along uncontrollably (yes, this can happen, even with just 90cc). Luckily two-wheelers don't stay upright in such circumstances, and I was able to pick myself up from the floor and kill the racing engine.
Since then I've been very wary of any bump-start method when not in full control of the vehicle, or involving generous application of throttle.
BTW - what happened about the other driven wheel? Would that have been lifted clear enough of the tarmac by just one jack?
Bear in mind I'm used to hydropneumatic Citroens though, which behave a little differently when you jack them up....
David M
You know Citroens make sense in an up-and-down world......
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Hmm I broke down with
a broken fan belt
a flat battery
at night.
So he restarted it ..somewhat implausibly and drove it home: no charging, flat battery, no lights? Power for ignition.
Pull the other one...
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I, too, am pretty wary of bump starting two-wheelers, despite having ridden them for well over 100,000 miles.
I can't recall having tried it on the Honda C50 or C90 automatics (years ago) but with manuals I find that you have to be pretty sharp with getting the clutch disengaged and the brake on before it takes off without you.
Maybe it's my technique that's wrong!
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"..what happened about the other driven wheel?"
It would have had to be on the ground, or the differential would simply have made it rotate in the other direction. As has been pointed out, the fan belt would have had to be fixed first for any of this to work, anyway!
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"the fan belt would have had to be fixed.."
Oops - it seems like he did. In the dark. Apparently.
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Hi Richard,
looks interesting...especially some of the replies!!!
CMark
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Hi Richard, looks interesting...especially some of the replies!!! CMark
Yes, the response so far means I just have to try this. So if you read a story in the paper tomorrow about a man being run over by his own car, you will know why...
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Sounds highly improbable to me. The back axle reduction ratio would be working in the wrong direction?
And surely Spitfires weigh next to nothing ? I can push a Triumph 2000 on the level by myself, and they weigh a ton.
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Cliff:
I to am highly sceptical of the man's ability to turn the back wheel with the car in gear, without pulling it off the jack.
Richard:
I'll be really interested to hear how you get on!
Andy
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For all those sceptics amongst you, I can confirm that this is possible.
When I was an impecunious sixth former at school, I passed my test at 17 & bought an old Minivan for £70 (we are talking 1970 here!). I had an ongoing problem with starting (thought it was the starter button on the floor, turned out to be the battery). Sometimes, when pressing the button, and cleaning the contacts underneath didn't work, I used to jack up one side at the front, and turn the wheel by hand....bingo, car started & driving it home afterwards was no problem.
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I frequently used the same 'strap around the tyre' technique to start a 100cc kart from cold. Sounds quite feasible for a warm spitfire.
PB.
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when I was a student with an A30, (those were the days:-), jacking it up was impossible .. the sills were somewhat rusty.
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Richard,
It does work. Seen it done on some TV survival program once. The presenter was demonstrating what you do if you get stranded in the middle of nowhere with a flat battery. He lashed up a couple of torch batteries (those 6 volt ones with the springs on top) to make a temp 12 volt suppply. Attached to car to provide enough juice for the ignition circuit, then did as you suggest, jack up the car, engage a high gear and spin the wheel. However, he did it by hand, not with a length of tow rope. Car started up. Removed temp batteries - as the alternator was now doing its job, engaged neutral and lowered car back onto road.
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Nice one.
I used to have an Isetta " Bubble Car" 1968, and one cold morning the battery just would not crank it over. Now remember the door on these cars opens forwards and folds the steering wheel out with the door. So back to the story, I lived in Malvern which is on a hill, so no problem, I pushed it along the road and turned it into Graham Road "down hill", so good so far, however the rate the car accelerated was not expected and running alongside trying to open the door forwards and jump in was fraught with danger, I managed to opened the door and leapt in only to trap my foot in the door that was eager to close, car still accelerating. I picked myself up from the floor of the car spun round, sat down, popped it into gear and bumped started it. I was now on the wrong side of the road doing about 20 mph, fortunately there where no cars coming. I laughed all the way to college.
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I once tried the one-man bump start down a hill with a Mini. Just like Peter D, the car accelerated faster than I expected and it was touch and go whether I was going to get in the seat or the car was going to head off on its own (like the "Lucky" advert on TV).
I did get in and the car did start, but I would be a lot more careful if the situation ever arose again. I wasn't laughing afterwards - I was in a cold sweat!
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Oh dear, Peter D. That's the funniest thing I've heard this year.
I, too, have just picked myself up from the floor. If I can find an Isetta, will you do it again while I'm watching?
Reminds me of my near-neighbour, many moons ago. Warm summer, late afternoon. I was on the garage roof. He was up the road in his drive, which was flat(ish) by the garage, then steep down to the road. Opposite was a lawned garden, surrounded by a hefty hedge.
He reversed his car up the drive to the flat bit, got out, but forgot the handbrake. As the car started to roll down the drive, he grabbed the B pillar through the open window and tried to stop it.
Alerted by the noise of his feet, a rapidly accelerating pitter-patter-pitter-patter-pitter-patter, I turned to see his car disappearing through the hedge on the other side of the road. By this time, he was half through the window, with legs thrashing about in the air. Happily, his front wheels dug into the soft grass before he hit the house.
The house owner was admiring his garden through the window and had no idea anything was amiss until the car burst through his hedge.
Couldn't hear what he said, but I believe it spoiled his day............
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So, Richard, how did you get on?
CMark
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Well, well, I'd never have believed it, but it does seem to be well attested.
I suppose on reflection it is just like cranking an engine with a handle. It would only work with an old-fashioned engine though, the kind that will fire with just one 'plop' over a compression.
I do remember now a claim that certain ancient cars with hand-variable advance and retard levers could be started simply by moving the lever. Turning the magneto caused a single spark, and the residual fuel mixture in the appropriate cylinder exploded, causing the engine to fire from zero revs.
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Hands up time: 'twas I who wrote of this to Richard.
Message to all the "total wossname's" and other Doubting Thomases: shame on you, check your facts first before rubbishing what is clearly someone's first hand experience.
Mark (RLBS) and Cliff Pope: have you ever tried to push start a car on your own on a flat road? Of course you can get the car rolling. But then try to jump in, press the clutch, select gear and let the clutch out whilst balancing the throttle. It is blooming difficult. I tried half a dozen times and resigned to use my brain rather than my then-puffed out brawn.
As far as working on the car in the dark, one of the most useful things I carry in a car to this day is a Petzl head-torch.
As a desert-bashing Land Rover engineer I had read in a survival book that this method could be used to start a 4x4 with a broken starter motor when the vehicle could not be push started (e.g. in sand or mud).
CMark
and thanks for the set-up, Richard. ;~)
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Of course, you are right CMark, and I am sorry. I wasn't rubbishing the tip though, just expressing doubt. It is always refreshing to be corrected and find that unlikely things can be true.
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...but has Mr Hall had the guts to try it yet?!!!
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