Thursday, October 27, 2011

A novel way to start a car


This probably won't work with electronic ignition systems and automatic gearboxes; but with old-fashioned distributors, plugs and points, and a manual (stick) shift, clearly it does! Here are two video clips from Russia showing a novel way to start a car when the battery's dead.










I never tried that on my stick-shift cars in South Africa, but I have to admit, it's pretty ingenious!





Peter

9 comments:

trailbee said...

We popped the clutch on the Morris Minor. Oh, the good old days. :)

Arthur B. Burnett said...

Greetings from Texas,
I never did this, but have started a homemade bnadsaw - sawmill in a simular fashion. It scared my wife to watch, but if you know what your doing it isn't dangerious.

Anonymous said...

Two weeks ago I was working at a car and airplane show. One gent had a Model T with ye olde "Armstrong" starter. His assistant approached the crank handle with as much care as I approach a propeller on a Cub or other aircraft! It took a bit of work but they soon had the Ford chugging away.

LittleRed1

stopsign said...

Never seen one started like this before.
Thanks

Anonymous said...

A friend told me Russians have been known to start helicopter in the same fashion.

Gerry

Old NFO said...

Push it and bump the clutch always worked for me :-) I'd REALLY like to see them try that with an american V-8!

gamachinist said...

I think I recall reading that early VW Beetles had an optional rope start pulley in the early days.
I wish I had known that when I drove one as a teen as I think it might have been more reliable than the 6 volt system on cold winter mornings.

Robert said...

I used to park my Austin-Healy Bug-eyed Sprite at the top of our hill. I could get three tries before reaching the bottom. There's a reason Lucas electrical systems had (have?) a bad reputation. I don't miss living like that...

skreidle said...

My only concern about their method would be that loose tail of rope getting wound up (and bound up) around the axle, leaving you in a worse position than where you started!