From Newsgroup: misc.rural

On Sat, 6 Jul 2019 19:37:10 -0700 (PDT), jimmyw836@gmail.com wrote:

On Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:20:54 PM UTC-4, Bill wrote:

I have a 10.5 hp gasoline engine on my wood splitter which sometimes kicks >> back when I pull the rope to start it. (Just once every few days, but that >> is once too many times.)

This kicks back with a lot of force! And I am pulling with a lot of force as
well! Not good. (I've noticed this same problem with smaller engines too, >> but not so much kick back force, so no problem there.)

Wrong technique. If you yank hard against the compression stroke, the
mix is likely to fire, driving the engine in reverse, spooling in the
starting cord at high speed and perhaps hurting your hand or arm.

Here's the correct method. Turn on the gas, ignition, set the choke
and whatever else you do to get the engine to run. Pull the cord
fairly gently until the flywheel goes through the compression stroke
and cams over at TD. Let the cord retract and give it a strong steady
pull, making sure you pull the rope almost all the way out.

This puts enough momentum in the flywheel that it will carry through
the next compression stroke and 9 out of 10 times the engine starts.

I have an emergency auto-start whole-house generator with a 27 Hp
propane fired engine. It's electric-start, of course, but it also has
a manual cranking rope just in case the battery runs down. Using this technique, I can crank that large engine with almost no effort.

John
John DeArmond
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.tnduction.com
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
See website for email address

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From Newsgroup: misc.rural

On Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 12:32:22 PM UTC-4, terry wrote:

On Jul 26, 1:56-apm, KLS <xyme...@suds.com> wrote:

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:53:18 -0700, Kevin Ricks <klri...@prodigy.net> wrote:

This is how I start a motor, maybe I just learned to do this to avoid >kickback I don't know?

I also learned this technique somehow; maybe a friend suggested I try
it one time? -a

Pull the rope full travel or as much as possible. Don't short stroke it. >Let the starter rope retract quickly, Don't stand there holding the rope >handle. On a no start don't start the next pull until the engine has >completely stopped turning.
If I sense a kickback, I just let go of the handle.

Exactly what I do, and works great for my small engines. -aThat first
pull is not a yank, it's a slow deliberate pull of the entire rope.
Highly recommended.

Old auto engines.
Started by hand crank. Some had no electric starters at all. We had a
1926 Daimler hearse refitted with a 1938 Bedford (i.e. UK GMC).
straight six engine, that had a defective starter AND a weak 1936
battery that had to be started by hand!
Ignition off.
Turn over engine slowly by hand through compressions of several or all cylinders to draw mixture into cylinders.
Retard ignition timing; by the control often mounted on middle of the steering wheel.
Pull compression up to near TDC.
Ignition on.
Pull by hand over TDC (watch your thumb position) and engine should
start.
Adjust ignition timing and drive off.

Fascinating! I've had several engines with devices that retarded the timing so that ignition occurred with the piston on the compression stroke close to top dead center: 4-cylinder A-65 Continental on an old '46 Taylorcraft airplane, for example. I always hand-propped it on the Slick mag with the impulse coupling which retarded the timing to 5 deg. BTDC. Then once it was running I turned on the Bendix mag. Now the engine's mags are making sparks at 30 deg. BTDC, and timing is no longer adjustable. Only fuel mixture is adjustable in flight.
My old kick-start '61 Panhead had timing retarded by twisting the distributor. As soon as it was running, a spring on the twist lever would pull the distributor around to fully advanced timing. Sometimes in city traffic I would retard the timing just enough to stop spark knock from the heat of not getting enough air through the cooling fins, like waiting for a red light to turn green.
My old '68 BSA Spitfire also had a lever to retard timing, and another lever to adjust mixture.
Either one of these bikes would kick you over the handlebars, or bust the calf of your leg, if you did not watch how you started them.
It seems to me that the 10.5 hp engine would have some kind of automatic timing adjustment, or an automatic compression release to make starting easier. I have those devices on my old lawn mowers. And they're like me: old as dirt.
The object is to pull like hell, as fast as you can, to give the crankshaft enough momentum so that even when combustion occurs at 20 or 30 degrees BTDC, the crankshaft keeps rotating in the proper direction of rotation and does not kick back on you.
I've seen some younger guys hand-propping at the airport get hurt by not understanding those old magnetos, like the Bendix, which have no impulse couplings on them. All the line-boys at the airport are trained how to hand-prop, and they all wear thick gloves.
That wind-up device on the Stihl reminds me of some old aircraft tech where elbow grease was used to crank up a flywheel, storing up potential energy which is then released by a clutch to give a quick series of rotations to the crankshaft and start the engine. Some of those engines even used compressed gases from exploding cartridges about the size of shotgun shells to get an aircraft engine going. Remember that method in FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX? They almost ran out of cartridges before the engine fired.
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From Newsgroup: misc.rural

On Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:20:54 PM UTC-4, Bill wrote:

I have a 10.5 hp gasoline engine on my wood splitter which sometimes kicks back when I pull the rope to start it. (Just once every few days, but that is once too many times.)

This kicks back with a lot of force! And I am pulling with a lot of force as well! Not good. (I've noticed this same problem with smaller engines too, but not so much kick back force, so no problem there.)

I got to thinking that I was going to break or injure my hand/arm if I kept starting this engine. I searched the internet for injuries from starting these larger engines and there were in fact quite a few injuries including some broken bones. So I decided to solve this problem by installing an electric start. No more problem now for me...

But I got to thinking about this and why this happens. And could something be done to prevent this? (And the reason I am posting this.) A lot of you on these groups are quite clever, so maybe someone can come up with something...

I think the problem is that the spark is firing right when the piston reaches the top of the stroke or slightly before it reaches the top. Then sometimes this will cause the piston to go backwards instead of forwards. (And it needs to be this way of course to run properly.)

My idea is to delay the spark just a little for starting. There could be a switch to start an engine which delays the spark. Then once the engine is running, you would flip the switch and it would spark and run like normal. But when starting, kickback would be impossible because it would not spark until the piston was its the way down.

Anyway I thought I would pass this idea along. Maybe some rocket scientist out there could come up with something which would attach between the spark plug and the spark plug wire???

What is the name and model no. of the engine?
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