Faux40 beat me on this so had to redo part of my answer. His tips are a must have.
Crank kick back happens!
GARYSCC wrote:I was also wondering how to safely manual start the patrol. I have heard stories of guys back in the 1930s getting broken hands while manual starting the Ford Model A's. I understand that I will rotate it clockwise, and I don't want to get my thumb caught in case it whips backward counterclockwise.
The crankshaft nut where the hand-crank engages, is made in such a way that when the engine starts, if forces the hand-crank out, so that part of the process is safe. However, and this I'm quoting from Wikipedia (I'm lazy today)
...The behavior of an engine during starting is not always predictable. The engine can kick back, causing sudden reverse rotation. Many manual starters included a one-directional slip or release provision so that once engine rotation began, the starter would disengage from the engine.
This reminded me of a nice anecdote. I was 18 at that time, at skinny. Have taken the Patrol to the shop, because it was with an oil leak coming from the rear of the engine. They found out that it was the steel plug for the camshaft. They had removed the transmission, clutch, and flywheel to uncover it. The engine had been repaired some months before and the camshaft bearings changed at that time, so this plug had been removed. As a way to correct it, they decided to put some epoxy from the outside. The mechanic said that it was probably a good idea to run the engine to make sure the leak was fixed. Only problem was that the flywheel was out, so no starter. I offered them that I could start it using the hand-crank. He thought that it was a good idea, but that he will do it instead, since he was a burly guy.
Two attempts, and he couldn't do it, and had already a couple of kick backs. The kick backs were really good, since the inertia of the flywheel was not there to control some of it. So it was my turn. Took me a couple of trials, with no kick backs, and got the engine started. The key issue here is that once you pass a point of compression, the effort to turn suddenly eases a bit, so this mechanic was relaxing the force, only to be faced with a sudden kickback from the next compression. The thing is to keep going at the same pace, and it will go.
I have to clarify here that this was at an altitude of 9200 ft (2800m) so the compression of the engine is significantly lower than at sea level. In fact, it was sort of easy to start the engine in normal conditions (not like above) when the battery was weak.
You're absolutely right, the problem is if the engine kicks backward because the handle will not eject itself and will spin back with all the power of the engine. But it's not just your thumb -- We're talking hands, arms and even death here!
