History Last hand crank

The engine was a Datsun (Nissan) manufactured unit that was derived from the British Motor Corp (BMC) "A" series engine. In the early '50s several European models were built by the Japanese under license from the original manufacturers. Among them were BMC and Renault models. That BMC derived engine was used in up to 1500 cc engines in the B-210 and 310 series into the early '80s. The Datsun/Nissan model was significantly improved over the original BMC. In 1970 I bought a '66 Datsun pickup with the 1300 cc engine. Not powerful enough for my purpose and I yanked it for a 225 cubic inch Buick V6/Superturbine 300 trans. That got it going!

Ray

 

The crank was also handy a tuneup time. Made it easy to turn the engine for adjusting valves, finding timing marks, setting points, and adjusting timing.

 

I had a 1981 Lada back when they were being imported into Canada. Yes it did have a crank, and I remember there was a bit of amused admiration from the public about this feature.
As Rusty referred to, the manual called for using it to turn the engine for valve setting purposes.
There was a hole in the bottom of the front valence and also through the rad for the crank, but the front bumper interfered a bit with cranking. I made up a longer crank and drilled a hole through to allow practical cranking, but it was a very hard job to start it this way.
I got the car free when it was about ten years old, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Very poor fit and finish. The dash would pop out regularly and just hang by the wires etc. a couple inches away from its proper place.
The inner seat mounts were poor and came away as the body under them rusted.
There was a very crude PCV system which sucked in crankcase oil if the engine revved over about 3500 rpm, producing a serviceable smoke screen pretty much at will. My favourite feature.
The Soviet Union had a shortage of copper in those days, so the rad was made from brass tubes with steel fins. I discovered this when I was spraying the rad with a garden hose to clean the bugs out of it. It started to crumble away before my eyes, leaving just the vertical tubes behind. I lost about a quarter of them, but it still cooled okay.
Other quirks: the timing chain (OHC) got so worn that I was able to take out two links and reinstall it.
The fuel pump had a manual lever to prime it if you ran out of fuel, thus saving the starter (especially important if cranking manually).
The tires had tubes in them.
The front end seemed to be inspired by a 1965 Fairlane, rest of the body by Fiat.
Very good ground clearance which made it a great logging road car.

 

So Rolls-Royce was using Lucas electrics in the 80's..? ? ?

 

I've still got my '65 Datsun truck-and the crank.

 

So now it looks like the 56 Dodge truck might be the American winner?

 

My 56 Dodge 315 out of a pick-up has a regular hex head bolt on the front of the crank, must have been a medium duty thing.
To the guys that have MGAs, (56-62) did you ever try to crank the engine by hand? You would have to stab the crank right through the radiator core to get to the front of the engine, and then you would find out there was no fitting on the crankshaft to put the crank in. There was a hole in the bumper for the crank, but it couldn't possibly be used.

 

My Pa in law had a 70's Renault 10 he drove to work for several years. The jack handle doubled as the engine crank. His starter went bad, don't remember if he couldn't afford a new one or if he couldn't find one for a while, so he had to use the hand crank to start it. I started it that way myself a few times, was pretty easy. You inserted the crank through a hole in the body, made sure it was in the crank nut, turned it until the handle was just off center vertically, then either pulled it up real hard or pushed it down, whichever worked better for you. You had to give it a hard, quick turn, and it would usually start on the first try, no matter the temp! He finally got a new starter for it after about 6 months.

 

One hell of a story, glad I had the time to finish it!!

 

I still think that the documented 56 Dodge is the winner on the American front. Any challengers are welcome. In 57, or so, I think the factory changed the hand crank thingy.

 

Just saw your reply.

The piece of equipment I remember in particular was a Snow Cat (1964?).

Auto shop teacher was restoring it when I was going through Auto Shop.

When he got the engine for it from a local shop (iirc local shop owner owed him a favor, didn't have an engine in it when he bought it) he needed to replace the pulley nut (bolt, gland, ???) with the one with the dogs for the hand crank.

He got the part from the local VW dealer, saw it still in the plastic with the labels from VW.

He started it on the floor with the hand crank (odd watching it "migrate" while running).

The markings on the label for the crank nut looked similar to the label for my '77 Rabbit I was buying parts for at the time.

 

Good info and new to me, no offense. The only hand starter I ever saw on a bug was a pull rope, honest.

I remember looking at a Toyopet ( became Toyota I was told) pickup with a hand crank hole, it didn't have an engine in it and I was told it was early '60s. I was going to try and build an altered out of it but changed my mind.

 

I believe early VW bus had a hand crank, possibly even VW bugs of the split window era. I have definitely seen VW industrial engines with the provision for a crank on the end of the crankshaft.

So, the hand crank VW pulley nut could very well be a factory part for industrial engines.

 

So, does anyone think that the end of the hand crank went away with the advent of the 12 volt system? It would seem to coincide at least for American iron. 1956- 57ish.

 

No worries, I wasn't upset and I don't doubt you hadn't seen otherwise.

 

Maybe.

I would think it also has a bunch to do with larger displacement engines, and higher compression ratios.

I've seen an older 228 CI GMC with the hand crank lug on the front, but I haven't seen the larger versions (270 / 302) with that.

Both the VW and the early 228s had very low (by today's standards) compression (high 6s, low 7s as I recall).

Imagine how much harder it would be to crank any of these with a "modern" compression ratio of around 10:1 or a displacement of much over 45 CI per cylinder.

Imagine how much worse things would go when something went wrong (ie kickback) at any compression ratio much above 7:1.

The same things could happen with large displacement as well.

Couple that with lawsuits...

From what I read, liability lawsuits first took their upturn towards today's insanity in the latter 50s or early 60s (depending on what I'm reading).

Hand cranks become financial suicide for an American manufacturer much after that.

 

Only new vehicle I ever bought was '81 Lada. Each car came with a hand crank, complete tool kit of wrenches, tire iron along with point gap and file and a can of touch up paint.

 

Oh yes I absolutely agree about the lawyers. It was about the same time 1956 or so. 12 volts came about because of this, or so I think. I had both a 55 Dodge and a 56 Dodge and the 56 was much better because of the 12 volt system .I used the 55 starter so that it was a high speed starter! It worked great for many years.

























oh yes
I absolutely agee whit yu\ou about the lawyers.

 

Triumph sports cars had them well into the '60's.