Safety first - Can you cause a diesel to kick by turning over by hand.

Pull the glow plugs, it will make it easier to turn over by hand..


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I totally agree Ron.

Having the need to hand-crank diesel alternators at Woomera I am painfully aware of the need for adequate cranking speed to fire-up.

However, removing the injectors would make it easier to rotate the crankshaft to check valve clearances.

Allan - Yes, agree on the injector removal angle.

However, be aware that injectors are often exceptionally tight to remove (usually involves the use of a very large rolling head prybar, if they have been in place for any length of time).

In addition, the injector lines and injectors MUST be totally clean before any removal attempt.
Failure to do so risks tiny particles of dirt or rust entering the injector, which will destroy them rapidly - or at the very least, damage the injector orifice and injection valve, so that the spray pattern is irretrievably damaged.

And finally - if injectors are removed, they normally have a copper sealing washer inside the head opening, that must be replaced if you don't want injector/compression leaks upon re-assembly.

Many fuel injection shops work on the basis that once you remove an injection line, they will not guarantee the performance of any injector that has been "tampered with" in this manner, due to the potential of tiny dirt/rust particles entering the injector.

Cheers, Ron.

Geez, thanks Ron.
Iza.......don't touch the injectors!!!!

Allan, I think we can share our mutual old-diesel-hand-cranking experiences!
The old man had a 27HP, twin cylinder, CK model Ronaldson Bros & Tippett engine in the late 1950's, driving a 4" (100mm) centrifugal pump.

The engine probably dated to the late 1930's or early 1940's. It came from the Williams powerhouse.
That beast was hand-cranked - and I can tell you, you needed your Weeties to fire that thing up!

The crankhandle was massive, and I'm sure it was designed to be used by two men!
On top of that, the rotating mass of the engine components was enough to give any bloke a hernia.
The flywheel was about 800mm in diameter and probably 200mm thick.
It took an enormous amount of effort to just get the engine rotating - let alone get it up to starting speed.

Strangely, I have never seen a Ronaldson Bros & Tippett engine that size again, anywhere, in any antique machinery show I have been to.
Maybe the old machinery blokes haven't got the strength left to start one!

Cheers, Ron.

We had a 5HP vertical single cylinder Ronaldson Tippet diesel to run our 32V lighting plant on our farm.

It had auto load-sensitive starting, using the generator as a starter motor. But at one time we were in a rural depression (read poor), the batteries were too weak to crank the thing in the mornings, we couldn't afford to replace them so we had to hand crank it. That became my job.

It had two massive spoked flywheels about 4 inches wide, and about a metre or 3 ft diameter or so. Plus the generator which was about the size of a 10 gallon drum. So, Ron, I go with the rotational mass :-)

As a 12 to 14 year old I was able to get it turning fast enough to start - just. On a cold morning I'd bust a gut to get it turning. Sometimes I'd have to stand on the crank handle to get the initial movement - it became a point of honour. On dropping the compression release it would wheeze and blow blue smoke every couple of seconds as it fired while I continued to help it with the crank handle until it became self-sustaining.

Don't know if I could do it now.

Ah yes Ron.... memories!
Too long ago (late 1950's) to remember details but 'Lister' was one I think, plus others.
Typically 3-cylinder with huge flywheels and a crank handle designed for two men, but I was usually alone! The technique was to wind the crank up to 'sufficient' speed then whack the decompression lever to allow compression and hopefully ignition. Problem was that if you skimped a bit on the windup then it did not fire and you had to have a second go....... however you now did not have the energy for 10 minute or so! As I said... "Ah, memories"!!!

One other way to turn the crank around is to jack up the rear end (both tyres) engage 2wd and turn the motor using the rear tyres .... last stop if the socket drive doeswn't work...

Remember a rather large bull-dozer in my youth that was turned over by a small B&S petrol engine - saved the need for large batteries.

Or the one in the tractor museum that's started with a blank shotgun cartridge.....

Spent too much time cranking a Lister twin cylinder 7kva genset to forget it.

The endearing aspect of those engines was that the crank handle fitted an extension of the camshaft so the blanky thing had to be cranked backwards.
Couple this to the revs/crank handle location with dropping the decompression release made for very precise timing of the whole operation.

With alternating piston strokes the initial firing was "ba bum...ba bum......" never a smooth sounding engine.
Starting a much later 3cyl. Kubota genset was simply the turning on of a light in the house or a push button on the genset.

Now we live in town, still with blackouts.... do things really change?
mike

Remind me of the 2 Southern Cross engines my grandfather had on his mine.
Both 4 cylinder & stood about 5 feet high. A 38 & 40 hp from memory.

Also recall him setting their RPM with a hand held Tacho dial, that counted the revolutions with a worm drive.

It was considered a very precious instrument.

Cheers.