21 replies to this topic

[pusb]

From what I can see this old Austin has an A series engine, and a cranking handle. I didn't think that apart from Citroen CV's that any post war car had a cranking handle.

 

Do Mini engines also have that bit to plug the handle into (although I know it would be up against the radiator on the transversely mounted engine).

 

[Bungle]

the A series transverse engine  is quite different to the inline engine and not really interchangeable 

[pusb]

the A series transverse engine  is quite different to the inline engine and not really interchangeable 

 

Thats interesting, I had thought that they were pretty much the same, just with the sump cut off!

 

Any idea when the last A series car with a crank handle was made?

[Tupers]

There was a company that offered a hand crank kit for a Mini in the early '60s. There's a pdf of an original ad for it somewhere on the mk1-performance-conversions website. 

[Cooperman]

The Morris Minor had a starting handle, but I don't know if it was deleted on the later cars. The Austin Cambridge A40/50 & 55 had one as did the Riley 1.5/Wolseley 1500. The A30/35 might well have had one.

The Ford E93 & 100E had them and my 1950 Ford V8 Pilot definitely had one.

[jime17]

Renault 4 had one. Along with the umbrella handbrake handle

[ace01]

The last of the Morris Minors did have one

 

The Morris Minor had a starting handle, but I don't know if it was deleted on the later cars. The Austin Cambridge A40/50 & 55 had one as did the Riley 1.5/Wolseley 1500. The A30/35 might well have had one.

The Ford E93 & 100E had them and my 1950 Ford V8 Pilot definitely had one.

The last of the Morris Minors did have them.

[CityEPete]

Yep my minor has one, its a 57 car but with a later 1098, I've used it too after leaving the lights on once! The handle clips on the underside of the boot lid if I remember rightly?

[pusb]

What was the logic in giving relatively modern engines this feature?

 

I know cars back in the 1920's and 30's had to have it, as the starter motors weren't always strong enough to turn a cold engine, put by the 50's I don't see how that was an issue.

[CityEPete]

Still got 50s batterys and dynamos, alternator conversion and a modern cold crank battery fitted to an old car and then it's less of an issue isnt it? Multigrade oils were less common I'd imagine, that freak cold morning while you were still running summer oil would be a bugger.

[Vipernoir]

My A30 has got one - 1955.

[AlexMozza]

My mga has one.

[sonikk4]

Hillman Minx had one, that bugger broke my old mans wrist.

[HarrysMini]

My girlfriend's 1967 Morris Minor 1098 has a starting handle. Very useful. 

[mab01uk]

 

 

"Don't get me started" by Wheelnut

"When the Mini was launched in August 1959, it had all sorts of heretical features to upset the traditionalists. Funny little wheels, funny little rubber springs, funny sideways engine, and even funnier front wheel drive. And that’s before you start looking at external body seams and the absence of a proper dashboard. But there was another, deeply-felt attack on the well-established order of things – it didn’t have a starting handle – or even, it seemed any possibility of fitting one!
 You don’t have to be really old to remember how starting handles could get you out of trouble when the battery was only able to feed a dull glimmer on your ignition warning lamp. After all, in those days, when you had a battery with a year’s guarantee, on day 366 there was a very good chance that it would die on you. If there was no one around to give you a push start, then the old starting handle was a potential life-saver. The damn thing might also break your thumb or your wrist if you didn’t know how to hold the handle (keep your thumb on the same side as your fingers, and be ready for kickback). It could also come in useful for doing maintenance jobs like setting your tappet clearances, enabling you to turn the engine fairly accurately to find the back of the cam for each tappet. Some people even regarded the handle as a good defensive weapon that could be legitimately carried in the car, but I digress.

Well, what about the handle-less Mini? It seems fairly obvious that with the engine moved from its rightful, time-honoured position with the crankshaft nose facing the front of the car, then there was absolutely no possibility of the manufacturer or anybody else being able to contrive a way of connecting up a starting handle. But fear not! The Mini started off the most inventive and prolific era of accessory manufacture Britain has ever seen. Every magazine had pages and pages of advertisements for gizmos to ameliorate your Mini. Those endlessly industrious accessory guys were not about to be defeated by a sideways engine, oh no!    Galloping to the rescue of Minis with feeble batteries came Oselli Accessories. For about a fiver, (in the mid-1960s) they offered a complete kit of handle, crankshaft dog, guide plates, and a support arm. You had to cut a hole in the wing valance, fit the crankshaft dog in place of the standard crank bolt, and bolt into place the support arm inside the wheelarch. To use the starting handle, you put the wheels on full left lock, and poked the handle through the support arm hole and the hole in the valance, engaged the dog and wound your engine into life – you hoped. No, I’ve never tried one, or even seen one, but what a collector’s item this must be…"

http://www.bmh-ltd.c...wheelnut_16.asp

 

Edited by mab01uk, 03 January 2016 - 10:37 AM.