Ever have trouble starting the car.

[Neville Briggs]

Happily most modern cars don't seem to suffer the frequency of trouble that some of the older one's used to.
I can remember a time when such things as a boiling radiator, flat tyre or flat battery were fairly common, specially in the cars that had the six volt system like VWs.

My father had a little car called a Ford Prefect, and it had a six volt battery.
But if you ever had a flat battery or the starter motor failed to start the engine, this car had a cutting edge technology that was always available. The crank handle.
Just a piece of steel rod that fitted into a slot at the front of the engine , which enabled you to turn the engine over by winding a handle bent into the outer end of the rod.

Remember the days when you could crank up the old car to start it.There was a bit if an art to it. You had to let go at the right moment or when the engine fired, it could kick back and give you a nasty wallop.

Neither my VW beetle in the 60s or my fabulous Ford Cortina, back in the 70s had a crank, for starting difficulty , I had to use the old tried and true method of pushing the car then jumping the clutch.

Why don't they have now , such simple remedies as the crank handle ?
I'm not a mechanic, I'm guessing that for one thing modern engines have a compression too high to turn by hand. I'm sure there's a mechanic can put me right on that one.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Neville - are you my ex in disguise???? God forbid. Our first car was a cream 1948 Ford prefect Bessie followed by a dark blue VW and then a White Cortina

I remember them well - including the crank start on cold mornings

[Bob Pacey]

Not old enough to remember any of that old stuff. !!!


Bob

[Rimeriter]

Recently had reason to need NRMA Road Service to change a flat tyre.

Whilst chatting to the NRMA bloke ( Bill ) he mentioned that compression is too high for manual cranking.

As are wheel nuts, too tight, having been locked on with an air spanner.

[Neville Briggs]

You're safe from any blast from the past with me Maureen .

Come on Bob, you had a VW beetle.

Thanks Jim. I got some new tyres not long ago, when I went to check the air in the tyres, I found that the tyre place had bolted the dress rims over the tyre valve. I fixed the problem, grr grr

[Rimeriter]

Bob, obviously you are only a 'Spring Chicken'.

Even your ABPA image confirms that.
Jim.

[Neville Briggs]

The awful thing Marty, is when I see cars lined up at the show or fairground, under the banner of "veteran cars " and I recognise them as cars that I once knew as the latest models. And someone in my family had an Austin 7, I think, in the dim ages past.