Doug,

I think you're thinking of the 35 engine The transmission in the 1gm (and 2
and 3GM) are all purely mechanical. At least from my investigation of the
service manual, the forward gear is a mirror image of the reverse gear. the
cluch cone simply bears against the forward drive gear, just like it does in
reverse. The transmission is "spalsh lubricated, not hydraulic at all.

Still it doesn't mean you can bump start. The 2GM20F in my doc neighbours
boat (Tanzer 31)is hand startable. Parallax's should be also, you just need
to use the decompression levers. (the hand crank drive pin has a bolted on
cover plate on the newer 2GM20F's) so it looks like it's not hand
startable, just take the plate off and cut the end off Reinstall and your
engine is now hand crankable!

Pierre
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
You have to put the Yanmar in reverse to stop the prop because
reverse is mechanical. In forward the prop will still rotate because
it is fluid drive. So much for push starting a Yanmar. I was thinking
of getting one of the windup starters as a backup.

Doug

"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
Although I have few elecrical gadgets to use power, I do worry about
having enough juice to run my VHF and running lights and am also
partial to having a small fan. Auto-pilot is also nice on long runs.
So what happens if my batteries accidently get run down? My old
Yanmar 1GM could be han cranked but my 2GM, no. However, while
looking into the engine compartment one day while under sail, I
noticed my prop shaft was spinning like mad cuz I hadnt put it in gear
(Yanmar says put it in reverse). So: maybe not so useless Idea #3727


Can you release the compression of the engine with the decompression
levers, get going good under sail with engine in gear an use the
spinning prop to sorta "push-start" the engine with you suddenly
giving it compression? I might try this next time I am out.

For that matter, I have heard of these spinning things you can drag
behind to generate power but I can imagine getting it caught on a crab
trap or something or having its line wrap round your prop. So, why
not put a v-belt pulley on the prop shaft and use it to turn a belt
attached to another alternator. This way you could charge your
batteries without starting the engine (sure it slows you down some).
This cannot be original cuz I know I saw it somewhere but cannot
imagine where.