On Apr 28, 9:38*am, hk wrote:
On 4/28/10 9:31 AM, Tim wrote:





On Apr 27, 9:43 pm, *wrote:
I read the wiki on diesels, and I think I read that if a diesel is running,
then it doesn't need a spark (e.g., battery energy) to keep running. If
that's the case, then it seems like you should be able to start a diesel by
hand, assuming you have the muscle or leverage. So, in the former case, even
if your battery died - perhaps got wet and shorted out - then the engine
would keep running. In the latter situation if the battery was already dead,
you might be able to crank it to start it.

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One thing you need to be sure of is that there's a provision that you
can do so. Most small diesels that I'm familiar with are electric
start only. But i'm not that familiar with all the diesels in a marine
aplication, though.

In the good old days, outboard motors up to about 50 hp had pull-start
capabilities, either because of a pull-cord built into the motor, or a
place to use your own pull-cord under the motor's hood. The 50 hp motors
had a compression release mechanism.

I've not seen a diesel with a pull-cord feature. Doesn't mean they don't
exist. Even a small diesel on a sailboat would be hard to start by hand,
both because of the compression and because there might not be enough
room where the engine is installed to get enough leverage with whatever
hand device you are trying to use to start it to actually make the hand
device work.

Seems to me if one is worried about the ability of a battery to crank
the electric starter motor on a diesel, the solution (in addition to
proper battery maintenance) is to have more than one battery available
to the starter.

Or...how about a compressed air starter system... *:)

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I think you better talk to your mechanical engineering breathren
alittle. First "up to 50 hp." had a provision for a rope start is
horse****. My 1974 135hp Evinrude had notches in the flywheel just for
that purpose. And it actually wasn't too bad to start that way. If it
were clapped out and tired you'd play hell, but if it would start in a
couple of pulls, it's okay. I did it just to see if I could. There's
many, many, many compressed air starters out there in all sorts of
applications including semis.