Was this engine supplied with a crank handle , Ralph?
No. No crank handle on delivery as a new boat shipped from the Hunter factory in Florida. Mind you, the dealer here in Vancouver was not the most organized outfit you'd ever want to meet and I figured the handle may have been lost in the melee of boat assembly. My other thought was that the end of the cranklever was a hex rod waiting for a female socket to get things turning over by hand. Either way, there was no easy way to ever use the crank fitting without removing the V belt which would put the antifreeze (AF) pump out of operation.
The odd thing is, I've never even removed the cap to see what's under it and that's unusual for me in that I have disassembled most of the engine out of curiosity just to have a look at how it runs. I guess I was so pissed off at the positioning of this crank drive that I figured I could never use it so why look at it.
After knocking around in this hand cranking discussion here, I suppose that if push ever came to shove and I had insufficient battery power to start the engine with the engine unloaded, my next steps would be:
- slack off the V belt to get it out of the way.
- unload the unloaders
- get whatever is required to turn the crank in there
- crank for all I'm worth
- have someone near at hand to close the unlaoders
- hope the engine wouldn't grab my cranking socket wrench and throw it and me across the cabin in a heap.
- observe if the V belt was snug enough to turn the AF pump
- if the AF pump was not turning, shut down the engine
Now for the part that is based purely on prayer ................... I find if I start my engine in the winter and the outside temp. is below 0° C, the engine goes through the usual grunt, groan, and grind for about 5 sec. but it always starts. After it has run for only a few seconds and then been shut down, several hours later after just sitting around it will start after about only 1/2 of one revolution because the piston rings are perfectly sealed with cold, viscous oil from its previous 5 sec. run. In summer months, the engine will start (on 1/2 a rev.) after two days of not running because the rings are still well wetted.
In my further attempt at trying to start this engine with a half dead battery, I would then snug up the V belt and HOPE and PRAY that the weak battery combined with the oil sealed rings MIGHT be enough to get the engine rolling with the unloaders unloaded. That and the strength of prayer.
In theory, who knows, this just might work. In practice, it's absolute bull
for the boat safety of having an engine available when you absolutely need one. The starter battery is treated as sacred once we anchor. It's electrically disconnected from everything ......... as long as we remember. Never even given it a second look in 25 years in some pretty lonely, out of the way locations on our northern coast.
Thanks for posing the question
@garymalmgren as it's gotten me thinking about that damned hand crank starting again. I'll rip into it and come up with a workable solution for hand cranking or as a last, feeble, desperate measure, invest in a small battery booster just in case :
I've never heard of anyone with too many safety backups.
