L8cruiser

I bought a Hobbico 90 electric starter. I can't get it to turn over my OS 60 . I can stop it from turning with my hand. It seems like it doesn't have enough torque. I tried it with a car battery and tractor battery with the same results. Should I be able to stop it from spinning with my bare hand. It has stock plugs and lead wire. I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough amps or I got a bad starter.

ratshooter

I bought a Hobbico starter that was about $30 bucks. I could also stop it by hand. I called Hobbico and they said I shouldn't be able to do that. So they sent me a new starter and didn't even want me to send the old one back. The new starter was no more powerful than the old starter. I gave the old one to my buddy. I almost never use an electric starter anyway. All my engines hand start pretty easily.

It seems like the old Sullivan starter I had would just about twist your arm in a circle if you grabbed it. But that was many years ago and my memory may be faulty.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Hi L8cruiser Yes I agree with ratshooter that the Sullivans and some rebranded sullivans are among the best. But even the cheapie starter will amaze you if you increase the voltage, that is the secret. I use 18 volt drill batteries for my starters and it can be even inexpensive I will post pictures of many ways to do if you like.

John

Silver Flyer

My Feedback: (4)

Please do John, I am having the same problem (low torque) with three different brands of starters on three sizes of batteries. Thought about the 18 but not quite sure how. Floyd

L8cruiser

I am interested in seeing the 18 volt setup John. It has to be much lighter also. Can the power panel handle the 18 volts or is the 18 volts strictly for the starter.

jester_s1

I can stop my starter by hand (takes some effort) but it still starts my .46, .61, and .90 size engines with no problem. Are you rolling the prop backwards to the compression so the starter has a little time to accelerate? Mine will even still work when the battery is mostly gone if I do that.

Charlie P.

I have a Sullivan Hi-Torq and on a car battery you would lose skin trying to hold it. I have no trouble starting my 34cc with that and a tractor battery. That's the low-end Sullivan!

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Hi guys there are many options for us today with batteries. Some years back I think at least ten I started using two seven cell rc car packs and in series that rendered 16.8 volts and the improvement in performance of any starters was amazing and they served well for some time untill maybe seven years ago Harbour Freight had a sale on there then current cheapie drill with an 18 volt battery for ten bucks well that was just perfect and cheap too. That battery is currently selling for twenty bucks .

I have experimented with many combinations with about ten starters and many methods from simply snipping off the clips or banana plugs and crimping on two female blade connectors that are used on these drill batteries to use two piece with the battery separate on a longer lead, all the way to a fancy slider that I built to allow the battery to just slide on and click shut just like the drill.

Some of the pictures you will see with my earlier effort runs from just using a shaped balsa block that is glued with silicone seal on the battery and the starters. Of course the block is carved with a convex curve to fit the starter. Surprisingly this works well and is easy but if dropped from table height is usually lets go. But it simple to glue it right back (be sure to allow for curing over night without touching ) The block is necessary as a spacer to allow you to access the switch.

Another method is to unscrew the plastic battery top and drill some hole to bolt the starter plastic feet to.

My favorite batteries now are the Decker 18 volt as well as the 24 volt. while the 18 volt batteries work very well with most starters the 24 is only suitable for the Sullivan Dynatron. Usually where the failure point is will be the switchs and they tend to weld themselve to full on runaway so stick to no more than the 18v with the cheaper units.

You know to this day I have avoided the lipo because of the accidental deep discharge problem and its difficult to keep track of when your starter is the most popular on the line. However some of these new lithium 18 volt drill batteries are extremely light and have internal cut offs for the deep discharge problem so I am very interested now, in specifically the Makita. I am a newbie and just learning turbines and a portable electric blower is almost essential. The makita is very small and effective soooo thinking I could make a slider for the makita battery to use on both the blower and one of my starters.

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

Get a dynatron and the finer edge adapter for the makita batteries. You will be happy.

Rodney

It is very important to have very good connections between the battery (voltage source ) and the starter. Those small alligator clips or similar just do not cut the mustard as you lose a lot of power due to voltage drop across the connections. Also, on a new starter, it may take a bit to wear in the brushes on the commutator.

Calvinman

Sometimes it is good to have an underpowered starter, if your engine is flooded you could bend a con rod(or so I have read) If it will spin the motor over with the engine backed away from top dead center then you are good(+1 Jester), if it does not then turn the motor upside down with the carb being the lowest point and see if fuel runs out. If it does then try again, if not then you may have to step up the voltage a bit.

John, that is one impressive collection of starters you have there!

Calvi

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

He, he Ya Calvin have done a bunch of experimenting and the fellows are always trying to talk me out of them but I never sell, hate that but sure do love to barter

Here are some of my earlier units must be about 12 years ago. That was when many were doing 12v gel cells on portables ICK what a waste (there goes that opinion thing agine). Voltage is king when it comes to starters.

L8cruiser running an 18 volt battery through a power panel is likely going to damage the panel. I would not recommend that But you can use a drill battery on your normal starter cord with the battery separate I suggested above

I my best advice to you is forget the power panel, for a glow flyer they are a waste of money, they present a safety problem that is quite serious if you use a starter cord and a glow heater cord. much much better to go portable with many options for glow ignitor and starter.

John



My next will probably use the Makita 18v lithium. aA friend was using the little blower with one and I had the opportunity look it over very light and making a slider for just about any of the starter should be a piece of cake.

Calvinman

I admire your engenuity John, 15 years ago I was using a blower motor from a 1966 Chevelle. It had a door bell switch to turn it on and a bunch of different pipe fittings to get it to the right size to hold whatever I was using for a rubber insert(can't remember now). It worked quite well, but was underpowered. I usually only use the starter for the first start of the day and use the chicken stick after that.

Is your safety concern with the power panel because of the wires all over? If so I see your point and may hook my starter up fashioned after one of your creations(hope they are not copywrighted) I will still use the glow driver off of my power panel because I run the wire from behind the gear so it cannot move around that much.

Calvi

Calvinman

Or maybe I can trade you one of my home made window sized heat recovery ventilators for one of your starter setups seeing as you like to barter

Calvi

Charlie P.

I might have to go that route myself. I have a Makita LXT drill, sawazall and task light and a couple Lith-ion packs.

In fact - I just ordered one. $45 plus $5 S&H.

Granpooba

My Feedback: (5)

It is no good !! I also had a Hobbico and it would turn over nothing. Go the Sullivan route !

Rv7garage

My Feedback: (10)

Allow me to recommend the Kavan planetary geared starter. Soooo light, soooo powerful! Available from Sig, I also got the battery holder for it and crammed a 4S A123 into it. Man, am I blown away by this thing! It starts my Saito 120 radial without batting an eye!

rexbirk

I have a Hobbico 180 starter that I stuck a 4 cell 3000 Lipo on. It's an animal. Cranks my 36cc engines at an insane speed. It has lasted a year so far. I'm sure I am operating it out of it's rating but it works great so far.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

[QUOTE=
Is your safety concern with the power panel because of the wires all over? If so I see your point and may hook my starter up fashioned after one of your creations(hope they are not copywrighted) I will still use the glow driver off of my power panel because I run the wire from behind the gear so it cannot move around that much.
Calvi[/QUOTE]


Yup exactly Calvin when folks use a power panel for a long corded starter and long corded glow ignitor clip for starting, this is extremely dangerous. You see no matter where you put the flight box one cord has to go in front of the propeller and one cord has to go behind the propeller to the glow plug. This a recipe for disaster and I have witnessed such twice in the distant past before we started getting away from being tied to a big box. Fortunately those times no one was hurt other that some very startled and scared follks with broken props and mangled wires. That one I rate right up there with wearing a tx strap unclipped and starting an airplane by yourself.

John

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

I got distracted in my last Post and did not have the opportunity to finish all I wanted to express back on the subject so:

L8Cruser there you have it with many fine suggestions and isn't wonderful these days that we have so many battery choices and options to fit almost any purse.

Probably the most important one if you like glow or gas and you choose to use a starter is to abandon the traditional corded starter and flight box with the gutless 7 amp hour gel cell (or worse lead acid wet cell battery) and the now redundant power panel that can be a safety hazard and is unnecessary spending for new folk, and go totally cordless and portable. One or two 'pocket' type ignitors is all most folks ever need but even with those there are (yes expensive) very exotic type ignitors in a tiny portable box with a short cord to the connector.

So there you have lots of choices here from the fellows

John

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I have an old Hanger 9 power pro 12 volt starter and even on 12 volts it has been a good one. Rolled over all my YS 120s and even my little 1.40 gasser. I did as John suggested a couple years back and got an 18 volt pack from Harbor Freight and it rolled over the DLE 30 with that pack. I'm due for a new battery right now and will replace it with the same unit. The price has gone up a couple of bucks, I think it is now $20.00 but when I got it there was a sale for $10.00 and $5.00 for the charger.
I still have a power panel in my flight box but can't recall the last time it was used. About 15 or 20 years ago I even did what John mentioned and got the cord stuck in the spinning prop. That is when I quit using the panel for the starter but I used the flight box battery attached to my starter. Heavy but it worked until John showed me the error of my ways.

Charlie P.

I still keep the flight panel & lawnmower battery in my flight box. Though I do use a rechargeable glow driver as my primary and a rechargeable hand-held for the starter. For my gassers I have been lately using a tractor battery and a Sullivan Hi-Tork with the long wires to alligator clips. That's to be phased out when I get the 18v adapter mentioned above.

I've been using this 3:1 Pacific Aeromodel planetary gear's NiCad starter and on a fresh charge it will do my magneto'd 26cc Zenoah - and that's not bad for a little guy. My glows are all .40 to .70 size and it easily handles them. I should probably update this to LiPos. It will not do my 34cc magneto Fuji or anything larger than the 26cc.


Wire management hadn't been a problem in decades of the glow driver and starter hooked to the power panel. Not that it's been convenient and there haven't been some close calls. Years ago I hooked a "Zinger" net retractor from fly-fishing to the glow-driver cord to pull it out of the prop arc if it let loose and to keep the cord taught when in use.

Safety is never a given no matter what you use. Years ago I was in the pits with a friend who had been using a rechargeable glow driver but was new to an elevated starting stand. The glow driver popped off and started to roll away so he instinctively tried to catch it before it rolled off the stand. Reached right through the prop arc to do it. I was leaning over my plane and heard that unmistakable noise and had blood splatter on my glasses and in that awful shock-moment I wasn't sure what I had done. It wasn't me! We had to take him in to the emergency ward to get 18 stitches.

Tombsy

A lot of the boat guys are using ATV or small car starters on 4s lipo's, no more loosening the plugs

L8cruiser

Good advice Jester. It will work if I roll the prop back to give it a head start. I like the idea of a wireless starter took.

Charlie P.

Received my Finer Edge adapter and mated it between a Sullivan Dynatron and the Mikuta XLT 18v pack. Jury is still out on my larger gassers but it starts the 26cc Zenoah magneto with no problem at all. A bit heavy but it does put it all in a nice, single unit.