pywackit

Hey Guys, I was over at the field ready to fly and found out my electric starter was dead as a door nail. I tried hand cranking the engine but couldn't get any response at all. I've got a Saito FS 70 that works great but why can't I hand crank this like those little 049's I had when I was a kid? My glow plug ignitors were working so it wasn't because of that.

Jburry

Hand starting a cold 4 stroke glow engine is a chore. 2 strokes are generally easier, as 1 revolution transfers fuel/air to the cylinder, compresses and ignites it. If a person just turns thru the first revolution and a half (the breathing strokes) on a 4 stroke, then triest to start it by driving it thru compression, well there's nothing to light....

If the glow plug is accessible, a couple drops of glow fuel in there may help.... Then at least there's something to burn! Otherwise, it will take several QUICK revolutions (no starter applied) to wet'er up a bit, then try to hand prop it (with a chicken stick, of course....)

J

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Probably because its not one of those little .049's That are very easy to acheve a perfect state prime due to easy accessability to things like ports and etc.

And don,t forget that four stroke can only fire once every two full revolutions not once like the little two stroke half A's you remember.

What it boils down to is hand propping a four stroke can be done but is in most cases problamatical at best. This is especially so if you are new at operating both two or four strokes beyond those .049's

I highly recommend spending more time in maintaining your starting equipment rather than looking for problems with your engine which likely don,t exist.

pywackit

Guess i'm going to buy new batteries...thanks guys.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Perhaps looking at the what your starter set up is and how you are charging your batteries and what they are would help.

So what are you using?

mscic-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

To hand start a 4 stroke, try this. Cover the muffler exit with your finger and pull the engine through a couple of times to prime it. Set the prop against the compression and back flip the prop against the compression. The prop will bounce forward and start, sometimes. It is best to use an electric starter, but we have a flier at our field that starts his Saito's all the time like this.

Sport_Pilot

Four strokes start easily. mscic's method works well, but if the engine is fairly new I have found that backflipping may not work so well till the rings seat in. The trick is to get some fuel into the engine with that inverted carb and manifold. Another trick is to turn the plane upside down when you choke the carb.

rctrax

I use all four strokes nd hand start all the time. I open the throtle wide,flip two or three times, flip a couple times more to disperse fuel. set throtle to high idle hook up glow driver and flip backward against compresion[not thru com] usually starts first flip every time.

pywackit

Thanks for the information on flipping it backwards....never heard that. Good news is my batteries were fine they just needed to be totally drained or uncharged and recharged the right way. My local hobby store cycled them and sold me some new toy that will do that easy enough for even me to understand. I'm not sure what type of batteries they are but they are nicads 1500mah or whatever and long and oval that slip into my starter. Great set up.

nekked_man_2000

I do similar to the other guys, choke the carb, but I put the NiCd on the glow plug and rotate the prop by hand, don't let go it can bite. Anyway I rotate the prop until I feel a "bump", then it's ready to go, back flip anp pow! Works really good on my P-51 with large Aluminum Spinner acting as a flywheel, but I've done it on engines with no spinner. It all seems to be a matter of knowing how much prime your engine likes to fire, that applies to 4 and 2 stroke engines. I hardly ever use a starter...went for 2 or 3 years without even carrying one to the field when my battery went bad. Be really careful with 4 strokes they bite very very hard when they back-fire. Use a chicken stick, even at that my .91 has kicked hard enough to take a chunk out of a MA prop! That's another reason I like the large spinner, I actually grab the spinner and flip it backwards, my fingers never enter the prop arc.

Austin

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Yesterday when this was posted I started to tell about back flipping but hit the cancel button. I thought about it some and decided that unless you had someone to do A show and tell at the field it could get someone that has never seen it into trouble. I have gotten bit once or twice on engines that didn't have A spinner on them.
Now that the cat is out of the bag I will say that my OS and YS engines fire up great this way most the time but even better when warmed up. This works just as well with A two stroke engine too, my SK engines are so easy to back flip I almost never use A starter on them.
When people see me do this the first time I hear all kinds of things being said from how cool to how stupid. It's really A safer way to start and engine then normal flipping with your hand but I still use my starter A lot.