1neumann

HELLO EVERYONE! I purchased a Supertigre .18 marine engine from Tower Hobbies last night for my Aquacraft SuperVee 27. I was wondering if anyone has converted the engine to a pull start? I do not want to purchase a starting wand or a belt start setup. I saw a pull start assembly on Tower for the on road version of the motor. Would that work? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hydro Junkie

I would have ordered the OS since it comes with a pull start from the factory. The advantage there is that you would have known the pull start would have worked right out of the box

1neumann

I wanted to buy the os .18 cvrmx but my local hobby shop said it is discontinued and tower hobbies no longer carries it. I also was very attracted to the price with a coupon and easy pay on the supertigre engine. Hopefully my penny pinching won't bite me later on.
Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Ledet

I had nothing but trouble with the supper tiger .18 they would not last. I got the os .18 cvrmx and never had a problem again. You could get the os on ebay. As far as a pull start on the supper tiger not sure it would work.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

You would need a crankshaft and backplate to go with it. K&B has an .18 but it's junk.

1neumann

I received the engine along with the super tigre onroad .18 pullstart and it mounts to the backplate but pulling on the cord does not turn over the engine. I also borrowed a friends duratrax spin starter and it just spins the super start without turning over the engine. I think it's spinning the wrong direction which is why the motor doesn't crank. Is this the problem? I'm thinking the pullstart is also spinning the wrong way and not engaging the crankshaft?

1neumann

The duratrax spins clockwise. I thought it would be suitable for this engine since it has the same bit end that the super tigre requires.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

It should spin counter-clockwise.
You can bolt a recoil on but it's not hooked up to anything. If you don't have a shaft coming out of the backplate it's not hooking up to anything.
I've been doing small-block nitro for many years from .119 to .18's. There's still a small pile of them in my shop. If the flywheel isn't tight it won't spin the crank either.

1neumann

OK what I found out was the spring loaded pin that goes in the nipple on the crank was laying in the bottom of the crankcase. I reinstalled it properly, put on the super start plate and it now turns the engine over properly. The gear mesh in the super start assembly is awful and slips on the compression stroke. The super tigre pullstart will work if you use the one way bearing and shaft the bearing rides on that engages the spring loaded pin. The one way bearing fits into the pull start base and the mounting screw holes line up on the engines backplate. I had to dremel a little material off the upper corner of the pull start assembly in order to clear motor mount. But now I have a pull start setup and don't have to deal with a stripped out super start. The gear mesh was so poor that I doubt I would have even started the motor once before it broke. This is on a supervee so I don't know if its necessary to dremel the corner off on every application. I'm going to break the motor in tomorrow and I will let everyone know how my semi custom pull start works.
Thanks for the responses everyone! I've learned a lot from this site and many of its members.

1neumann

Also to install this engine on the supervee you have to use longer header mounting bolts as the super tigre crankcase is wider than the aquacraft crankcase. the throttle linkage rod end will have to be trimmed off because it will hit the header manifold. The collet has to be cut shorter at the flywheel end because this engine is longer and won't quite clear the stuffing tube. And last you will have to reroute the water lines since the fittings on the water jacket are in a different position.

1neumann

Just to clarify the duratrax super start wand will work on this engine as the gearing inside the super start back plate converts the clockwise direction of the wand into counter clockwise direction on the crankshaft. It was that pin not being installed properly that caused my confusion.

1neumann

Broke the engine in today and the pull start worked great! Engine ran well too. It's not a screamer but I am happy because it ran very consistent and idles well. Hopefully this info will help anyone who would like to convert a roto start to a pull start.