Using a drill as an electric starter?

Project Farm starts his lawn mowers with a battery drill.

Wookie58 wrote:

What have you got lose (except a garage window when the socket flys off 

) just watch you don't break your wrist 

 

Fortunately the workshop is in the basement and has only one window, so nothing can go wrong there.

I plan to start by pulling the spark plug and turning the engine over with the cordless as a sort of baseline: if it really struggles, I'll switch to the smaller corded drill and see how that goes. Then re-install the plug and try again, etc. I'm hoping to get to it this weekend. Cheers!

Oooh, I better check the battery.

It is/was a pretty common mod in the flat track world. Especially old guys riding/racing old cantankerous vintage bikes     See the modified cover with the flush fitting bolt in the middle of the cover.

 

dammit... ETA #2. It didn't use a drill motor. Off the top of my head, it was a Toyota truck starter motor mounted onto a hand held frame. Sorry, no pics of it 

slayer61 wrote:

It is/was a pretty common mod in the flat track world. Especially old guys riding/racing old cantankerous vintage bikes  

  See the modified cover with the flush fitting bolt in the middle of the cover.
dammit... ETA #2. It didn't use a drill motor. Off the top of my head, it was a Toyota truck starter motor mounted onto a hand held frame. Sorry, no pics of it 
 

Toyota diesel truck starter motor, just as strong as the 440 Chrysler but more compact, more $$ used. I believe they are a high torque starter motor.

Injected wrote:

slayer61 wrote:

It is/was a pretty common mod in the flat track world. Especially old guys riding/racing old cantankerous vintage bikes  

  See the modified cover with the flush fitting bolt in the middle of the cover.
dammit... ETA #2. It didn't use a drill motor. Off the top of my head, it was a Toyota truck starter motor mounted onto a hand held frame. Sorry, no pics of it 

 

Toyota diesel truck starter motor, just as strong as the 440 Chrysler but more compact, more $$ used. I believe they are a high torque starter motor.

I believe mine was from the gas model. Either way, it was turning over almost 670ccs at a time of 13:1 on that old blue bike in the picture above. If you're using one to spin a 4 cylinder, 1000 cc, you're really only compressing 250cc at a time. Easy peasey. 

Gasoline drag bikes these days are 1500-1670cc - running off the shelf 13:1 piston that is decked from both directions yielding anywhere from 300-340 PSI cranking compression. They now require specific high torque starters, don't know if the old Chrysler unit would last too long. They were prone to breaking shafts on a hot start, if you run big CC supercharged and over 50% Nitro they don't work.

Even my little 831cc NA injected bike running 40% Nitro would lock up the Chrysler starter the odd time.

I've heard that ' ignition timing ' can greatly influence start up requirements on any motor.  Just 2 cents.....

urankjj wrote:

I've heard that ' ignition timing ' can greatly influence start up requirements on any motor.  Just 2 cents.....