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CB919ER · 08-24-2018, 02:16 PM

A short Model A story...

This happened to me recently. I had to drop my truck off to be repaired at a shop next to my work. The Tech working on my truck asked if I had a way home, or if I would be waiting. I said I could wait, or I had my Model A parked in the warehouse where I work. The weather was supposed to be clear all weekend so I thought to myself, "Screw it, I'm driving the Ol' Model A home for the weekend."

All weekend long the car ran like a champ. I drove her all over town. Took my girlfriend to dinner with my buddy and his girl in the rumble seat. I get up Monday morning to take the car out, I'm off sunday and Monday, and the starter wont engage the flywheel. I tried tapping the starter, slightly spinning the engine with the crank, even rocked it back and forth a little. This sadly did not help. I got the crank back out, inserted it into the front of the car, and with a quick pull upward the car sprang into life. I let her warm up and drove down the road for gas.

Again, when trying to start the car, I could hear the starter spin but it wouldn't not engage. I got the trusty crank back out. Again, one might pull and we were ready to go. Accepting the fate of my starter I just planned to hand crank the car the rest of the day. This went over well and I even had a few curious parties watch as I went old school with the starting process.

Lets move to Tuesday morning and I'm getting ready to leave for work. Knowing the starter is not working correctly I went ahead and put the crank in the car and got ready to go. I knew you were supposed to keep your thumb under the crank incase kickback, but I didn't know I should only pull up on the crank. About the third crank I pull up and continue to push it back down. This is when the engine got fussy and kicked back against my hand. Luckily for me year of playing various musical instruments has kept my wrists limber and forearms relatively strong. When the engine kicked it proceeded to lift me from the ground and throw me about 5 feet from the car. I didn't feel any pain and check to make sure I still had movement, then proceeded to laugh at myself for the lesson in stupidity the car decided to teach me.

I rolled her down the driveway, and popped the clutch to start the car and drove on to work.

Not very entertaining but maybe someone can learn from my mistake.

08-24-2018, 02:16 PM	#231
CB919ER Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Chattanooga, TN Posts: 114	Re: tell a Model A related story A short Model A story... This happened to me recently. I had to drop my truck off to be repaired at a shop next to my work. The Tech working on my truck asked if I had a way home, or if I would be waiting. I said I could wait, or I had my Model A parked in the warehouse where I work. The weather was supposed to be clear all weekend so I thought to myself, "Screw it, I'm driving the Ol' Model A home for the weekend." All weekend long the car ran like a champ. I drove her all over town. Took my girlfriend to dinner with my buddy and his girl in the rumble seat. I get up Monday morning to take the car out, I'm off sunday and Monday, and the starter wont engage the flywheel. I tried tapping the starter, slightly spinning the engine with the crank, even rocked it back and forth a little. This sadly did not help. I got the crank back out, inserted it into the front of the car, and with a quick pull upward the car sprang into life. I let her warm up and drove down the road for gas. Again, when trying to start the car, I could hear the starter spin but it wouldn't not engage. I got the trusty crank back out. Again, one might pull and we were ready to go. Accepting the fate of my starter I just planned to hand crank the car the rest of the day. This went over well and I even had a few curious parties watch as I went old school with the starting process. Lets move to Tuesday morning and I'm getting ready to leave for work. Knowing the starter is not working correctly I went ahead and put the crank in the car and got ready to go. I knew you were supposed to keep your thumb under the crank incase kickback, but I didn't know I should only pull up on the crank. About the third crank I pull up and continue to push it back down. This is when the engine got fussy and kicked back against my hand. Luckily for me year of playing various musical instruments has kept my wrists limber and forearms relatively strong. When the engine kicked it proceeded to lift me from the ground and throw me about 5 feet from the car. I didn't feel any pain and check to make sure I still had movement, then proceeded to laugh at myself for the lesson in stupidity the car decided to teach me. I rolled her down the driveway, and popped the clutch to start the car and drove on to work. Not very entertaining but maybe someone can learn from my mistake.