I saw (that is to say "felt") that I have the crank start nut on my snow trac's engine. This is a the nut on the end of the crankshaft that accepts a hand crank which engages a groove in the nut with a transverse pin. The nut has 2 ramped flanges on its perimeter that force the pin and crank out of the slot after the engine starts, thus saving teeth, fingers, or anything else that would otherwise get caught in the path of a rapidly spinning crank handle. Anyway, there's no better justification for having hand crank start capability than on a vehicle used off the beaten path in cold temperatures I think. Any snow trac owners out there crank start their vehicles? Me thinks I need to fab a crank handle and try it out.
I was poking around the web and found a few links regarding hand cranking VW engines:
http://www.vintagebus.com/busfaq.html#21
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/dic/c.php (look under "crank handle" and "crank nut" in the dictionary)
Happy Trails - Paul
PS I'm having a blast driving the snow trac, what a great machine!
I was poking around the web and found a few links regarding hand cranking VW engines:
http://www.vintagebus.com/busfaq.html#21
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/dic/c.php (look under "crank handle" and "crank nut" in the dictionary)
Happy Trails - Paul
PS I'm having a blast driving the snow trac, what a great machine!