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I corresponded with Richard via e-mail about this. He knows what he's doing, and anyway, an engine with centrifugal advance does not generally kick back like an older engine with manual spark advance ("Quick! Get that spark down before she dies!"). So I think it's extremely unlikely he'll be injured. People can and often do injure themselves trying to crank an engine with centrifugal advance. But this is rarely if ever due to a true "kick-back," where a cylinder fires before top-dead-center and the engine takes off and runs backwards, locking the pawl and turning the crank into a whirling weapon worthy of a martial arts film. One old gentleman of my acquaitance gave himself a concussion while cranking a centrifugal advance engine. This particular tractor had kind of a metal ramp that bolted on the front end below the crank slot, so you could leave the cultivators propped up on blocks and drive into them instead of having to lift them in place. He tried to crank the engine with the ramp in place (a no-no, according to the owner's manual), and was also pushing DOWN on the crank (always a no-no, no matter what). The crank was pushed out by the ramp, the pawls disengaged, and he slipped and hit his head on the crank. And, I have a recurring injury, a neck muscle I keep pulling. I re-injured it recently while checking to make sure the engine on my Super C would still start with one pull (it did). (I try to stay in shape and I am proud to say that in my mid-forties I can still pass the Marine Corps physical fitness test, except for the pull-ups; when I try pull ups, I tend to aggravate this injury, so I've given up on them.)
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