Home-made Hand Crank

Never hand-cranked anything in my life, so I had my son sit on the tractor, ignition on, shifter in neutral, throttle cracked open, choke pulled out. Pulled from the left side of the tractor, so's if she backfired, the crank would kick out of my hands and not break my arm. Gave 'er a good sharp yank, another, another...smelled gas. "Hey son, push the choke in."

I mentally spit in my hands and rubbed them together. One more time...VROOOM!! Wow! It works! Shut it off and did it again 3 more times. Cool! Had both my boys try it out too (their enthusiasm was somewhat less than mine). The little 4-banger wasn't that hard to crank either.

So, is this how Zane got his start?

5/8" steel rod from the hardware store, 3'long. Drill a 1/4" hole crosswise about 5/8" from the end. Insert a 1" piece of 1/4" rod into the cross-hole, and choose your favorite method to secure it. I tack-welded it in place with my welding torch.

Now you've got a a rod with the two pins on one end. 1/4" is a good size to engage into the crank nut teeth (you could probably use a chunk from a long 1/4" bolt too). I ground away the pins on the back-side, that is, the side that should slide out against the nut once the engine fires. This probably isn't necessary, but I see the later cranks were machined this way, so...

Fit this rod into the front of the tractor. You might need to trim the pin just a bit to fit through everything. I have one of the old front bumpers that's curved down to clear the crank hole. It's got a trailer ball in the front of that, so I heated the rod and bent it down at a point that would clear the bumper. Heat again about 8" down and bend back up for the handle.

The entire job took about an hour. The 3' length was long enough, though I could trim off an inch or two at the end. Now I'll wire wheel it, prime and paint. Still looking for a place to store it on the tractor....