It’s one of those movie clichés, you have to know just how to treat a car or engine in order to get it to run or start.
I have a lawn-mower that has a very specific start sequence:
[ul]
[li]push fuel button 3 times[/li][li]pull starter cord twice[/li][li]push fuel button once[/li][li]mower will start next pull of the cord.[/li][/ul]
Any deviation from this will result in not starting or a flooded engine.
What else have you encountered?
My old mower. For me it had a similar list of requirements except that even then, there was no guarantee that it would start, but a bloke, any bloke, could usually start it on the first pull of the cord.
It would come back from a service with a note saying how wonderful it was for such an ancient beast. My dad, his friend and the neighbours son could all start it without issue.
And even worse - if any one of them were present, *it would start just as easily for me.
*
Bastard.
I got a new one and have it to the neighbour. It starts first time every time.
We also used to own a cortina that you had to double clutch only when changing from third to second.
I used to have a generator that was almost the reverse. I could walk up to it, flip the switch to Run, give the starter rope one “soft” pull then one good pull, and it was running.
Anyone else seemed to be used to their own engines with gummed-up carburetors, flaky chokes, whatever, and they’d walk up to it, fiddle with the choke, try to start it, wiggle the sparkplug wire, try to start it, give it an evil look, try to start it, and so on.
Our Saeco Superautomatic coffee machine. Damn thing is so fussy that I usually can’t get it going–I have to call my husband. He knows how to soothe the savage beast. Bean hopper full but not too full, water tank full but not too full, steam jet clear of water, grounds container completely freaking empty on every startup, all the pieces jiggled back together just right… arrrrrgh. It’s too much to handle in the morning before coffee.
An NES that’s more than three years old. Blow cartridge left, blow right, blow into cartridge slot, insert cartridge, lower cartridge ever so gently, turn on NES while holding reset, hold breath.
My old car, a 1969 Buick Riviera, get in, pump the gas 4 times, then start it while keeping your foot off the gas. If that didn’t work, try one more time, then pop the hood and get out the ether.
I just bought a '72 cj5 a week ago and I’m learning how it likes to be started. Get in turn key to aux position, buckle seat belt, close door, fiddle with other stuff while waiting for fuel pump to get fuel gauge to full, then lighty depress accelerator while starting engine and it comes immeaditly to life. Unless I don’t have the accelerator pressed enough or roars if I have it pressed too much. I’m still working out the details. I’ll give it a tune up and maybe a new fuel pump in the next months once the weather clears up a bit.
I have to reboot (unplug) my router every couple days, then it works right as rain.
We have a Kubota Lawn Tractor that has a bazillion “safety” interlocks, any of which can easily interfere with starting. I recently disabled the seat interlock that doesn’t allow the thing to run without an operator, because my gf isn’t heavy enough.
I used to print mailing labels on a tractor-fed dot matrix printer that would jam for everyone but me. All I did special was sit near it while it printed. I think it was lonely.
kayaker, Ha ha, I find that funny. I just did this for my neighbor. She had it into the shop four or five times for failure to start. She is an old farmer, she knows the safety rules.
Cold my 1959 Ford pickup likes two pumps of the throttle, 1/2 choke hit the key and push in the choke over the next 15 seconds. This works from 50 down to -3 degrees F. Below that I am not going anywhere. I bet that it would still start. Warm just hit the key.
My 1953 Willys wagon likes similar, two pumps, 3/4 choke and after the temp gauge moves up three needle widths, (or it starts to stumble) push off the choke. Warm just hit the key.
My 1948 Willys CJ-2A is still in the “find all the missing parts” mode. An engine would be nice.
My old Triumph Trophy liked: ignition off, full choke, one kick, ignition on, choke off, one more kick. If it did not start, take a break for at least 15 minutes. It will not start in the next 15 minutes anyway no matter what you do. I could always start it. only one of my cousins could. Everyone else seemed to flood the Heck out of the old girl.
At work we had an old lathe that needed a starting capaciter. We were to busy to tear it all apart to replace the capaciter, so we just spun the chuck by hand as we turned the switch on. This worked for over two years.
Then we got slow and two of us tore into it to replace this $2.00 part. We overhauled the motor at that time, new bearings, brushes, and paint. Total outlay of funds was $77.50
It took two solid days and a lot of penatrating oil. 2-3 cans of the stuff. Did I mention it was old? It saw service in WWII. It was used then. We had maitenance records for it back to 1935. The serial number sugested that it was build in 1929.
Ah, the natural order of things. Just don’t let her grass cuttin’ interfere with her sammich makin’.
That one is surprisingly common. Some routers allow you to schedule a reboot. May save you having to do it manually.
I did the same on mine, but just because it was so annoying that you couldn’t even raise and inch off the seat without the engine turning off.
I will say though that I did have a runaway mower last year. I was mowing under low tree branches, and one was lower and stronger than I thought and swatted me off, the mower kept going. Luckily there was plenty of open grass in front of it and I quickly caught it.
We need a happy medium, like how about a pedal that you press with your foot to keep moving? If you take your foot off the pedal the mower stops moving but the engine keeps running.
My John Deere also had a button you had to press to get the mower to back up. That got bypassed very quickly.
Yep, our Kubota “had” a button like that, called a “driver awareness switch”. It had to go.