Thread: Crank handle starting a 2.25 diesel

Originally Posted by Pezwa83

On a more technical note wrt crank handles - does anyone know (or can they measure for me) the specs of a crank handle? Mine I suspect has been long lost and I think I will just make one myself. Cheers

Will do tomorrow for you!


Cheers, Mick.

We used to have one of the little Suzuki LJ50 4wd's, 540cc two stroke and it could be hand started by jacking one wheel off the ground and then flicking the wheel with it 3rd or 4th gear high range. Mind you it used to rock around a bit on the jack once it started, so it was a quick dash to get the clutch in and throw it into neutral.


As for the two and a quarter diesel, I know not, however my experience with another Pommy diesel (Perkins) is they basically start on a rock without even a glow plug. Our Ferg (MF 135, Perkins AD3 152) will start on the coldest frosty morning without glowing and just a "rock" from the starter. Mind you the motor is in good nick and I rebuilt it less than 500 hours back.


Cheers, Mick.

The Land River 2.25 diesel is a pre-combustion chamber, indirect injection engine. They are hard to start without warming the glowplugs. On a 20?C day, it might take 30 seconds of cranking without the glowplugs. Once the engine is warm, it will start by just touching the starter button.

Aaron

Interesting you say that. It is a long time since I ran one, but I do not remember needing the glow plugs in warm weather. This is certainly not a problem of indirect injection engines as such - my tractor, with a Perkins 306, despite being almost fifty years old, invariably starts on the first compression in any weather. It has the same "Comet" precombustion chambers as the Rover engine, unless I am mistaken.

John

Could it be that the Land Rover engine, being one of the first high speed diesels fitted to a passenger car, is of a low compression design, and the Perkins engine is high compression?

Is your tractor a Chamberlain?

Aaron

Originally Posted by Pezwa83

On a more technical note wrt crank handles - does anyone know (or can they measure for me) the specs of a crank handle? Mine I suspect has been long lost and I think I will just make one myself. Cheers

Here you go!
Crank handle dimensions.


The handle is made from 18mm diameter rod and overall is 1 metre long. I reckon 3/4" (19 mm) dia. would be easier to get and do the job.
The end that goes into the starting dog has about a 60 degree taper extending 8-10 mm back.
The main part of the handle is 700 mm long, then the two right angles are each 150 mm long.
The drive pin at the end is 8mm dia. and 30.5 long, with an ever so slight taper at each end.
The pin is set back 20mm (to the centre) from the end.
The drive pin is set perpendicular to the handle.


Hope this makes sense.
Cheers, Mick.

I took some pics.
cheers,
D

Originally Posted by Aaron IIA

Could it be that the Land Rover engine, being one of the first high speed diesels fitted to a passenger car, is of a low compression design, and the Perkins engine is high compression?

Is your tractor a Chamberlain?

Aaron

No. The Chamberlain is 15:1, the Rover engine is 22.5:1. It is, however, distinctly possible that the cylinder size has an effect, as the surface/volume ratio is a lot higher for the smaller cylinder. And the larger surface area for the same volume means higher heat loss. Could also simply be a function of injector spray pattern. This, and other non-obvious parameters may well be quite different to meet design requirements - for example, the Perkins has a useful torque range of about 800-2,500rpm - the Rover engine has a much wider range about 800-4,000 rpm (lower maximum on the two litre). Cold starting ability may well have been a minor design consideration - after all, glow plugs were needed for real cold weather anyway.

But my point was that I do not remember difficult starting with mine - the only time I ever had difficult starting was in snow with inoperative glow plugs, although normal cold starting it certainly needed a couple of turns to fire if you did not use the glows. (and then there was the time the filters waxed up on a cold morning at Uluru! but it fired a couple of times)

John

John