I know, with a manual transmission, you can do this to jump start a vehicle with a dead battery. Can you do this to start a vehicle with a dead starter? (turn the key and it just clicks, no engine turn over)

Yep.

Yes'm

How do you know it is the starter? A very dead battery will do the same thing.

Popping the clutch? Do you mean pull it to start?

Please don't "pop" the clutch. There is no need to jerk (and possibly break) your drivetrain doing this.

To pull start, get as long a chain or rope as possible, experienced drivers and a clear spot. Put the dead vehicle in the highest gear possible, such as 4th if it is a 4-speed. This puts the least strain on the drivetrain, and will turn the engine plenty fast enough.

Start with the transmission in high gear, and the clutch depressed. Make sure it has fuel, turn the igintion on, and pull slowly, 5-10mph is usually more than enough. Slip the clutch in (engaged), just as if you were shifting smoothly. Be ready on the clutch and brake, because your vehicle will tend to jump forward when it fires off.

With a completely dead battery, you can pull it all day and never start. You have to have enough juice to excite the alternator and run the ignition and computer.

Only a very old vehicle with a generator will start by pulling.

And in case you don't know, 99.999% of automatic transmissions cannot be pull-started, and you will damage many of them by towing.

CanyonAg did a good job of answering Bearamedics question .... now for kicks, I will reverse the question.

Can you start a car with manual transmission and get it home or to a shop if the clutch is out?

Sure you can but it is tricky. (Assuming the clutch plate is engaged.) You need to get it out on a straight and level before trying. First pick a gear you want to be traveling in, say 2nd or high, because you won't be shifting. Just hit the starter and the starter will power the cars movement until the engine starts and then away you go. Nearing red lights and stop signs let it idle down and turn off the ignition to stop. To go just repeat the process. You will feel a little like Jed Clampitt but the procedure will work if you want to move the car and don't want to pay a towing bill. I suspect some camp vehicles and farm pickups haven't had a working clutch in years.

fossil ag, along time ago my shifting fork broke in my '67 camino while driving on Northwest Expressway in Dallas. Hell of an experience trying to get that bugger home.That velvet touch clutch was not too smooth! Oh, the memories!

actually your dont need to have a battery if you are push starting a car. the purpose of a battery is so that you have power to turn over the starter. the engine turning over is enough motion for the coil/ignition to make spark. after the engine is running the alt. powers everything in the car.

fossil: not with a car made in the last 30 years or so. The clutch has a switch that won't allow the starter to turn unless the clutch is disengaged.

I had a 1964 Renault Dauphine (rear engine) when I was in college. Clutch was operated by cable. The cable broke, and it was a couple of months before I could get the cable fixed. Got to be pretty skillful at driving it without a clutch.

SWOSU Yeah buddy. My worst experience was driving my daughter's 68 Karmann Ghia about 5 miles through Biloxi, Ms on HWY 90 one night. I was in a convoy of trucks, not by my choice, and their tires were taller than the car.

Yep, those WONDERFUL mid-60s European attempts at to-the-US exports. VW, Renault, Fiat, Citroen, etc. Fantastic cars but built for European roads, not US interstates.

My Renault had a two-tone horn. A polite little beep for "city" driving, and a sour off-key note for "country" driving. The single tone never sounded like you meant it when you hit the horn, and the off-key tone made you sound like you were really mad at the other drivers.

I learned to curse proficiently while driving that frog-built mini-car ... but I want it back! Mainly for the "why on earth?" factor.

"Why on earth would anyone put out the effort it takes to keep a car like that alive?"

merky works-

Sorry, it won't work without a generator. A generator has permanent magnents, and will generate current when turned.

An alternator takes a current to excite it. So it requires an initial charge to begin charging, but it will self-sustain. On unattended irrigation motors, we used to start them with a battery, then yank the battery to prevent theft. The alternator would then keep itself and the ignition going.

You likely couldn't do that on a car with a heavy electric load (lights, radio, etc.)

So as I said, an alternator-equipped car with a completely dead battery (or no battery) cannot be pull-started, though one with a generator can be. If the alternator car has a good alternator, but a weak battery, pulling will probably work.


What you describe actually sounds like a third option: A magneto. In it, the "distributor" provides the electric power to make the spark, requiring no battery, generator or alternator. You find those on a few industrial engines, piston aircraft, and antique tractors.

quote:

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What you describe actually sounds like a third option: A magneto. In it, the "distributor" provides the electric power to make the spark, requiring no battery, generator or alternator. You find those on a few industrial engines, piston aircraft, and antique tractors.

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You forgot the biggies: lawnmowers, chainsaws, weedeaters, outboard motors ... anything you start with a pullcord.

SWOSU:

That safety start witch is hooked up the pedal. If the clutch stays engaged while the pedal is down, all you have to do is press the pedal to complete the starter circuit. I had to do this when the clutch slave cylinder failed on my truck, and I had to get it home. I had to start the truck when it was in first gear (It was a diesel), and shift without the clutch to get her home so I could fix it. I ahd to kill it at a couple of sto signs due to traffic and hope it fired up again when I hit the switch.

Not surprisingly, the starter went out about 3 months later.

SWOSU, you are correct. I was thinking more of the magnetos that look like a distributor, but those are certainly magneto-type ignition systems...with magnets buit into the flywheel.

I would "pop the clutch" or push start my 200SX when I needed to. It was a little easier process than described above. I put it in 2nd gear (of 5) or reverse, got it rolling, let the clutch out fast then then pushed it back in. Car started right up. It didn't even need to be rolling very fast.

I would also push start it late at night if I went somewhere. The starting made a lot of noise, so I'd just roll out the driveway and it would start right up.

Three or four years ago I came up on an Ag coed in the Culpepper parking lot in a small foreign car with a dead battery. I didn't have jumper cables and neither did 3 or 4 Ag guys who came up to help. The car had a manual tranny so no problem to get it going -- and after instructing her on the pop-clutch process we backed her out and started pushing. We had her going a pretty good clip and told her to release the clutch. At that the car stopped on a dime, screaching the tires and nearly killing us five fools pushing. I shook my head to clear the fog and rebriefed her on releasing the clutch. Same thing happened again with us colliding with the back of the car like straight out of a 3-stooges cartoon. I was convinced the engine was locked up -- but one fellow limped up to the driver's door and asked her if by chance she was stepping on the brake. She said, "Sure, because I was afraid the car would take off." When she released the clutch she was stomping on the brake at the same time! He pulled her out of the seat, got in and we got him started in about 10 feet. That ended the Good Samariton career of 3 or 4 of us!

Yeah, but was she hot?

the clutch/brake thing reminds me of a girl in highschool... Man, did i want to kill her.