If you have a car with a unique feature, even if that feature is not especially useful, at some point you have to use that feature. If you don’t, you’re only half-living your life, automotive or otherwise, and that just won’t do. You’ve got to try whatever the hell that thing is at least once. That’s why I drove my Citroën 2CV recently with a huge grandfather clock sticking out of the roof, and it’s also why I finally started my 2CV with a hand crank.
Yes, one of the things I love about the gleefully minimal and willfully primitive 2CV is that it retained its ability to be started via a hand crank throughout the duration of its long production run, from 1948 to 1990. Every 2CV built in that time came with a crank designed to provide an alternate means to start the car, should the battery or starter fail on you.
Luckily for you, and, let’s be honest, global history, I was able to capture this staggering moment on video:
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Dazzling, right? I was genuinely delighted when the thing finally caught and started. That’s not Instagram-fueled fake emotion there that you’re seeing; that’s genuine glee.
I think I could have gotten it started a bit quicker if I was able to keep the fan mesh in place, as it has a special – well, the owner’s manual says “orifice,” which sounds needlessly biological to me – to insert the crank, which helps keep it oriented properly and engaged with the dogs on the end of the crankshaft designed to take the crank end.
Here’s the page from the owner’s manual about crank starting, if you’re curious:
They also just call the hole the “entry” in the caption; “orifice” is limited to the explanatory text.
Also interesting on this page are the towing instructions; this may be the only owner’s manual I’ve had that specifically asks for a “length of wood” to go under the car and “stout padding” to protect the bumper. Ii wonder what they picture when they say “stout padding?” I wonder if it was made of stoat pudding?
The starting crank handle is actually the same tool as the crank for the jack and the other end of that same tool is the wheel lug nut wrench, too. But for some reason I can’t explain, the crank handle that came with my car had a little screw stuck into one of the little tabs at the end:
I have no idea why that screw is in there; I tried to get it out, but it was jammed up in there pretty good. As a result, the end wouldn’t go through that “orifice” which meant I had to remove the fan grate, and that made it a bit tricky to keep the crank aligned properly in the socket.
All of this is just to say that I suspect it may have started quicker if I had been able to keep that fan grate on. I mean, I think so, because keeping the crank aligned in that socket I think was part of the problem. But, eventually, it did work, and once it did catch, I was pleased with how quickly it started up.
I’m sure this is going to come in handy at some point; I feel like I’ve had to deal with dead batteries in cars many times, and have made many clumsy push-starts over the course of my automotive life. Being able to start a car with a dead battery while keeping the car stationary feels downright decadent.
While the 2CV was definitely one of the last cars to be sold that still came with a starting crank, it wasn’t the last. I think that honor goes to the Lada Niva, which retained a crank-start capability all the way up to 1997. Here’s a Niva getting cranked:
I drove a Niva in Iceland years ago, and loved it, but I didn’t get to crank start it then. I also attempted to crank start a Metz Plan Car once, but was unable to get it going, and the owner, the wonderful Paul Greenstein, didn’t hesitate to make fun of me as he got it started:
Oh well. The point is now I have successfully crank-started a car, even if it’s only a 602cc 2CV, and I can now relax knowing that my life is that much more complete.
Just take a grinder to the screw head. Problem solved.
Wait! There should be a crank starter that’s a pedal like a motorcycle! Just stand there and casually kick start it.
How about this? This is a video of a 1951 Auto Sandal, an unbelievably rare and obscure microcar from Japan, being started with a retracting foot pedal. (The title of the video incorrectly lists the year as 1957) https://youtu.be/Yl7qq_M1U9s?is=-_nmh76XufRPY5oc
It also has a CVT not dissimilar to the Metz Plan Car albeit without the paper disc used by the Metz. Apparently only three Auto Sandals are known to have survived. Rather a shame, given how ineffably charming they are…
Can we now call Jason “an old crank”? At least he won’t have to carry a battery on his shoulder like David.
Come to think of it, anyone who crawled under his truck with a wrench every time he needed to start it is a natural for a crank starter. You know, one that’s factory designed to be that way.
Since the chainsaw incident, Jason no longer needs to carry batteries as he is now part man, part lithium-ion cell.
Despite the crank alignment issue, this seems far easier to crank start than a Model T.
Nicely done! I would feel the same joy.
Never hand cranked any of my many old cars over the years.
Inertia.
Would have thought by 1990 (!!) the 2CV would have been supplied with a ratcheting crank device, thus reducing the chances of a broken arm.
.. but that would have meant changing the schematic drawings, supply chain production line .. inertia.
Is 602cc enough to break an arm?
Yes
Makes a perfect analogy of why we need to revisit old technology and patents. A manufacturer makes a bad decision to go in a particular direction and when it fails instead of reverse to when it worked and go from there they want to move from the failure so as not to admit a failure
I hope the 2CV’s nickname is “My Hog.”
“Cranking my hog” is a term that means “manually starting my Harley-Davidson” I’m pretty sure
“I can get 70 miles to the gallon on this hog!”
I crank-start my antique tractors all the time. Proper method there is to clock the crank so that you are either lifting or pulling on the crank; NEVER pushing the crank or winding it. That’s how you get a broken wrist or fall into the whirling crank face-first.
Unless it’s got a magneto, it’s still not going to start on a flat dead battery.
My Dad had a Farmall A tractor when I was a teen, and it had a hand crank, and a magneto. I never tried it, as people get their arms ripped off with those things. It was a 6-volt system and we didn’t have a 6 volt battery, so I’d just jump start it off the 12 volt battery in our work van. The tractor didn’t mind the extra juice.
The John Deere with the big flywheel was easy to start. Wind it over a couple times with the ignition off, connect the mag, nudge it past TDC, and bang!
I believe “stout padding” refers to a fat suit like you see in TV shows and movies. Not sure whether you’re supposed to place it on the front of the car or wear it while your car is being towed.
It could be a tribute to M. Bibendum. After all, Michelin owned Citroen for a long time.
I think we’ve solved the mystery of how Jason received that gruesome index finger injury a few days ago…
Oh, my lawd, I think you’re right….
Kettering invented the electric starter after an associate of Cadillac’s founder was killed hand starting a car. The crank whacked him in the jaw and it became infected. Thankfully we have antibiotics today, so Torch will probably be okay. Probably.
Isn’t crank another word for crack? As in, you will now be that guy getting his fix in front of the busy ice cream shop on Friday night.
So Torch stuck his tool in the orifice and started cranking it?
Seems on-brand for the Autopian.
So where does the poop fascination come in? Is this going to be one of THOSE videos?
Torch, I’m on my work computer and can’t see the IG post of you actually using the crank but I hope that you didn’t have your thumb wrapped around the crank handle.
Having grown up driving old Allis Chalmers tractors, that’s one of the few things that I’ve always remembered when using a crank to start an engine (that and keep EVERYTHING away from a spinning PTO) is to keep your thumb out of the way so when (not IF) the engine kicks back due to compression you won’t break a digit.
Not to worry, I held it firmly in my mouth.
Excellent! We don’t need no stinkin’ teeth!
Next we need you doing it from behind. If successful we can call you Jason Twerkinsky
My 1950 Farmall super C is the same way, it will kick back back and break your wrist like it did my father in laws in 1950 just after his parents bought the tractor.
I had to do that with my 2CV4 quite often since my starter motor was broken (no, it was the magnetic switch). And since I was still in school, I could not afford a new one. So I cranked. That was around 1982.
I’ve push- and roll-started plenty of cars, but never crank-started. It’s one of those things I’d like to do that people who needed to do it and were happy to outlive that era would probably ask why without thinking that it would be an interesting novelty for me while it was a right PITA when they had to get a I8 going to get to work in the middle of winter.
Could the post have broken or come loose and the screw put in to reattach it to the handle? Either way, I would grind the head down enough that I could use it with the grate installed. I’d also price out a replacement starting crank just in case it became another of those shit, well, at last now I know why that was there discoveries.
I had a Peugeot that had a thing for stalling as you decelerated. You’d be rolling up to a junction, put the clutch in to go down a gear, and it would just shut off. Doubly inconvenient because it would also stop the power steering whilst trying to go around a roundabout.
I got so practised at just dumping the clutch and bump starting it that passengers couldn’t even tell.
Or maybe that says something about how non-smooth my driving was.
In fact, crank starting is considered so core to the design of the car that the Haynes and RTA service manuals tell you to remount the fan after removal in a specific orientation (the dogs for the crank starter are on the fan) so that the engine goes through TDC as you are pushing directly down on the crank
Yes, the fan mesh makes a huge difference. I crank started mine a few weeks ago for the first time, and I’ll admit I am impressed you did it without the mesh. However, the fan grate also makes it harder for the car to kick out the handle, so you had less clattering than I did once it started.
I’ve had the pleasure of usiing a crank start on a Farmal Cub tractor, but never on a car. I was also able to roll start my ’63 Galaxie convertible, with the automatic transmission, going down the hill at my parents house when the battery died.
Cool! I’ve kick-started a bike once or twice, and it totally made me wish my own had one as an emergency feature, esp given how terrible most motorcycle batteries are compared to car batteries.
GLAD TO SEE U CRANKIN YER HOG, GOBLESS.
AN USEN BIG LETTERS. SEE YA OVR AT HOSSCHAT
I used to own a base model Kia Sorento. Stick shift, steel wheels, etc.
But it had a heater at the base of the windshield, in case it was ever parked outside and had snow/ice buildup that prevented the wipers from deploying.
We don’t get a ton of snow and ice here, but I was super excited the one time I got to use it.
My neighbor, who had a fancy Harley-Davidson edition F-150 Supercrew was jealous.
In the early 60s, my parents drove a 2CV built out of junk yard parts from Austria to Greece and back. My great uncle (a tractor and car mechanic) installed a crank “just in case,” and they used it as soon as they were too far away from his place for him to help fix the starter. Used the crank every day, had great adventures in the car, had great adventures in Greece (there was an epileptic horse, they spent the night in a Greek temple, the list goes on), the car got filthy, and they wrote Leonidas on the back and that has forever been its name in our family.
Hang on. Was this a Cold Start that was about starting a car from cold?
Holy shit. It was! Was this a first?
Really I thought you did that on purpose
Hand cranking in a snow storm is a cold start. This is merely lukewarm.
Once tried to bump start a frind’s Dodge Dart on an icy hill. All that happened was that it slid down the hill into it came to rest in the intersection.
We need Torch to set up a 2CV race where they do a LeMans start, but using the crank handles.
Without the fan grate! Weight savings, you know.
And there’s one fewer handle than cars, just for fun.
Ha! Would love to see a random cold start be just that. Maybe the Tioga RV next week? Mercedes could keep it going for a year…
I inherited a pile of engine cranks I found in the barn but never got to use one.
…. That satisfied feeling
Both “orefice “ and even “entry” are words from old-timey medical texts and sex manuals.
Since the manual was translated from French, we have yet another box ticked for why French is “ze language of looove…”
So that box would be a french tickler?
On a model t that would be the bobine d’allumage.
Over the weekend an aunt in the family mentioned getting new wheels for her car and sent a picture. Another aunt commented “Ok… I’m a rims girl.”
Then an uncle (her brother) commented “My husband is a rim guy.” in response lol.
To which there was a lot of general hilarity, the poor daughter-in-law of the aunt had to explain the term to her and the aunt felt the need to clarify she’s actually not a rims girl, and eventually grandma asked if anyone was going to explain what was so funny to her, while also inadvertently writing “butt” instead of “but” in her comment.
Plenty of double-entendre’s to be had in the automotive hobbyist space.
OMG
Get it in the stack or didn’t happen
YES