ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Happily most modern cars don't seem to suffer the frequency of trouble that some of the older one's used to.
I can remember a time when such things as a boiling radiator, flat tyre or flat battery were fairly common, specially in the cars that had the six volt system like VWs.

My father had a little car called a Ford Prefect, and it had a six volt battery.
But if you ever had a flat battery or the starter motor failed to start the engine, this car had a cutting edge technology that was always available. The crank handle.
Just a piece of steel rod that fitted into a slot at the front of the engine , which enabled you to turn the engine over by winding a handle bent into the outer end of the rod.

Remember the days when you could crank up the old car to start it.There was a bit if an art to it. You had to let go at the right moment or when the engine fired, it could kick back and give you a nasty wallop.

Neither my VW beetle in the 60s or my fabulous Ford Cortina, back in the 70s had a crank, for starting difficulty , I had to use the old tried and true method of pushing the car then jumping the clutch.

Why don't they have now , such simple remedies as the crank handle ?
I'm not a mechanic, I'm guessing that for one thing modern engines have a compression too high to turn by hand. I'm sure there's a mechanic can put me right on that one.

Neville - are you my ex in disguise???? God forbid. Our first car was a cream 1948 Ford prefect Bessie followed by a dark blue VW and then a White Cortina

I remember them well - including the crank start on cold mornings

Not old enough to remember any of that old stuff. !!!


Bob

Recently had reason to need NRMA Road Service to change a flat tyre.

Whilst chatting to the NRMA bloke ( Bill ) he mentioned that compression is too high for manual cranking.

As are wheel nuts, too tight, having been locked on with an air spanner.

You're safe from any blast from the past with me Maureen .

Come on Bob, you had a VW beetle.

Thanks Jim. I got some new tyres not long ago, when I went to check the air in the tyres, I found that the tyre place had bolted the dress rims over the tyre valve. I fixed the problem, grr grr

Bob, obviously you are only a 'Spring Chicken'.

Even your ABPA image confirms that.
Jim.

The awful thing Marty, is when I see cars lined up at the show or fairground, under the banner of "veteran cars " and I recognise them as cars that I once knew as the latest models. And someone in my family had an Austin 7, I think, in the dim ages past.