vintage-race
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: starters and "Nipponese" cars

To: Walt@chekov.mayfield.hp.com, owner-vintage-race@Autox.Team.Net,
Subject: Re: starters and "Nipponese" cars
From: S800Racer@aol.com
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 14:10:25 EDT
        Bitch, Bitch, Bitch.
        I sure wish I had the choices that some of you guys are bitching about. 

        Just thought the list might find it amusing to know what my little Jap 
car
used for a starter since the thread revolves around the Izusu starter
application. 
        
 Ironically, I race a (mostly) reliable nipponese car - 1967 Honda S800.  But
Honda had some funky ideas for starting cars in those days.  They connected
the starter motor to the front of the crankshaft via a short chain.  The chain
in turn operates a "dog" clutch that turns the crank.  The many downsides of
this system include 1) wearing of the rollers in the dog clutch and eventual
problems getting it to engage;  2) they are getting harder to come by and more
expensive by the minute;  3) if you spin the car and roll backwards and don't
push the clutch pedal, the dog clutch will engage and will ruin a rare and
expensive starter motor;  4)  last but not least it would be all but
impossible to convert the car to ANY conventional starter.
        Okay, so now I'm the one doing the bitching and crying.  But I feel 
better
now that I have vented.

        Cheers, Doug Meis - Team Escargot


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>