The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk is this dangerous??

Hello all: i have a question,,yesterday.i couldn't get my 50 started,,(Snow had to be Plowed) so i left key off,,put truck in reverse,let clutch out,,and stepped on starter switch...truck slowly went back..question is..Is this Dangerous??,,or did i already wreck something,,I hope Not..We have Ice around Here,In Spots..and I couldn't push or pull truck with another vehicle,So i thought I'd try what i did..Did I "Hurt" anything??..

Probably not. However, continued actions like this will drastically shorten the life of the starter.

The starter in the truck or the person behind the wheel

If he has to replace the starters, I'm not sure, but a cold damp floor will get to you in time.

Your not the only one who's ever done that.

I dont think you hurt anything by doing this or wrecked anything.The battery will suffer the most damage when you use the starter to move the truck. This is an age old practise and all you are doing is using the starter motor as a winch,which was not designed for the load you put on it. I would not suggest you do this very often and certainly not for extended lengths of time,a few seconds intervals will allow the starter windings to cool.Dont drain your battery because that will destroy it.

Hobert

Don't do it too often. If you do, you'll wreck your starter.

I doubt that you've hurt anything, though.

I've done it with tractors before.

Hah!! Reminds me of my little brothers Honda Civic years ago. He had lost the clutch cable on it and needed to get it home. It was maybe 5 miles from there. So the task left to me ( the mechanic / fixit guy of the family ), I put it in first and started it at any red light. After that it was just a matter of gently letting the synchros do their job. That and trying to time all the street lights. Ah! The fun stuff I used to do!

nope. shouldn't be a problem. that's common practice in the 4x4 world. after stalling out, especially on an incline, the last thing you want to do is depress the clutch pedal and start rolling backwards/forwards while attempting to start the vehicle. better off "starting" it in gear. i've done it dozens of times in my jeep - on the same starter/battery. the caveat is that i don't do it often, and i don't over-use the method on any one outing.

wally

WHEW!!!!!!!!...Thanks you all..i thought i was doing something drastic...

My 58 died at an intersection one time, refused to start. Ambulance coming in the background, used the starter to get out of the way. People sure looked at me funny, but it moved and I didn't have to push.

I agree with the folks here.. not a method you wanna use to drive the vehicle across town or anything, but if you need to move it and it won't start, it works in a pinch.

I've used this method to run a car up on a trailer on at least two occasions.

ran out of gas one time within sight of the station. i "starter winched" myself about three block and pulled in. people looked at me like i was retarded but it wokred and i did not have to push the thing to the gas station. i would rather take the ego hit than push my bolt down the road, that thing is heavy!

back when I was wrenching full time, I 'cranked' many a manual shift that wouldn't run into the shop, I even carried a wire to bypass clutch switches. brian