Terminology

I keep seeing posts, on this forum and others, regarding no-start conditions. Many times the use of a few words by the OP causes some confusion, which leads to improper diagnosis of the issue at hand. I would like to clear up the traditional meanings of a few of these terms.

Won't crank: Early internal combustion engines had no electric starters, so they had to be turned over by hand. The starting method for cars was to use a detachable crank handle to turn the engine, motorcycles were pedaled just like a bicycle. If your engine won't turn when hitting the starter button the term "won't crank" is used to describe the condition.

Won't turn over: This is can be synonym for "won't crank", but can also be used to describe that the engine is locked or siezed (e.g. the engine won't turn even though the starer and starter clutch are working properly).

Won't Fire: This denotes a condition where the engine will turn over, but there is a lack of either fuel, spark, or enough compression for combustion to be able to occur (sometimes all three components are lacking).

Won't Spark: Exactly what it appears to mean. There is no spark jumping across the spark plug gap.

 

This is a good little bit of info for some people that don't really understand the difference between won't fire and won't turn over or crank. This confusion does make helping people over the net a little hard sometimes

 

thumbs up.

 

Sticky, or we'll have to forever bump it.

 

bump

 

My grandpa had a tractor we used to hand crank to start. The learning curve was painful, as the crank could rotate so fast it whacked your knuckles.