Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
I have a potentially stupid question, so please be patient with me. I've been reading about the dangers of starting a tractor by hand with a crank. In one of the discussions, someone mentioned that the old John Deere tractors were safer because you turned the flywheel on the side of the tractor instead of a crank on the front. This got me wondering if it would be possible to replace the standard crank with a wheel that would slide onto the same shaft the crank fits on. You could then spin the wheel just like the John Deere flywheel. With a balanced wheel instead of a crank, it seems like there would be less danger of injury if the engine backfired. Once started, you could take the wheel of just like the crank. I'm sure somebody would have done this already if it would work, so can someone tell me why it won't? Thanks in advance.