Hand-starting a Citroën GSA - can I do it?
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Can I start my Citroën GSA on the starting handle? Let's find out!
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Now do it on a cold winters morning with a cold engine
...and nothing will happen. Had this situation with two french cars in the 1980ies.
Friend of mine tried it once on a freezing morning, with a flat battery. That didn't work out...
A French car will start on a winters morning???
@@rheinerftvideo2647 my Peugeot 404 from 1961 started just fine.
I did need to set the choke just right.
@@jfv65 I had a Peugeot 203 from 1948 and it worked fine. In cold times I used some other oil for winter, and a charged battery all the time.
The problems began with these 1970ies cars...
I've been asking for this video for a VERY long time, many thanks! These cars are so wonderfully engineered and quirky, one of the last true Citroën designs before they became very much Peugeot underneath. Though I wouldn't say no to a 1st gen BX because of the dashboard!
I remember as an apprentice starting the dumper on a cold morning,always a lethal job.
Starting handle videos are always fun especially when you get someone called Lawrie on them trying to start a old lister powered dumper truck or a old diesel locomotive. Ian proves its easy.
I absolutely adore the dash of that car. That rev counter looks like a ship's compass.
Started my old landrovers like that a couple of times for fun, never managed it with a hot engine on modern fuels.
I remember in my childhood and first youth the GS and later the GSA as my favorite cars. My parents never had the cash to own one, but I loved to watch them pass by.
Oh, you can show the dash as long as you like, I never get tired of it, best dash in the world! The wiper, light stalk things were called satellites if I recall the 1980's correctly!
Just such a cool car in every way. Love that dashboard and the bonkers handbrake! Great video Ian
The GSA looks so nice in black with white wheels and red pinstripe. I love the French touches, like 3 stud wheels, but I don't know why I like that!! I just do.
I knew someone who applied a handbrake in an underhanded manner. He was the passenger at the time and thought it would be funny. The driver ended up in a coma.
For the sheer joy of driving, Citroën GS! I still hum that tune sometimes, no-one understands why but I guess you do!
Fab, I’ve got a petter diesel powered dumper and I dread starting that - nearly kills me!! That gsa looks fab
I thought starting handles dissappeared in the late 1960s. They got me out of trouble on more than one occasion
They largely did, but Citroen was producing cars with handles (2CV) until 1990, and Lada even later than that.
@@HubNut But the car has an electric starter. Were there super cheap models sold without the electric starter or something?
@@BReal-10EC No, the handle was always designed as a backup in case of a flat battery or knackered starter. I don't think any post-WWII car was sold without an electric starter. It was still optional on some farm and construction equipment much longer though. Dumpers without electric start were commonly used on construction sites well into the 1990s. If you want to see what starting one of those single-pot diesels in freezing temps is like, have a look at LMM's video of trying to start Humpty!
There are two, hand cranked Ruston & Hornsby 1VSH auxiliary engines in the old pumping station at work, because the engine house is symetrical along the centre line, one of them has to be cranked anti clockwise, which I never get used to.
Very interesting and good mention of kick backs, which could result in broken thumb or wrist or even something worse!
I am truly amazed that feature was still built into an 80's car. Though I do have a 74' Suzuki motor cycle that has both electric start and kick start. That saved my butt once. Still seems very strange to me that they have that. When did they stop putting that into their cars? Your glowing approval of that car makes me think it would be fun to have one. Not going to happen but the thought does cross my mind.
Great video, I never realised you could do this on a GSA.
Yah, all Citroens with a north-south mounted motor through the end of 2CV production in 1990. They started getting away from that beginning with the CX.
That is brilliant!!! I never knew the GS had a starting handle!!! Wicked!
Thank you for another amazingly superb video Ian. 👍
Nice informative video; I even enjoyed the catchy soundtrack at the end! My family had a number of early/mid-1960s Datsuns, and they had provisions for a starting handle. Never had to use this option; from what I understand, those early Datsuns shipped to the States had batteries too small for our really cold climates...of course, the early engines were really BMC types, built under license, I'd guess...
Learn something everyday, didn't know they fitted starting handles to cars of that age, thought they stopped fitting handles in the early 70s.
Great job, great car, I love Citroen's. Thank you very much.
Great video, also enjoyed the bits before the starting handle, been a while sine we had a good look around the GSA.
Also enjoying the addition of the musical sections to your videos. The jingle at the end of this one has a riff that very much reminds me of Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Venus in Flares'!
Great minds, I was fiddling with starting handles the other day too. A pal has a GS X2, must be quite a rare survivor 👍
Success! Congrats! A few years ago I tried to handstart a Renault 10 Major. The owner invited me to do that after I explained rear engine technology to the sons of a friend. The sun was burning, I was cranking. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Sweating. Again. Nothing. Then the owner with his bad back tried it. Nothing. Then he tried it with the starter. Nothing. God grave - it wasn't me! Then the old french girl came back to life; with a huge amount of electric power... 😃
Our family friends in jersey Channel Islands always had french cars, Renault 4,5 and Citroen GSA x 2 -
V nostalgic thanks !
GSA made this look easy!
My first car was a 1938 Morris 8 which I bought in 1960 and that was able to be started with a crank handle also which I had to do a few times but that is the only one.
Dash boards are very interesting and help to display the aspirations of the manufacturer, they may be selling rebadged old tech, but the modernistic dash showed were they wanted to be.
Should have done this from cold on a cool morning. My father had a 1940's gasoline engine powered welder/generator with a 30 h.p. inline 4 flathead engine. I forgot it's displacement, but I could get it to start on couple of rotation with the choke on, ignition off and then a healthy pull with the ignition on and the choke at half.
If I recall correctly, the jack handle doubled as a starter handle on the Peugeot 404 but not later models.
We leased a GSA X1 1299 cc in 1982. It was a 5 speed and would cruise happily at 150 kph.
I suspect starting from cold would not have been quite as easy...
The 1978 Moskvitch 412 that I owned for a few years in the early 80s in the Middle East was quite an old design, and as such, had a starting handle. That would have been the last car I owned with a starting handle, and I did use it once, like you - more out of curiosity than necessity. Several of my colleagues owned the same model, and I was warned they were quite good at breaking thumbs if you didn't hold the starting handle properly.
Great! My DS is a five speed so I don´t have the opportunity of this lovely feature. Also, that dash must be the best selling point in history. I see it and instantly wants a GSA.
The starting handle on a moggie is useful for hitting thing's as the gsa handle is I guess 🤓😉👍
Yeah you can do a basil fawlty with it if the car does not start with the handle.
The russian UAZ jeeps also have a hand crank start and I believe old Ladas too
I used to start my GS and 2cv in the winter my starting handle to keep wear and tear on starting motor to a minimum :-)
Well that was easier than I thought it would be 😃
thats pretty decent, wouldn't want to be hand starting it in winter though brrrr
Citroen's rule ok.
Just a thought. Ever considered adding an Aixam to your fleet?
Nope!
Ian, will you at some stage please make a video to discuss what's going on with the GSA's door cards? They appear to be beige paint over blue. Who thought blue was a good interior colour?
Blue interior works well when the entire car is blue... They're not the original cards, but were painted to try and match the brown dash by a previous owner. Unsuccessfully I would say!
Reminds me of my Mum & Dad's numerous Renault 4s when I was younger, was always intrigued to know how easy it was to start them.
What was the last Citroen to have a starting handle?
From Ian's answer above, the 1990 2CV.
Wouldn't starting it manually be with the starting handle not with a turn of the key
Awesome! Well done!
Citroen pin ball wizard dash board some people like it
Like a old bi plane.🙂👍
Are you going to ask Miss HubNut to do a re-make of Ice Cold in Alex?
Next try it with a cold engine... ;)
So what was the last car you could buy that could still be hand cranked? This must surely be one of the last.
Lada Niva it seems
@@HubNut yes I'm reaching a similar conclusion. It seems they updated the engine in 95, that may be when they got rid of it, can't find anything definitive.
Apparently some landrovers and rangerovers had them to the mid 80s aswell.
Then there's the 2CV and GSA.
There's a mini series for you. Hubnut Cranks.
So, on a left hand drive version the handbrake button is below your index finger when you use it overhand, rather than under. Is it on the wrong side in the right hand drive version? Wonder if you can turn it upside down.
You grab it from underneath either side.
@@HubNut weird, I never do!
AY UP MR HUBNUT
Must be one of the last cars ever made with a starting handle, don't know why manufacturers stopped providing them as a boon to turn over engine when setting timing or valve clearance. Always check car is in park if an auto or neutral having used the select pedal to check if a pre select box, handbrake on as running oneself over hurts, both in pain and embarrassment.
@Alfred Wedmore Yes I was referring to cars with inline engines like BMW's and Mercs. One should try starting a P5 or a P5B on the handle, a good work out if daft enough to leave side lights on overnight in winter or having to leave on due to poor or no all night street lighting or local by-laws. It was always a good idea to use the handle in winter with a dynamo charging system and only a short, stop start journey being made, under 15 minutes, in the dark.
The benefits of a real car!
Can do this on a 6 cylinder series III Landrover if you've had your weetabix
Now try that handstart again with a cold engine at minus 20 celsius....
I've done it with the 2CV at minus ten...
From the days when car manufacturers were car designers and makers not a badge in part of a group just making pointless faux SUV's with different fronts and rears ........
Imagine when your choice was say between GSA, Maxi, R16 and so on - none of those hatchbacks could be mistaken for the other could they?
It's a cylon run for your life please 🤖🤖🤖
comodissime, sospensioni eccezzionali
Do tell me that PT Cruiser is not yours!
It's a loaner. Should be off to a new home soon.
Brilliant Ian,just bloody brilliant lol
Worked in the mines in outback Australia when i was young remember me and another guy trying to hand crank start a twin cylinder diesel pump engine. Trick was one crank the other flip the compression relief levers, anyhow after one hour of unsuccessful attempts, finally got it going but alas the crank handle was still on the crank and wildly spinning around, worried it was going to fly off and possibly kill one of us, we tried to knock it off with a piece of wood. In the end had to shut it down and repeat process and make sure to pull crank handle off as it fired into life.
Hmmmm Good old days LOL
When I was in my early teens I had to help start the 1950s tractor on the farm where I spent my summer holidays sometimes, same procedure. The battery wasn't quite flat, so my task was to glow the engine, tell the farmer when it was ready, and flip the decompressor when he was cranking for dear life. Steyr-Puch single cylinder diesel engine from the late 50s. It had a starter but that didn't always work. Most of the time they parked it where they could roll to bump it but sometimes they had to use the handle.
That tractor has another interesting feature. The glow indicator on the dash is an open element that glows red hot and the farmer abused that as a cigarette lighter :-D
Starter handle on such a “modern” car… the contrast is the coolest thing.. space age dash and backup starter from 1909
In the 1960’s I was an apprentice motor mechanic and always warned people never to grip the starting handle tightly or it would break your thumb or wrist in those days a lot of kick backs occurred. We had this little dumper trucks with single cylinder air cooled engines that only started with the handle and sometimes after a kick back the engine would start in reverse so you ended up with one forward and three reverse gears until you stopped the engine and restarted it.
watched a friend start a really old dump truck years ago & the handle stuck in when it started , (poss wrong handle) it started to bounce round in circles until the handle came out on its own , needless to say we all ran away & left it
@Alfred Wedmore any two stroke engine will run backwards ,great fun
Yes, I was always told to tuck my thumb in too.
@Alfred Wedmore just bump start them backwards used to do it with mopeds years ago
I used to drive trucks with Gardner engines. It was quite common for them to run backwards. The dash lit up like a Christmas tree and the exhaust came out of the air intake behind the cab, great fun.
I remember my Dad telling me to never put my thumbs inside the steering wheel of his Fergie tractor as if you strike something the wheel will kick back and break your thumbs. Never forgot it.
Starting Handles were very useful in the old days . From turning the engine over when adjusting the points to winding the car out of snowdrifts ( in gear ignition off of course )
It,s just like watching "ice cold in Alex"
Haha - next week, Ian hand-reverses the GSA up Snowdon. But makes sure Sylvia Syms doesn't come along.
That scene where they take the spark plugs out so they can get the truck back up the slope using the starting handle was the best part of the film for me 🙂
Classic film
I've never hand-started a GSA but I used to have to hand start my Morris Minor for a while in winter because the battery didn't work well in the cold. Admittedly it was a smaller engine but it wasn't too hard, although the work-out certainly warmed you up! I eventually came to my senses and bought a new battery for it that had better cold cranking ability and the starting handle returned to its resting place in the boot. It was still handy having a starting handle though, for those times you left the lights on and got back to an almost dead car....
@gilburton it’s possible to pull start a beetle, too!
My heart was in my mouth when you went to hand crank it. When I got my Morris Minor 1000, my Grandpa (and Dad) warned me about how engines can 'kick back' with the crank. In fact, my Grandpa knew a friend who went to hand start a lorry and my Granny found him rolling around on the ground in farmyard with a broken wrist thanks to the engine kicking back. Although my Dad said that he once came across an accident where the male driver was abusing the female driver of the other car. Once my Dad starting waving his Rover P4 starting handle about, the bloke calmed down immediately....
Good to see the little safety announcement regarding positioning of the thumb. Hardly any hand crank clips bother to mention it, and any new enthusiast will be extremely unlikely to already know it.
Checkout" old classic car" , he done a starting handle vid this week as well on his ford pop/Anglia.
Watched my Dad Start our old Moggy traveller with the handle numerous times..
Very informative video by someone who actually knows to tuck his thumbs in.
I used to only start mine in the upward stroke so that I wasn’t out of balance leaning over the starting handle.😉
The ring gear used to wear out in the GS quite routinely. So, this method was essential.😁
I think the sprouting switchgear could be given a Bill Bailey-esque name of The Sprouting Mushroom of Control... :P
Nice.
How about a 2021 battery drill/impact gun?
A lot of twist available with latest tech aye?
It looks very modern for a 50 yr old design!
It would have had facelifts like new headlights and grills and sheet metal changes in it's lifetime. The original 1971 model would have looked a lot older than an 86 version. It's amazing how much mileage you can get out of one body shell.
Volvo did it with the 240 series based on the late 60s 140 series and Saab with it's 900 series.
If this video made you wonder what the last car was to have a crank handle, according to my quick research, it's the Niva.
I recently added about 100ml of antifriction additive to the oil, and I can assure you that stuff works. Reduces friction and starts even easier. You'd feel it in the turning of that crank. I don't have a handle to try it in mine, but before the additive, I had a tid bit of trouble starting even with the starter. Not any more.
A starting handle in a 1980's car I thought they stopped fitting them in the 1960's.
really enjoyed it as always! My very first car that I owned was a GSA that unfortunately turned into a flintstone mobile pretty soon... but the third car was a GSA again! I love these cars and some day will own one again! I once tried to start it with the handle as well but as it was having an ignition problem it didn´t work out...
btw in Germany they call the GSA steering wheel stalks "satellites", a wonderful expression I think!
I really love that beautiful little GSA, you definitely need to keep her forever Ian...🙂
Should never have stopped putting starting handles in bloody handy if you have a flat battery
Especially on EVs...
That must be the newest car available with a crank handle? didn't know they had one. Glad you remembered to turn the ignition on first Ian lol
I think Lada takes that record, given they made them into the 2000s with the option to hand-crank them...
Yes, I think Lada win.
@@twocvbloke Lada lol, you would have thought crank handles would have disappeared in the 60/70s
@@paulrobinson3528 Vauxhall decided they were unnecessary for their L type - launched in 1948! I wonder how many owners got to regret that decision...
@@visionsofhere3745 Just had to google what a Vauxhall L type is :-)
One remembers dad's old Morris Minor, and his instructions to my pregnant mum on how to use it.
Let us just say that her plan was not to return it to the boot.
Had a '77 3.5 Range Rover back in the day, that had a starting handle, although never gave it a go, probably would have ended badly as I didn't know how to hold a starting handle properly, so thanks for the tip Ian, if I am ever in need of giving a car a crank then at least now I know how to hold the handle properly.
I also love the drum speedo and rev counter which I had in a couple of CX. I presume it was discontinued because with a needle dial you can just glance at the angle of the needle rather than having to check numbers. It is a great shame that the ergonomic switch pods were discontinued. They should have made all other manufacturers go that way rather than trying to be like them.
I did crank start various DS back in the days when I was younger and fitter and could not afford new batteries. It was a bit of a faff having to take the number plate off each time.
Love your Citroën Gsa Mr HubNut, my only problem is the miss match of trim colour, I wonder what the colour of the door cards were originally.
I think they would have been light brown.
@@HubNut Please make them light brown again
My first family car was a Morris Minor Traveller with a starting handle. Some not so happy memories of my Dad grappling with it in the depths of winter ... Front wing attached by Pollyfilla for reasons to complicated to go into here ...
That dash is utterly crackers! Topped by the mad parking brake 🤣 I’d never get bored of it either! Is it a pair of cam belts or one big belt? Vive le difference!
Two belts.
The parking brake is a last-minute design change to the GS. The car was supposed to get a 2CV style gear lever, and the dash was designed with that in mind. Then management changed their mind and wanted a stick on the floor (it was 1970 after all, and everything but on-the-floor gear change was supposed old hat).
The spot between the seats was taken by the handbrake though, which needs to work on the front axle as an e-brake because hydropneumatics. The only way to put the shifter there was to put the handbrake on the dash instead, which was very straightforward.
The only really daft design question that came out of this was they ended up putting the radio between the seats so you need to look down to see the dial, and read it sideways. But then they did the same on the SM, so it’s probably a temporary dogma of Citroën interior design in the late 1960s - it would have been possible in both GS and SM to design a spot for a radio in the middle of the dash.
@@thomasalbrecht5914 Thank you, I didn't know that! Definitely need to go to more shows this year and have a good poke around, the differences between manufactures and models is always fascinating
Oh, how I love these brilliant little GSs and GSAs.
Incredible 😮
I once owned a 1979 Lada 2101,and the comprehensive toolkit it came with also included a starting handle. It was much easier to start by hand from hot than cold though.
I can't get over how pretty this GSA is; seen many but Giselle just has that magic. Wonderful to see you play with one of your beloved cars, looks like a lot of fun!
Hubnut challenge of the week......
How many cars are there, which can be started by cranking a starting handle........
Wait for it......
Challenge coming.......
Which have front wheel drive?
The reason you need to do the handbrake underhand is because it's designed for left hand drive position, so Jonnie foreigner does it overhand. Simples.
Years ago I almost broke my hand trying to hand start an Austin 7. My dad laughed so much I thought he was going to wet himself
A Hubnut video without a Ptchoooo!!!! Worst day of my life!!!!! Ptchooooo!!!!!
It's a shame that cannot have copyrighted music on this channel. ”Start me up” by the Rolling Stones would have been good. 😀
I love the dashboard too with the diagram of the GSA's side profile. Very of its time.
Hi Hubnut. I may have mentioned this before, but the design of lines with circles on the end on your warning light display was almost certainly designed on early computer generated graphics intended for printed circuit board design. I'd be quite confident that if you pulled it all apart and found a circuit board within, that it would look very similar. On crank starting, I've been tempted to take my Vanguard to car shows and charge people $1 per time for the experience of hand starting an engine. Cheers.
Any idea what the last (commonly available in Western Europe) car model with a crank handle was? This must be pretty close.
I think transverse engined cars especially should have starting handles 😁
FairPlay Chwrae Teg 🏴🏴🏴🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧