None of you guys have to swing the prop, do you? Believe me, if you do you soon learn what your engine needs. Arms wear out much faster than starter motors.....
We did have an interesting one on our cub. 150 horse lyc, with a starter motor. Zero time engine and mags, got progressively harder to start, hot or cold. Found out it was the spark generator for the shower of sparks mags that was dying. Apparently this isn't considered part of the
engine.
The engine would actually start, which was probably some sort of miracle.
After several hours scrabbling around at the back of the firewall managed to replace the buzzer (which still _sounded_ like it was doing its stuff). Now we are back to starting on second blade.
For interest.....
Cold start pull the prop through 12 blades
Four strokes of primer
pull through 12 more blades
get in
mixture rich
switch on power to starter motor ( the separate switch is to allow a hand swing with the shower of sparks mags)
pump throttle twice then closed
both mags on (on key)
engage starter motor
when the engine fires gently advance throttle
check oil pressure etc....
Hot start
mixture rich
switch on power to starter motor
Pump throttle twice
throttle closed
mags on both
engage starter motor
etc....
The same engine in other aircraft usually has impulse mags, which are cheaper and easier to find. Most 150 cubs have no primer, and all the priming is on the throttle, with the mags on switches. We have a lot of little configuration oddities, probably due to the aircraft being a conversion from a 135, done in holland by the navy.
Used to fly a taylorcraft which would regularly catch fire on start. The prop swinger would wear a cap for this reason, which nicely covered the air intake to starve the flames. Saved filling the enging with gunge from an extinguisher. Interesting aircraft, combined all the worst points of the auster and the cub and none of their good points, but it was cheap to hire, which helped pay for the wear and tear on headgear. Still, at least the designer was capable of learning from his mistakes
