charlie one:
I,ve still got a can of Bradex Easystart in my garage.Must be from the early sixties.What a sad old sob.Should I put it up on ebay.Whats it worth? Regards Charlie 
Eyup Charlie,put it in yer tea in a morning,get yer going quicker
British Celanese drivers at Spondon used to park their motors near the ether plant in winter and never had a ny problem firing up in a morning.
Chris Webb:
charlie one:
I,ve still got a can of Bradex Easystart in my garage.Must be from the early sixties.What a sad old sob.Should I put it up on ebay.Whats it worth? Regards Charlie
Eyup Charlie,put it in yer tea in a morning,get yer going quicker
Get the phlegm off your throat,and clear your tubes.
Nice to hear that the backward running engine has been experienced by someone on here !
Did you stop it by stuffing your overalls up its exhaust [now intake]?
That generator story is not funny.
Nearly killed meself trying to start an ex army generator like that, its the most frustrating thing you`ll ever try, you get it spinning like mad, then flick the lever … 
why did it never start for me?
Threepenny bit cabs…easy start…memories.
While working for Blackledges Bakery garage in Liverpool, we went out to a breakdown in Liverpool city centre.got it going ok
[FG breadvan], but before we left , thought it was a good idea to connect the big tow rope from the back of breadvan to the big cast iron grid outside the shop, one shackle on the van, one on the grid…the driver got a shock when he drove off
why did we do that ?
The same reason we filled the inspection pit up with water and chucked the bread van drivers in when they called to the garage with their complaints,
or when we connected the office door handle to the magneto on the oxy bottle trolley [that was used for lighting the torch] and shouted the transport manager to come out to the workshop quick, while turning the magneto handle very very fast
OR [last one]
why we squirted easystart under the bog door, after igniting the spray with a lighter,…to see if it burned anyones keks !
I think I worked in a madhouse…
Another routine was climbing on top of the tank to check the dipsticks hadn’t been broken.Happened to me once and the little barstewards had p***** down the dipstick tubes as well 
I found this out after a bottom sample of toluene had been taken at Clayton Aniline Manchester out of a compartment and the chemist confirmed it was urine.
You couldn’t park a tanker at Ardwick Green or Belle Vue nowadays and get a lift home on a dodgy,that’s where the dirty deed had been done
Intersting thread this chaps. With regard to engines running backwards, I have heard of this before but can someone explain exactly what causes it, the mechanics of what happens etc and what to do about it!
Can it happen to modern day engines?
Cheers, bullitt.
dashman:
Nice to hear that the backward running engine has been experienced by someone on here !
Did you stop it by stuffing your overalls up its intake ?
That generator story is not funny.
Nearly killed meself trying to start an ex army generator like that, its the most frustrating thing you`ll ever try, you get it spinning like mad, then flick the lever … why did it never start for me?
Threepenny bit cabs…easy start…memories.
While working for Blackledges Bakery garage in Liverpool, we went out to a breakdown in Liverpool city centre.got it going ok
[FG breadvan], but before we left , thought it was a good idea to connect the big tow rope from the back of breadvan to the big cast iron grid outside the shop, one shackle on the van, one on the grid…the driver got a shock when he drove off
why did we do that ?
The same reason we filled the inspection pit up with water and chucked the bread van drivers in when they called to the garage with their complaints,
or when we connected the office door handle to the magneto on the oxy bottle trolley [that was used for lighting the torch] and shouted the transport manager to come out to the workshop quick, while turning the magneto handle very very fast
OR [last one]
why we squirted easystart under the bog door, after igniting the spray with a lighter,…to see if it burned anyones keks !
I think I worked in a madhouse…
And your post will start a whole new thread
Those Salamanders had a mind of their own especially when they had a bit of use and the butterfly flaps were a bit worn. I remember I was going for an interview one day, away from driving and into sales. I called in our workshops and one of the lads said he was making tea. He asked me to light “Sally” which we did by using the gas torch. Me dressed in a clean white shirt and a sports jacket, the bloody thing backfired and covered me in soot.
The interview went well but I was never offered that job. I think the chap was racist
You would assume its caused by incorrect timing.
If the piston detonates at the wrong time,it would be forced back the way it came, ie if the bang is supposed to happen at say 2 degrees btdc [before top dead centre]and it happens before, would thatmake the piston go down again before it got to tdc?
If its forced back down [backwards] the momentum would send it back up again, but the wrong way, and the rest as they say is history.
New engines are far too clever to let anything like this happen…arent they ?
Well I don’t know about the mechanics of it but it always seemed to happen when the engine was almost at stalling point and I guess firing too early sending the engine backwards. I had it happen once with a Commer 2 stroke which was quite common with them.
The big problem with the Commer running backwards was that the air filters were inside the cab under the passenger seat ! This meant that with a backwards running engine it sucked air through the exhaust and blew exhaust smoke into the cab through the filters !
When it happened to me I put it into gear with my foot hard on the brake and stalled it, but you had to be careful as all the forward gears are then reverse gears !
Doubt it could happen today with electronic controlled fuel systems.
dashman:
Nice to hear that the backward running engine has been experienced by someone on here !
Did you stop it by stuffing your overalls up its intake ?
That generator story is not funny.
Nearly killed meself trying to start an ex army generator like that, its the most frustrating thing you`ll ever try, you get it spinning like mad, then flick the lever … why did it never start for me?
Threepenny bit cabs…easy start…memories.
While working for Blackledges Bakery garage in Liverpool, we went out to a breakdown in Liverpool city centre.got it going ok
[FG breadvan], but before we left , thought it was a good idea to connect the big tow rope from the back of breadvan to the big cast iron grid outside the shop, one shackle on the van, one on the grid…the driver got a shock when he drove off
why did we do that ?
The same reason we filled the inspection pit up with water and chucked the bread van drivers in when they called to the garage with their complaints,
or when we connected the office door handle to the magneto on the oxy bottle trolley [that was used for lighting the torch] and shouted the transport manager to come out to the workshop quick, while turning the magneto handle very very fast
OR [last one]
why we squirted easystart under the bog door, after igniting the spray with a lighter,…to see if it burned anyones keks !
I think I worked in a madhouse…
dave, the driver of dodge just lited his eyebrows,stood on the brake and shoved it in top and let the clutch out,worked every time.iwas told it was something to do with the position that the engine stopped,what do i know im not a mechanic, but it sounded logical to a 16 year old!!..chris
Gardner engines in buses were notorious for reverse running,saw one in Ashton once,what a racket,obviously never happened to the driver or conductor previously,they just lept off the bus and ran,sod the passengers!
Take it easy,
Rgds,
David.
interesting this running backwards business in the 60s I worked as a kid for my relation in his breakers yard and his partner was always going about this I always thought it was nonsense and when I later drove lorries never heard much said about it but it obviuosly was a problem , bet that would put the fear of god up ya when exhaust fumes came streaming out the air intake interesting thread keep it going I would put something on but the old memory cannot bring anything up old age suppose,
dashman:
Nice to hear that the backward running engine has been experienced by someone on here !
Did you stop it by stuffing your overalls up its exhaust [now intake]?
That generator story is not funny.
Nearly killed meself trying to start an ex army generator like that, its the most frustrating thing you`ll ever try, you get it spinning like mad, then flick the lever … …
Ex Royal Artillery? 
You should have joined R.E.M.E., trust me it was bloody funny from my side of the workshop!
I was never in the Army, just as well as I might have flogged all the kit !
The generator came without instructions…Took me an hour to figure out the decompression thing !
Even after instruction from some Army chap, it was not the thing for me, could you imagine me in the war, being in charge of the generator to light the searchlight ? We would have been overrun in no time at all…
Many moons ago at the firm of Arthur Hughes, Liverpool, I think it was the daughter or sister Bertha Hughes, who used to start the wagons with the starting handle [I bet she couldhave started the generator.]
Mine was a Gardner (100). It was a long time ago now, I remember it made a very bad noise and IIRC I stalled it out immediately.
Drivers work gear is another thing that has changed through the years,long ex army coats were a common sight in the 50’s,also boilersuits through the 50’s and 60’s. Now it’s all the firms logo’s on sweatshirts jackets etc with high vis wastcoat.
I had a Sed Ak 400 with a Gardner 201 that decided to run backwards while I was setting off fully laden in crawler on the A515 Buxton Hill out of Ashbourne! A cab full of smoke from the air cleaner and no power, whipped the stop control out rapidly and she fired up ok after that with no ill effects.
Regarding Easy Start, I was using a can at the Cheshire Show last tuesday to try and get a Coventry Climax fire pump to start. We got it running briefly…and then the owner remembered that the petrol tap was turned off, doh!!
On a Gardner powered vehicle the handbook recommended that the cold start was engaged while the engine was still warm as the oil would thicken overnight and not allow the pump rack to move to the excess fuel position if left until mornimg.
Pete.
Taking various coats, blankets(tartan 
), sacks and anything else covering the engine hump, then removing the cover, just to check the oil and if it was Winter your fingers would be dropping off by the time you had done it.
How about walking round your wagon kicking all the tyres, pretending you knew what you was doing 
Cleaning the windscreen with newspaper, because windscreen washers hadn’t yet arrived.
Ray
