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Bush Mechanics
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with GEOFF LEWIS NOT A GOOD START
We've all heard of, or have been in the situation ourselves of waking up in the morning at camp, walking over to fire up the 4x4, and nothing, completely dead. This leaves the age-old question of what to do next?
There are a myriad of whizz-bang products out there which can solve this problem in seconds, though they aren’t much good to anyone if you have left them at home or just don’t have one to begin with. There is one item though, which many of us have, or can afford. So, before we get started on a solution for this problem there are just a couple of things to outline for those who are new to the mysteries under the bonnet. 1. 99% of all 4x4s require 12 volts in order to function properly. 2. If you have an automatic vehicle the following could possibly, partly solve the problem. 3. If you have diesel 4x4 and it is manual you will need to ingest at a minimum an entire box of Weet-Bix and put plenty of cement in your tea or coffee for this to work. 4. If you have a point ignition petrol 4x4 (traditional) then the following will be a piece of cake. So, what is this item we pretty much all have and can afford? It's a torch. Yep, just that, nothing more. One of the best bangs for your buck torches is the tried and tested Dolphin torch, which can be picked up from any supermarket. They are waterproof, have great longevity, are incredibly simple in their overall operation and they use a 6-volt battery. Any well-prepared outback traveller should always carry spare batteries for their torch, so if you have a 6-volt battery in your torch and you have a spare 6-volt you could potentially have 12 volts if the batteries are linked in series (which means, positive to positive, negative to negative). This can be done by using some spare electrical wire from your tool kit or in a LDS (life and death situation) it can be salvaged from your indicators (as you can just simply use hand signals if required from there on). In most situations, it is simply a case of your 4x4 not having enough guts from the battery to be able to turn the starter motor over or it doesn’t have enough power to turn the motor quick enough for it to fire. For a point ignition engine to fire it requires a minimum of 6 volts, however, the starter motor requires 12 volts, so you simply roll start the car. But what if that is not possible? By having linked the 6 volts in series or just hooking up your torch to the positive and negative terminals of your battery, you will be able to give the battery just a little bit of a boost which might be enough to get your
car started, or in the case of an automatic, might be able to get it in the right setting or gear for it to be towed. In the case of a manual vehicle, if you wedge or chock all of the wheels, jack up the driver's side rear wheel, turn on the ignition and place it in its highest gear, making sure your 4x4 has an open diff in the rear, you will, by turning the wheel a number of times, be able to bring your 4x4 back to life. How is this so? By leaving your 4x4 in its highest gear, you have turned the jackedup wheel into somewhat of a crank handle and by turning the wheel in a clockwise direction you are turning the motor over just fast enough for the 6-volt battery or batteries to create a spark, which when the piston in the motor compresses the fuel in the cylinder, will cause it to fire and start the vehicle. When this happens, you will need to jump into the car and place it in neutral before lowering the jack, otherwise it will run off on you. If you have a diesel this can be done, though it is much harder, due to the higher compression ratio. So, you will need to wrap (not tie) a strap (such as a snatch strap) around the tyre of the jacked-up wheel so that you will be able to pull the strap away from the rear of the vehicle. No different to the old Seagull outboard motors. By using all the strength from your WeetBix and the cement from your coffee or tea, pull the strap using your whole body and this will rotate the wheel as described above, and bring your 4x4 back to life. It's not something you want to do on a regular basis, but definitely a useful trick worth knowing about for those remote trips.
For a manual vehicle, jack up the driver's side rear wheel ...
... engage top gear ... Success!
... and turn the wheel a couple of times.
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