On Mar 6, 2013, at 10:00 AM, krnet-request at list.krnet.org wrote: > 3. Re: why not a starter/generator (Jeff Scott)
A long time ago I had a boat that had a one cylinder diesel engine. It had a belt driven generator/starter combination. I have no idea of what the cruise rpm of that engine was but I suspect that is was a lot lower than an O-200 which means that the pulley size could be such that the starter had a chance of cranking that 20:1 compression engine over and not being over sped when that engine was in cruise rpm. The system worked rather well but as with many diesels it had a compression release lever which was essential when one had to hand crank that engine. This all occurred about 40 years ago and I cannot remember the exact starting sequence but it probably also utilized the compression release lever when you used the starter till you built up some rpms and then threw the lever so full compression was resumed. The engine then started before the rpms slowed appreciable. I think that the make was a Volvo. As it was a diesel and for a boat no thought, time or money was spent on making it light. It took two of us, with a lot of grunting, to move it aboard. J Milland
