James H. wrote:
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:44:23 -0400, Tony wrote:

you should come to the realization that you have no
knowledge and no apparent learning ability for basic mechanics and
physics.

Well, I've taken Physics 101 in college, so, I have a basic understanding
of static and dynamic friction. But I don't disagree that the explanations
given so far are, shall we say, problematic.

So far (please correct me if I state this incorrectly), we have (only) two
different reasons proposed for banging down on the crankshaft.

1. The vibrations loosen the fit between the flywheel and the crankshaft.

2. Moving the crankshaft down 1/8th of an inch, in effect, moves the
flywheel up 1/8th of an inch.

Assuming these are the only proposed reasons (again, correct me if I err),
I reply that both answers are "understandable"; but both are problematic.

The problem with hypothesis #1:
- If vibrations are what we're after, we could just as well (and perhaps
more safely) smack the red shroud on the lawnmower; or smack (lightly) the
flywheel itself; or smack the sturdier lawnmower blade. I guess vibrating
the crankshaft from the top is easier than vibrating the crankshaft from
the bottom; but what I'm saying is that vibrations don't have to come
directly from the top of the crankshaft. In my case, it wasn't anywhere
near as successful as simply pulling the flywheel up.

The problem with hypothesis #2:
- If moving the crankshaft DOWN is the goal, well what do you do when
you're done? Now your crankshaft is 1/8th of an inch too low. Do you pop it
back up from the blade side? If I understand the engine correctly, the
flywheel is on one end of the crankshaft and the blade is on the other,
with the piston in the middle. If you move the crankshaft down 1/8th of an
inch, aren't you moving the entire apparatus down 1/8th of an inch? Don't
you have to then move it back UP 1/8th of an inch?

Having said all this, I do recognize MANY people bang down on the
crankshaft (just as people kick the tires of used cars for some reason); I
just can't fathom any practical reason for the type of engine that I have
(which is designed to be removed by tapping the pre-existing flywheel holes
and pulling up leveraging down on the crankshaft).


Why don't you just admit that you were not able to do what thousands of
other people do successfully quite often, and to make matters worse, you
also broke something else in the process?