Push Start Stories

Jamie · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 11:58 pm Post subject: Push Start Stories

My first bug was brand new in 1969. One day I left the headlights on and got a jump start to get going at the end of my work day. Before the battery was recharged enough I accidently stalled at a red light. I opened my door, stuck out my left foot and push started it in one easy push while sitting down! And it was on level ground!

jeremyrockjock · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 3:51 am Post subject:

I have many many stories but one is I was stitting at a left turn lane (for folks in NJ thats a lane that you sit in at a intersection that turns left on a green arrow) Wink

and the bus stalled. It didn't have enough juice to start so we (friends and I) proceed to jump out and push. Some people in the cars around us got out and started pushing too. It was wild. We had like 6 people pushing us through the intersection. And this was in CA. I was suprised at how cool those folks were.
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nik · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:05 am Post subject:

I pushed my Fatchich Bay Window like three blocks by myself once. That thing ain't easy to push either. A couple in their car stopped and decided they would bullshit with me as I was sweating my ass off struggling to tell me about how they remeber having "one of those" when they were younger. Then they prceeded to drive off. Thanks for the help guys Rolling Eyes

nik
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crukab · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:56 am Post subject:

When I lived In N.H. my '71 hard top westy died at a light,there were these construction guys working in the middle of this 6 lane intersection, I hop out of my bus , when they light changed, I started pushing that white whale , got it to speed, hopped in, popped it, and off I went, as I looked back these guys were giving me a "tennis clap" round of applause..........
I also bought my 1st house in N.H., it sat right at the top of a steep 100 yard hill, nice flat drive way, great 1st house when you move in with a '59 single cab , '63 Crew cab, '65 bus and a '72 vertbl. !!
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Jamie · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 8:51 am Post subject:

Back in 1980 we had a 1965 bug that had intermittent starting problems. The battery was good but sometimes it needed to be pushed started to get going. My wife's bag of waters broke and she was thrown into heavy labor. We got in the car to go to the hospital and it wouldn't start! My father-in-law and I pushed and my wife popped the clutch and started it luckily on the first try! I drove her to the hospital and an hour later we had a 7 lb 6 oz baby girl!

vwcampin · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:08 am Post subject:

2 years ago my wife (then girlfriend) and I flew out to Cali to pick up her 66 panel and drive it back to Omaha. Leaving southern California, we went through one those highway checkpoints, basically looking for illegal immigrants. We were stopped and asked where we were going. When we responded with "Omaha", they figured we were up to something so we were instructed to pull off and they proceeded to search the bus. Once they let us go on our way, we get in and the battery didn't have enough juice to start the bus. Ended up having 5 or 6 highway patrolman pushing the bus along (uphill Laughing

) so we could jumpstart it. Still mad I didn't jump out and get a picture.....
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Andrew · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 10:45 am Post subject:

I've push started a VW many times in my life...

My high school had this one day every year that was called Pajama Day, where every student had the option of wearing their Pajamas to school (for a school spirit type thing). I took a friend to school with me every day, since he lived two houses down the street. Well, on that day, I got in my Beetle that morning, and found that I had left the lights on the night before. So here we are, two huge (both 6'1" and like 220-260 lbs.) guys pushing a Beetle down the road at 8:00 in the morning, wearing Pajamas and bath robes. I wish I had gotten a picture of that...

I was at the mall one day in my '58 Panel and came back out to the parking lot to find the starter dead (later found out that it would just randomly die), and started pushing it up the slight incline in the parking lot so I could get it rolling down the hill and get it started. Some random guy saw me and came to help. We got it up the hill, then started back down and got it started. I came back around and thanked him and all that. Very nice guy.
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Richard · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:25 am Post subject:

I have been driving beater VW's for many years now, and have had more opportunities to push start some of them than I care to remember. Now it is just a natural reflex to scan the parking lot for the High spots of the parking lot when looking for a parking place , just in case I have to push start when I am ready to leave.
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fine59 · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject:

Remember always back in. Laughing

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VWAdam · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 10:45 pm Post subject:

The ignition switch in my '71 had been going out for some time and I was just too lazy to fix it Rolling Eyes

Anyways, last May I was driving the Bug on a 300 mile trip to the beach in Florida for my Senior trip. We stop to fix the cover on the bed of my friend's truck and my Beetle won't start. We had to push that Bug 5 times on the way down there. (Travel with four 18 year old girls you'll have to stop that many times!) It's even on the videotape of the trip, me in the Beetle and three guys pushing it at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Alabama.
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auslander · Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject:

my brother had a 69 beetle that got push started through a summer, he wouldnt go anywhere by himself coz he couldnt push start it by himself. We would go to the beach, the mall, anywhere and we knew the routine, pust start it
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jeremyrockjock · Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 1:45 pm Post subject:

OC Ghia · Samba Member Joined: April 04, 2003 Posts: 169

My first car out of college was a 70 bug. It was also the car I drove to my first job interview. I had been interviewing inside the building for about an hour. When I came out wearing a suit and all, the bug wouldn't start. I tried to push it and then jump in to pop the clutch but this didn't work. I didn't have enough speed. I had to ask three guys standing in the parking lot to push me. That got the car started.

Can you imaging the look of those HR people that interviewed me while watching this whole thing through the window?

Needless to say, I didn't get the job. Maybe they though I would have trouble making it to work???

Nightfall_bc · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2004 4:05 pm Post subject:

I'd been having starter problems in my '71 bus for a couple weeks and although it normally responded to being smacked a couple times, I had no such luck starting it in order to get to my mechanic for a look see. I had backed into a parking spot uphill so it should have been no problem to just let 'er roll and pop start her right? I wish. I start coasting down this big hill and the thing just won't start. I get to the end of the hill and the only option is to push the bus back up the hill. Luckily some nosey neighbours had been watching and came to help push her back up (trust me, being 5'5, 120 pounds and female, it wasn't going to happen by myself haha). So we get her back to the top of the hill, I jump in, get rolling, and SLAM on the brakes half way down the hill. I'd taken the key out of the ignition and forgotten to put it back. I laughed very hard at myself. My neighbours weren't as entertained as they helped get the van up the hill again... All went as planned that time; 3rd time's a charm after all Very Happy

QWKDTSN · Samba Member Joined: June 26, 2003 Posts: 26

My '67 squareback never did start when I bought it, and never wanted to when I sold it, despite replacing the starter and the battery and doing quite a lot of troubleshooting. Rebuilding the starter helped, for a while, then it would stop working, so I'd rebuild it again. Eventually it was just easier to bump start it. Had quite a lot of fun sometimes, because when the motor was hot, it would take quite a bit of cranking on the starter to get it running again - imagine how much work it was to bump start it while the motor was hot, then. Invariably, I'd have a long hill, and I'd be rolling down this thing bumping the clutch the whole way, with nothing happening. I'd get to the bottom, scratch my head, and start pushin', as there was nothing else to do Wink

Those times I didn't have a long hill to start with, I just got myself good and sweaty pushin' Smile

But when the work paid off and it ran, i'd get a big endorphin rush. which is probably think now that it was actually fun to push start it Smile

Split Decision · Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 9:31 am Post subject:

Back in high school I had a '67 Ghia vert with a bad starter. I used to wait for everyone to leave before I'd make my "run" across the parking lot. I look back and laugh at how embarassed I was.

Mike
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1973 1303S · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 8:57 am Post subject:

what's the best way to jump start a bug anyway? i've been told you need to leave it in gear or something Confused

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Split Decision · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:32 am Post subject:

1973 1303S · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 3:56 pm Post subject:

Split Decision · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

This always worked for me:

Push the car/bus in neutral
Jump in
Turn on the ignition (I wouldn't turn it on first in order to preserve your points)
Depress the clutch
Put it in 2nd gear
Let out on the clutch and let the engine spin
Upon hearing the engine run you can either continue in gear or depress the clutch and let the motor idle

The manual states to use 3rd, but I've never tried it that way.

Mike
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