Pop/Push starting

Good call to be honest the only cars ive ever really push started were carbed or had no cats

 

2nd or 3rd is correct. 1st or reverse are the recommended gears for parking a manual trans. as they have the highest torque to keep the vehicle from moving.

I did a Google search and found. "A lean fuel condition in the Cat will damage it"
I guess that's why the owners manual tells you not to run out of fuel. (and fuel pump cooling)

https://mechanics.stackexchange.com...-push-starting-damage-the-catalytic-converter

This is counter-intuitive: Lean mixtures at high exhaust flow rates can damage a catalyst. The most common condition for this is the engine running out of fuel. But push starting could put the catalyst in the same condition. How this works it that the lean mixture does not burn in the cylinder but does in the catalyst if it is hot enough. It is the same process as misfire. The catalyst sees much more unburned fuel than it can handle.

 

Push started vehicles more times than my back cares to remember but they were all older carburated with a points ignition and a fuel pump working off a cam in the engine, never worried too much about damage to running gear. Newer FI engines are different while it may work sometimes it likely won't work in all situations.

 

Others have said it, but here it is again. The reason you use higher gears to push start any manual transmission is because you want the wheels to have mechanical advantage over the engine. In 1st gear, the engine has maximum advantage over the rear wheels via gear ratio. For our trucks it's something like 3.5:1. In 2nd or 3rd, the engine still had the advantage, but it's only roughly 2:1 or 1.5:1 ratio. In theroy, 4th or 5th gear would be the best gears to push start a vehicle, as 4th is 1:1 and 5th being an overdrive gear with a ratio or .750 or .5:1. However, generally it's almost impossible for a person (s) to push a vehicle fast enough for 4, or 5th gear because the vehicle speed is too slow, and the engine is Stalling (think pulling up to a stop in gear without pushing the clutch).....

Make since? If not, disregard....

 

It does. It's a slippery slope, I think. For the same reason that 5th won't do (engine rpm at 4 mph in 5th gear would be so slow you couldn't get a start), 3rd has the same problem, just to a lesser extent. 2nd, lesser still.

My problem is I can dump a clutch and get an engine stared in first gear the first time every time. In second or third, if it doesn't work, I've got to get my fat ass back out of the truck and push again. Or, worse, push it back UP the fucking hill because there's not enough runway to try again in the same direction. Stress on my heart is way worse than the one time stress on the driveline.

 

Nothing is ever a problem, until it's a problem. A running engine and a broken Ujoint or damaged tranny is in many ways worse than a non-running engine.

Really, jump packs are cheap and require no pushing whatsoever Living where there are no hills, unless you have a couple friends you aren't push starting squat!