Yes, they don't need many electrons to run but diesel Vanagons are
pretty hard to start by hand. Maybe a rope around the crank pulley would
do it? They do have an extra belt grove on the outer edge of the crank
pulley, maybe I can cut a notch for the knot in the end of a rope and
give it a try.

Mark

Angus Gordon wrote:
> Modern cars tend to use electric fuel pumps and fuel injection so you need some electrons anyway. If you want to ditch the ignition system, buy a diesel.
>
> Angus
>
>
>
> On Nov 21, 2013, at 2:52 PM, JRodgers <jrodgers113@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>> Airplanes do - why not cars?? LOL! Well, actually - nowadays there is a
>> lock on the master switch in many of them. Plus cars don run on magnetos
>> which do not require external power to operate in the same way a
>> distributor does.
>>
>> John
>>
>> On 11/21/2013 11:58 AM, mark drillock wrote:
>>> Do you want an additional manual switch that could be switched on with
>>> the key out?
>