Manual transmission causes crankshaft wear!

[svxfiles]

I have very recently found out something about early crankshaft wear that is caused, believe it or not, by starting the engine with the clutch depressed.
Wheather you have a push or pull clutch, depressing the clutch while starting a cold engine causes wear on the crankshaft journal that keeps the crankshaft from walking.
I will now ONLY START THE ENGINE in neutral.
Once the engine is running there is oil pressure and minimal wear is experienced.
More on this later.
Tom

[Blacky]

Now that I think about it, I have always put my cars and bikes in neutral when starting. It's just the way I've always done it. On a 2 stroke dirt bike you can feel the extra force necessary to kick it over in gear.

[svxfiles]

I believe that the engine that I just took apart has less than 7000 miles on it since I built it using the best of everything. The walk on the crankshaft was 0.032". It should be no more that 0.0045". I installed a new bearing to recheck it and the walk was 0.020''-0.018". The wear was only on one side of crankshaft, on the side that the crankshaft gets pushed to when the clutch is depressed.
I have to replace the crankshaft, or find thicker bearings for it in terms of width, to compensate for the crankshaft wear.
Note, I would only try this on my personal engine after much more research!

[svxfiles]

As an aside I lost my phone that had every ones phone number on it.
If you would like me to have your number it is the one listed on my website that ends with 2837. Thanks.

[bheinen74]

this is true, but almost all cars nowadays have a clutch safety switch so starter won't engage unless clutch is pushed in…..now, on my BRAT it never had that feature, but newer cars do. Would have to defeat the switch

[wdb]

I once used shim stock and a pair of scissors to add a bit of thickness to the thrust washers. Slipped them in behind the thrust washers. Worked a treat and a lot cheaper than a new crank.