Fulton Upstarters

[Bruce in southern OH]

Used to be a man in Chicago area that made reproduction Fulton Upstarters, anyone know about him or anyone else that is reproducing them, Bruce

 

[Dennis L Oberer]

Snyders is...about $64 eadch and worth about $5. I had to rework mine. They are no where near as good as the originals.

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

 

[billwill]

what is an upssstarter

 

[Sparky]

It's a gadget that engages the starter when the spark lever is moved fully up (retarded), so you don't have to press the starter button with your foot.

 

[Bruce in southern OH]

Thanks Timothy, that is exactly what a Fulton Upstarter is, great description, very handy and should have been made standard on A's. In 32 they went to a pull cable and it is not as nice or simple as the Upstarter, Bruce
( you do not have an extra??????????)

 

[Kirby1374]

anyone have a picture to post of it? I still have a hard time visualizing it. Thanks

 

[Purdy Swoft]

Sparky, Timothy Kelley is correct. I think that the one that you refer to was called the sparky start.

 

[Bruce in southern OH]

Never heard one called that, have you seen one lately??? Bruce ( or parts of one )

 

[Dennis L Oberer]

The sparky start was a gadget that was mounted on the spark lever down at the bottom of the steering column. You put the spark lever all the way up and a set of contacts was made and the starter spun.

Down side is if you forget and ram the spark lever upwards for a lugging situation and the engine is running you also start spinning the starter which is bad for the ring gear teeth and the bendix itself.

The Fulton Up start is as described and you pull the lever and it pivots and the included rod pushed down on the starter switch.

Problem is that the new repo is pretty much junk and way overpriced.

THis is about the 3rd generation repo now and is still not work the $ to buy it.

Dennis L Oberer
Green Bay WI

 

[WTSHNN]

Here is a picture that kind of shows it.

Like Tim said, it mounts on the steering column bracket at the gas tank. You activate it by lifting up/towards the driver on the left side of the lever, that action then forces the long rod on the right of the steering column down to engage the starter switch.

The car in the picture is one of Tim Kelly's cars.

 

[CWPASADENA]

I am not a fan of accessories, but I have the Fulton lift starters on each of my cars (except those where the stereing column mount is attached to the dash rail instead of the gas tank).

I AGREE.

I hade a "Lift Starter" on my '31 Roadster back about 1960 when I was going to college. It was a very good functional accessory.

I am (Slowly) in the process of restoring a '30 and for the last several years, was looking for one. I finally found one on E-Bay. It was poorly described and the guy did not know what it was. I now have one for my "New" Model A.

This will be about the only Accessory I will have on my car.

Chris

 

[jetmek]

i recently tried to find one of those for a customer car. closest i could get was sacramento vintage and they said the handle was plastic for 85$. i said no thanks

 

[Tom from Drippin']

Here are two photos of a "sparky start". May be original, as it works well.

 

[Model A Speedster]

There is a good picture of a Fulton Starting Lever on page 19 of the Unauthorized Accessories book. The Upstarter was another accessory starter (made by the Upstarter Company). That's the one that used the spark lever to activate the mechanism. I was fortunate enough to find a NOS one - still in the box - several years ago and also found parts to one at Hershey last year. Most of the ads in the Accessories book came from the magazine "Ford Dealer and Service Field". They weren't part of the Ford Motor Company. If you get a chance to read any of them, they are quite interesting, including the ads!