Talk:Pullback motor

Friction or flywheel motor

The article refers to a flywheel motor, with a link to the Wikipedia article for a friction motor (which is also the term I've always used for one). Yet when I amended the article to refer to both with a direct link to the relevant Wikipedia article, it was reverted including to the indirect link. Which should be used? Robertm25 (talk) 13:12, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Flywheel should be used, and quite possibly that article should be renamed. Although that's problematic too, see Parry People Mover.

The problem is that both of these devices are friction motors and widely described as such. But if we have articles on each, then we have to distinguish them. Certainly there's no point in linking from an article on friction motors (pullback) to an article at friction motor, and not even making it clear that the linked type are different. Or merge the lot into an overall article, with sections. They're both very close anyway. Andy Dingley (talk) 15:08, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andy Dingley, there is no reference in the pullback article to it being a friction motor, nor in the friction motor article to it also being known as a flywheel motor.

'Flywheel motors' would seem to me to be associated with the PPM you mention and also, for example, to KERS, rather than to toys. Either way, shouldn't the link reference align with the article name? (Either put 'friction motor' here or change the name of the friction motor article.) Robertm25 (talk) 22:59, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Both of these articles are very thin and extremely short on sourcing for any part of it. That's as much the problem as anything else.

Links can present to a different name from the canonical article title for several reasons (see WP:REDLINK too). One of these is that the target name is simply wrong (as arguably here), but another good one is that the context is different. Both of these articles are within an implicit context of 'friction motors' and so a link to the (flywheel) friction motor from the (pullback) friction motor needs to be that specific. If there's any renaming (I'd support this) then friction motor should probably become a disambiguation page. Andy Dingley (talk) 01:18, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

"the complete winding must be completed in one pass"?

I don't have a citation for this, but any child could tell you that you can wind the motor in multiple passes if you simply hold a wheel with your finger while you lift the vehicle between "passes". Itub (talk) 11:38, 12 May 2026 (UTC)