Forklift Starters and Alternators - Today's starter motor is usually a permanent-magnet composition or a series-parallel wound direct current electrical motor with a starter solenoid installed on it. When current from the starting battery is applied to the solenoid, mainly via a key-operated switch, the solenoid engages a lever which pushes out the drive pinion which is situated on the driveshaft and meshes the pinion with the starter ring gear which is found on the engine flywheel.
The solenoid closes the high-current contacts for the starter motor, that begins to turn. After the engine starts, the key operated switch is opened and a spring in the solenoid assembly pulls the pinion gear away from the ring gear. This particular action causes the starter motor to stop. The starter's pinion is clutched to its driveshaft by an overrunning clutch. This permits the pinion to transmit drive in only one direction. Drive is transmitted in this manner via the pinion to the flywheel ring gear. The pinion remains engaged, for example because the driver fails to release the key once the engine starts or if there is a short and the solenoid remains engaged. This causes the pinion to spin separately of its driveshaft.
This above mentioned action prevents the engine from driving the starter. This is actually an essential step in view of the fact that this type of back drive would allow the starter to spin so fast that it would fly apart. Unless modifications were done, the sprag clutch arrangement will stop utilizing the starter as a generator if it was utilized in the hybrid scheme discussed earlier. Usually an average starter motor is intended for intermittent use which would preclude it being utilized as a generator.
The electrical components are made in order to operate for about 30 seconds in order to avoid overheating. Overheating is caused by a slow dissipation of heat is due to ohmic losses. The electrical parts are intended to save weight and cost. This is the reason nearly all owner's instruction manuals utilized for vehicles recommend the driver to pause for a minimum of ten seconds right after every 10 or 15 seconds of cranking the engine, whenever trying to start an engine that does not turn over immediately.
During the early 1960s, this overrunning-clutch pinion arrangement was phased onto the market. Previous to that time, a Bendix drive was used. The Bendix system operates by placing the starter drive pinion on a helically cut driveshaft. As soon as the starter motor begins turning, the inertia of the drive pinion assembly enables it to ride forward on the helix, therefore engaging with the ring gear. As soon as the engine starts, the backdrive caused from the ring gear allows the pinion to exceed the rotating speed of the starter. At this moment, the drive pinion is forced back down the helical shaft and hence out of mesh with the ring gear.
The development of Bendix drive was made during the 1930's with the overrunning-clutch design known as the Bendix Folo-Thru drive, developed and launched in the 1960s. The Folo-Thru drive consists of a latching mechanism together with a set of flyweights in the body of the drive unit. This was much better because the typical Bendix drive used in order to disengage from the ring once the engine fired, although it did not stay running.
When the starter motor is engaged and starts turning, the drive unit is forced forward on the helical shaft by inertia. It then becomes latched into the engaged position. As soon as the drive unit is spun at a speed higher than what is achieved by the starter motor itself, for example it is backdriven by the running engine, and next the flyweights pull outward in a radial manner. This releases the latch and enables the overdriven drive unit to become spun out of engagement, therefore unwanted starter disengagement could be avoided before a successful engine start.
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