Forklift Starter and Alternator - Today's starter motor is normally a permanent-magnet composition or a series-parallel wound direct current electrical motor together with a starter solenoid mounted on it. As soon as current from the starting battery is applied to the solenoid, basically via a key-operated switch, the solenoid engages a lever that pushes out the drive pinion that is positioned on the driveshaft and meshes the pinion with the starter ring gear that is found on the flywheel of the engine.
The solenoid closes the high-current contacts for the starter motor, which starts 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 action causes the starter motor to stop. The starter's pinion is clutched to its driveshaft by an overrunning clutch. This allows the pinion to transmit drive in just a single direction. Drive is transmitted in this particular way through the pinion to the flywheel ring gear. The pinion continuous to be engaged, for instance as the driver fails to release the key when the engine starts or if the solenoid remains engaged in view of the fact that there is a short. This causes the pinion to spin independently of its driveshaft.
The actions discussed above would stop the engine from driving the starter. This important step prevents the starter from spinning really fast that it can fly apart. Unless modifications were done, the sprag clutch arrangement would preclude using the starter as a generator if it was used in the hybrid scheme mentioned earlier. Normally an average starter motor is meant for intermittent use that would stop it being used as a generator.
The electrical components are made to be able to work for more or less 30 seconds in order to avoid overheating. Overheating is caused by a slow dissipation of heat is because of ohmic losses. The electrical components are designed to save cost and weight. This is the reason the majority of owner's guidebooks utilized for automobiles recommend the operator to pause for a minimum of 10 seconds after every 10 or 15 seconds of cranking the engine, whenever trying to start an engine which does not turn over at once.
The overrunning-clutch pinion was introduced onto the marked during the early 1960's. Before the 1960's, a Bendix drive was utilized. This particular drive system functions on a helically cut driveshaft that has a starter drive pinion placed on it. When the starter motor starts turning, the inertia of the drive pinion assembly enables it to ride forward on the helix, hence engaging with the ring gear. When the engine starts, the backdrive caused from the ring gear enables the pinion to go beyond the rotating speed of the starter. At this instant, the drive pinion is forced back down the helical shaft and hence out of mesh with the ring gear.
In the 1930s, an intermediate development between the Bendix drive was developed. The overrunning-clutch design that was developed and launched during the 1960s was the Bendix Folo-Thru drive. The Folo-Thru drive has a latching mechanism together with a set of flyweights in the body of the drive unit. This was better in view of the fact that the standard Bendix drive utilized so as to disengage from the ring once the engine fired, even if it did not stay functioning.
The drive unit if force forward by inertia on the helical shaft when the starter motor is engaged and begins turning. Next the starter motor 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 then the flyweights pull outward in a radial manner. This releases the latch and permits the overdriven drive unit to become spun out of engagement, hence unwanted starter disengagement could be avoided prior to a successful engine start.
Click to Download the pdf