Forklift Starters - Today's starter motor is normally a permanent-magnet composition or a series-parallel wound direct current electrical motor with a starter solenoid mounted on it. When current from the starting battery is applied to the solenoid, basically through 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 using the starter ring gear which is seen on the flywheel of the engine.
The solenoid closes the high-current contacts for the starter motor, which begins to turn. When the engine starts, the key operated switch is opened and a spring within 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 only a single direction. Drive is transmitted in this manner through the pinion to the flywheel ring gear. The pinion continuous to be engaged, for instance since the operator fails to release the key when the engine starts or if the solenoid remains engaged since there is a short. This causes the pinion to spin separately of its driveshaft.
This above mentioned action stops the engine from driving the starter. This is actually an important step in view of the fact that this kind of back drive will enable the starter to spin very 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 employed in the hybrid scheme mentioned earlier. Typically an average starter motor is intended for intermittent use that will prevent it being used as a generator.
Therefore, the electrical parts are designed to work for around less than 30 seconds to prevent overheating. The overheating results from too slow dissipation of heat due to ohmic losses. The electrical components are designed to save cost and weight. This is the reason most owner's handbooks used for automobiles recommend the operator to pause for a minimum of 10 seconds after every 10 or 15 seconds of cranking the engine, when trying to start an engine which does not turn over right away.
In the early part of the 1960s, this overrunning-clutch pinion arrangement was phased onto the market. Previous to that time, a Bendix drive was utilized. The Bendix system works by placing the starter drive pinion on a helically cut driveshaft. When 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 go beyond the rotating speed of the starter. At this moment, the drive pinion is forced back down the helical shaft and thus out of mesh with the ring gear.
In the 1930s, an intermediate development between the Bendix drive was developed. The overrunning-clutch design which was developed and introduced during the 1960s was the Bendix Folo-Thru drive. The Folo-Thru drive consists of a latching mechanism along with a set of flyweights inside the body of the drive unit. This was much better because the typical Bendix drive utilized to be able 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 starts turning. Next the starter motor becomes latched into the engaged position. Once the drive unit is spun at a speed higher than what is achieved by the starter motor itself, like for example it is backdriven by the running engine, and after that 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 can be avoided previous to a successful engine start.
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