Forklift Starters - Today's starter motor is usually a permanent-magnet composition or a series-parallel wound direct current electrical motor with a starter solenoid mounted on it. Once 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 that is positioned on the driveshaft and meshes the pinion using the starter ring gear which is found on the engine flywheel.
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 inside 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 allows the pinion to transmit drive in just one direction. Drive is transmitted in this method via the pinion to the flywheel ring gear. The pinion remains engaged, for instance in view of the fact that the operator fails to release the key as soon as the engine starts or if the solenoid remains engaged for the reason that there is a short. This causes the pinion to spin separately of its driveshaft.
This aforementioned action prevents the engine from driving the starter. This is actually an important step in view of the fact that this particular type of back drive would allow the starter to spin so fast that it can fly apart. Unless adjustments were done, the sprag clutch arrangement would prevent using the starter as a generator if it was used in the hybrid scheme mentioned earlier. Typically a standard starter motor is meant for intermittent utilization which will stop it being used as a generator.
Therefore, the electrical components are meant to be able to operate for just about less than 30 seconds to be able to prevent overheating. The overheating results from very slow dissipation of heat due to ohmic losses. The electrical components are designed to save weight and cost. This is really the reason nearly all owner's manuals for automobiles recommend the driver to pause for at least ten seconds after each ten or fifteen seconds of cranking the engine, when trying to start an engine that does not turn over immediately.
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 used. The Bendix system operates by placing the starter drive pinion on a helically cut driveshaft. When the starter motor starts turning, the inertia of the drive pinion assembly allows it to ride forward on the helix, hence engaging with the ring gear. As soon as the engine starts, the backdrive caused from the ring gear enables the pinion to exceed the rotating speed of the starter. At this moment, the drive pinion is forced back down the helical shaft and therefore 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 launched in the 1960s was the Bendix Folo-Thru drive. The Folo-Thru drive consists of a latching mechanism together with a set of flyweights inside the body of the drive unit. This was much better since the typical Bendix drive used to disengage from the ring once the engine fired, although it did not stay functioning.
Once the starter motor is engaged and begins turning, the drive unit is forced forward on the helical shaft by inertia. It then becomes latched into the engaged position. When the drive unit is spun at a speed higher than what is attained by the starter motor itself, 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, therefore unwanted starter disengagement could be prevented prior to a successful engine start.
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