Forklift Starters and Alternators - Today's starter motor is typically a permanent-magnet composition or a series-parallel wound direct current electrical motor along 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 that is situated on the driveshaft and meshes the pinion utilizing the starter ring gear that is seen on the engine flywheel.
Once the starter motor starts to turn, the solenoid closes the high-current contacts. Once the engine has started, the solenoid has a key operated switch which opens the spring assembly to pull 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 particular way via the pinion to the flywheel ring gear. The pinion continuous to be engaged, for example as the operator fails to release the key once the engine starts or if the solenoid remains engaged because there is a short. This causes the pinion to spin separately of its driveshaft.
This aforesaid action stops the engine from driving the starter. This is an important step for the reason that this particular type of back drive would allow the starter to spin very fast that it can fly apart. Unless adjustments were done, the sprag clutch arrangement will stop using the starter as a generator if it was made use of in the hybrid scheme mentioned prior. Normally an average starter motor is meant for intermittent use which will stop it being utilized as a generator.
The electrical components are made to be able to work for roughly 30 seconds to prevent overheating. Overheating is caused by a slow dissipation of heat is because of ohmic losses. The electrical components are intended to save weight and cost. This is really the reason most owner's guidebooks meant for vehicles suggest the operator to pause for a minimum of ten seconds right after each ten or fifteen seconds of cranking the engine, if trying to start an engine that does not turn over at once.
In the early part of the 1960s, this overrunning-clutch pinion arrangement was phased onto the market. Before that time, a Bendix drive was used. The Bendix system functions by placing the starter drive pinion on a helically cut driveshaft. Once the starter motor begins turning, the inertia of the drive pinion assembly enables it to ride forward on the helix, thus 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 point, 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 in the 1930's with the overrunning-clutch design known as the Bendix Folo-Thru drive, made and launched in the 1960s. The Folo-Thru drive consists of a latching mechanism along with a set of flyweights in the body of the drive unit. This was an enhancement as the standard Bendix drive utilized so as to disengage from the ring when the engine fired, though it did not stay functioning.
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. 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 allows the overdriven drive unit to become spun out of engagement, thus unwanted starter disengagement could be prevented before a successful engine start.
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