Just what is a starter?

Just what is a starter?

The car starter works by harnessing the power of the automotive battery. The battery supplies electricity to the starter to engage and spin over the engine. Once the ignition key is turned to the start position the starter drive gear is pushed out of the starter housing and the gear makes contact with and turns the flywheel inside the engine. An electrical motor that causes the crankshaft of the engine to turn is called starter. This engine part makes the engine running and so, in turn, starts your vehicle. In other works, electrical energy is turned into mechanical energy.

Evolution of the Starter The starter has undergone major technical advances in an effort to improve longevity, offering more power as well as reducing weight and costs compared to earlier generations. LATE MODEL STARTERS More recent starters EARLY MODEL STARTERS The older model starters Offset Gear Reduction OSGR - The drive gear on an OSGR Starter runs off the Armature gear. They are off set which means the drive gear and motor rotate on different axis. Direct Drive DD- The drive gear on a DD starter is attached to the armature and utilizes the armature as the drive gear Permanent Magnet Gear Reduction PMGR - PMGR units are more efficient then DD because they don t need the battery to create magnetism in the field coils. Torque is created by having the armature spin at higher rpm s and uses a planetary gear to reduce the drive rpm s.

The starter consists of: Solenoid Drive Gear Armature Field Coils Brushes All of these parts except the solenoid are contained in an aluminum housing.

How a Starter works 1. SWITCH ON Once the key is inserted into the ignition switch and then turned to the start position, a tiny amount of current flow through the neutral safety switch and into the starter relay or starter solenoid. The starter motor then cranks the engine to enable the piston to create a suction drawing in the fuel and air mixture into the cylinder. The engine will then start as the spark created by the ignition system will ignite this mixture. 2. IGNITION Turning on the ignition switch allows a small amount of power from the battery to flow to the solenoid above the starter. When the low-current power from the starting battery is applied to the solenoid, oftentimes with a key-operated switch, it releases a small pinion gear on the starter motor's shaft and meshes it with the ring gear on the flywheel of the engine. 3. SOLENOID The solenoid is also responsible for closing out high-current contacts for the starter motor and it then starts to run. Once the engine starts, a key-operated switch is activated and a spring in the solenoid assembly pulls the pinion gear away from the ring gear which then causes the starter motor to stop. Modern auto starter motors are equipped with a "bendix," a gear and integral freewheel, or overrunning clutch, thereby allowing the flywheel to automatically disengage the pinion gear from the flywheel when the engine starts.

Starter Housing The housing is usually made up of die-cast aluminum. Aluminum is used because it is a nonmagnetic, lightweight material that provides good heat dissipation. Starter Drives This is the gear on the starter that engages the flywheel causing the engine to crank. Field Coils A field coil is any of several types of curved or looped material (a ) through which energy is inducted in a current in order to generate a change in the surrounding space (a field). There are two types of field coils in common use: Through which electricity is inducted to produce a magnetic field (also called an electromagnet field) Warp coil, through which electro-plasma is inducted to produce a warp field. Armature The armature in the starter motor is equipped with a movable drive gear. The Purpose of the drive gear is to engage the starter to the fly wheel which spins the engine. Commutator A commutator is a specialized slip ring typically used on Direct Current motors and electrical generators to transfer electrical power between the stationary housing and the rotating armature with the added purpose of reversing the electrical current direction Solenoid A solenoid is an electrical switch that allows the crank the engine by moving the drive gear into the fly wheel there by rotating the crank shaft. It supplies the high current needed to run the starter motor and also the force needed to engage the starter.