Starters

An automobile self-starter (commonly "starter motor" or simply "starter") is an electric motor that initiates piston motion in a car's internal combustion engine before it can power itself. more...

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History

Both Otto cycle and Diesel cycle internal-combustion engines require the pistons to be moving before the ignition phase of the cycle. This means that the engine must be set in motion by an external force before it can power itself. Originally, a hand crank was used to start engines, but it was inconvenient and rather hard work to crank the engine up to speed. It was also highly dangerous.

Even though cranks had an overrun mechanism to prevent it, when the engine started, the crank could begin to spin along with the crankshaft. Additionally, care had to be taken to retard the spark in order to prevent backfiring: with wrong settings, the engine could kick back (run in reverse), pulling the crank with it, because the overrun safety mechanism works in one direction only.

Although users were advised to cup their fingers under the crank and pull up, it felt natural for operators to grasp the handle with the fingers on one side, the thumb on the other. Even a simple backfire could result in a broken thumb; it was possible to end up with a broken wrist, or worse. Moreover, increasingly larger engines with higher compression ratios made hand cranking a more physically demanding endeavor.

While the need was fairly obvious — as early as 1899, Clyde J. Coleman applied for U.S. Patent 745,157  for an electric automobile self-starter — inventing one that actually worked waited until 1911 when Charles F. Kettering of Dayton Electric Laboratories (DELCO) invented and filed for U.S. Patent 1,150,523  for the first useful electric starter. The starters were first installed by Cadillac on production models in 1912. These starters also worked as generators once the engine was running, a concept that is now being revived in hybrid vehicles. By 1920, most manufacturers included self-starters.

Electric starter

The modern starter motor is either a permanent-magnet or a series- or series-parallel wound direct current electric motor with a solenoid switch (similar to a relay) mounted on it. When current from the starting battery is applied to the solenoid, usually through a key-operated switch, it pushes out the drive pinion on the starter driveshaft and meshes the pinion with the ring gear on the flywheel of the engine.

The solenoid also closes high-current contacts for the starter motor, which begins to turn. Once the engine starts, the key-operated switch is opened, a spring in the solenoid assembly pulls the pinion gear away from the ring gear, and the starter motor stops. The starter's pinion is clutched to its driveshaft through an overrunning sprag clutch which permits the pinion to transmit drive in only one direction. In this manner, drive is transmitted through the pinion to the flywheel ring gear, but if the pinion remains engaged (as for example because the operator fails to release the key as soon as the engine starts), the pinion will spin independently of its driveshaft. This prevents the engine driving the starter, for such backdrive would cause the starter to spin so fast as to fly apart.

Read more at Wikipedia.org