GB129463A - Improvements in and relating to Starting Apparatus for Internal Combustion Engines. - Google Patents

Abstract

129,463. Reynolds, C. H. July 18, 1918. Turning-gear.-In an electric starter in which a dynamo-electric machine can be operated as a motor to turn the engine through an epicyclic gear, or as an engine-driven generator, a clutch between the armature and the engine crankshaft is controlled by a lever which also controls a holding pawl for a member of the epicyclic gear. The pawl is removed to free the gear before the clutch is brought into engagement, thus avoiding the risk of damage in the event of backward rotation of the engine. In the form shown, the epicyclic gear comprises a sun-wheel a fixed on the armature shaft b, planet-wheels d on a carrier g secured to a pulley j or a sprocket or gear wheel in driving-connexion with a clutch member on the engine shaft, and an internally-toothed wheel i. When the machine is driven as a generator, pawls r on the spindles e of the planet-wheels engage internal teeth on the wheel i, and the gearing rotates as a whole. When the machine operates as a motor, external ratchet teeth on the wheel i are engaged by a pawl actuated by the core of a solenoid s in circuit with the motor. A pedal which switches on the current to the motor and the solenoid effects at the same time the release of the clutch on the engine shaft ; when the motor has been set in rotation, the pedal is released, cutting off the current, allowing the pawl to reengage the gear wheel i, and closing the clutch. The clutch is preferably employed to couple the two parts of an engine fly-wheel as described in Specification 123,342, the free portion of the flywheel being first set in rotation by the motor and then clutched to the fixed portion at the same time as the wheel i is released from its pawl.