GB244978A - Improvements in or relating to means for controlling starters for internal combustion engines - Google Patents

Abstract

244,978. Trail, H. H. April 15, 1925. Starting prime movers.-An engine starter is automatically actuated to start the engine when current is switched on to the ignition system of the engine and is rendered inoperative, so long as the engine is running under its own power, by means influenced by the rotation of the engine. In the form shown the starter is of the rocking type comprising a housing 1 pivoted on the shaft 2 of the starting motor 3 and carrying a pinion 5 constantly in mesh with a pinion 4 on the shaft 2. On switching on the motor, the housing rocks to bring the pinion 5 into mesh with the engine gear 8. The starting switch 45 is connected by wires 46, 50 to a battery and an ignition circuit, and by a wire 49, solenoid 26, and wire 51 to an insulated contact 17 normally in engagement with a contact 18 carried by a piston 13 movable in a cylinder 12 connected to earth. At one end 14 the cylinder 12 is connected to the induction pipe of the engine, and at the end 15 it may be connected to a source of constant pressure such as the lubricating pump. When the switch 45 is turned on, current is supplied to the ignition system and to the solenoid 26, the core 30 of which closes a circuit 46<1> from the battery to the motor by means of contacts 31, 35. The rotation of the motor shaft brings the pinion 5 into mesh with the engine gear 8 and drives the engine shaft. The resulting suction in the end 14 of the cylinder 12 separates the contacts 17, 18 in the circuit of the solenoid 26; but the circuit of the solenoid is now maintained by contacts 36, 38, Fig. 1, until the engine starts and the pinion 5 swings away from the gear 8. The movement of the solenoid core. 30 then breaks the motor circuit at the contacts 31. 35. If the engine stops while the switch 45 remains .closed, the stoppage of suction in the cylinder 12 allows the contacts 17, 18 to be re-engaged, causing the solenoid 26 to switch on the starting motor. In modifications, the swinging pinion 5 is replaced by a pinion moving axially on a screwthreaded armature shaft, and the contact 18 is carried by a diaphragm instead of by the piston 13.