JPH0742655A - Engine starting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To secure the integral rotation of a pinion shaft with an inner race while allowing the axial movement of the pinion shaft so as to improve wear resistance by fitting the pinion shaft slidably to the inner race of a ball bearing, mounted to the front wall of a casing, through a spline. CONSTITUTION:The front end part of a driving shaft 8 driven by a starting motor 4 is supported at the front wall 1a of a casing 1 through a pinion shaft 13 slidably and rotatably fitted to the driving shaft 8. An advance sleeve 40 slidably spline-fitted to the driving shaft 8 is connected to the pinion shaft 13. With the sleeve 40 axially shifted by an electromagnetic actuating device 28, a pinion 13a formed at the front end of the pinion shaft 13 is moved between an advance position A and a retreat position B in relation to the ring gear 27 of an engine. In such a device, the pinion shaft 13 is slidably fitted to the inner race 15i of a ball bearing 15, mounted on the front wall 1a, through a spline 53.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an engine starter, and more particularly, to a casing of a casing having a front end portion of a drive shaft driven by a starter motor fitted through a pinion shaft slidably and rotatably fitted to the drive shaft. It is supported on the front wall, and an advance sleeve slidably fitted to the drive shaft is connected to this pinion shaft, and this advance sleeve is axially shifted by an electromagnetic actuator to form at the front end of the pinion shaft. The present invention relates to an improved pinion that is moved between a retracted position where it is disengaged from an engine ring gear and an advanced position where it is meshed with the ring gear.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Such an engine starting device has already been proposed by the present applicant (see Japanese Patent Application No. 4-153877).

[0003]

Such a starting device is effective in achieving compactness in the axial direction by supporting the front end of the drive shaft on the front wall of the housing via the pinion shaft fitted to the drive shaft. Is. However, although the pinion shaft fitted to the drive shaft has a relatively large diameter and causes rotation and axial movement, in the above proposal, the pinion shaft is simply passed through a plain bearing. Since it is supported on the front wall of the housing, the frictional load on the sliding parts of the pinion shaft and the bearing is large, and their wear resistance may become a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide the engine starting device in which the wear resistance of the pinion shaft and the bearing is improved.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is, in the engine starting device, capable of sliding a pinion shaft through an spline on an inner race of a ball bearing mounted on a front wall of a casing. It is characterized in that it is fitted to.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is started. 1, a casing 1 of the engine starter includes a front wall 1a and an intermediate wall 1b in order from the right side in the figure.
And a rear wall 1c, a pinion chamber 2 is provided between the front wall 1a and the intermediate wall 1b, and a gear chamber 3 is provided between the intermediate wall 1b and the rear wall 1c.
Are defined respectively. The front end of the stator 5 of the starting motor 4 is joined to the rear wall 1c, and the front end of the rotor shaft 6 of the starting motor 4 is rotatably supported via the roller bearing 7. A rear end of the drive shaft 8 penetrating the pinion chamber 2 is rotatably supported on the intermediate wall 1b via a plain bearing 9.

The rotor shaft 6 and the drive shaft 8 are eccentric to each other by a predetermined distance and arranged in parallel, and are connected to each other in the gear chamber 3 via a speed reducer 10. This reducer 10
Is composed of a small-diameter external gear 11 cut on the rotor shaft 6 and a large-diameter internal gear 12 that is connected to the drive shaft 8 and meshes with the external gear 11.

The drive shaft 8 is rotatably and slidably supported by a pinion shaft 13 via a plain bearing 14 at the front end thereof, and the pinion shaft 13 is mounted on the front wall 1 of the casing 1.
It is rotatably and slidably supported by a through a ball bearing 15. Therefore, the front wall 1a has the pinion shaft 13
The front end of the drive shaft 8 is supported via the.

The plain bearing 14 is fixed to the inner peripheral surface of the front end of the pinion shaft 13, and a hollow portion 16 adjacent to the rear end of the plain bearing 14 and having an open rear end is provided in the pinion shaft 13. A pinion 13a is formed on the outer periphery of the front end portion of the pinion shaft 13 that projects outside the casing 1.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the casing 1
A bearing housing 51 that opens inwardly of the casing 1 is formed on the front wall 1a of the casing 1, and the outer race 15o of the ball bearing 15 is fitted therein and fixed by a circlip 52. Also the inner race 15i
The pinion shaft 13 is slidably fitted to the pinion shaft 13 via a spline 53.

Referring again to FIG. 1, an overrunning clutch 17 capable of transmitting torque from the former to the latter only in one direction is interposed between the drive shaft 8 and the pinion shaft 13.
The overrunning clutch 17 includes a clutch case 19 integrated with an advance sleeve 40 slidably fitted to the outer periphery of the drive shaft 8 via a helical spline 18, and an inner peripheral surface of the clutch case 19. A plurality of clutch rollers 20 are provided, and the rear end portion of the pinion shaft 13 is inserted into the clutch case 19 so as to sandwich the clutch rollers 20.

The helical spline 18 can convert a part of the rotational torque of the drive shaft 8 into a forward (rightward in the figure) thrust with respect to the advance sleeve 40.

The clutch case 19 and the pinion shaft 13 are
The cover plate 21 and the circlip 22 are connected so that they can rotate relative to each other but cannot move relative to each other in the axial direction. Thus, the pinion shaft 13 is the clutch case 1
9 can slide on the drive shaft 8 between the retracted position A and the advanced position B, and at the retracted position A, the pinion 13
a is disengaged from the ring gear 27 of the engine, and the pinion 13a is meshed with the ring gear 27 at the forward position.

The retracted position A of the pinion shaft 13 is restricted by the rear surface of the advance sleeve 40 contacting the annular shoulder 24 formed on the drive shaft 8 adjacent to the rear of the helical spline 18, and the retracted position A is advanced. Is regulated by the front end of the advance sleeve 40 contacting an annular pinion stopper 26 fixed to the drive shaft 8 by a locking ring 25 in the hollow portion 16 of the pinion shaft 13.

A pinion shaft 13 is provided on one side of the starting motor 4.
An electromagnetic actuating device 28 for moving back and forth is provided. The housing 29 of the electromagnetic actuator 28 includes the casing 1 of the
It is fixed to the rear end of the laterally bulging portion 1d that is continuous with the front wall 1a. The housing 29 accommodates and supports a solenoid 30 and a fixed core 31 connected to the rear end of the solenoid 30.
The movable core 32 facing 1 is disposed in the hollow portion of the solenoid 30. The movable core 32 is integrally provided with an operating rod 32a protruding into the bulging portion 1d, and the operating rod 32a is connected to the advance sleeve 40 via a lever 33.

That is, one end of the lever 33 is connected to the operating rod 3
The connecting hole 37 at the front end of 2a is engaged, and the other end is engaged with an annular groove 38 on the outer circumference of the advance sleeve 40 via a roller 39. The intermediate portion of the lever 33 is the operating rod 3
A slider 3 supported by the casing 1 so as to be movable back and forth within a range of a small stroke between the 2a and the clutch case 19.
4 is swingably supported by a pivot shaft 35, and the slider 34 is biased forward (rightward in the figure) by a damper spring 36. Therefore, when a large rearward impact force is applied to the lever 33, the slider 34 retracts while compressing the damper spring 36, so that the impact force can be alleviated.

A return spring 43 for urging the operating rod 32a forward is attached to the operating rod 32a, and its elastic force acts on the advance sleeve 40 via the lever 33 as a retracting force.

The starting motor 4 is provided at the rear end of the electromagnetic actuator 28.
A start switch 44 for activating the is attached. The start switch 44 includes a switch case 45 fixed to the rear end of the electromagnetic actuator 28, a pair of fixed contacts 46 and 46 fixedly mounted on the switch case 45, and the switch case 4.
5, there is a movable contact 47 facing the fixed contacts 46, 46, and the movable contact 47 is urged by an opening spring 48 in a direction away from the fixed contacts 46, 46.

The movable contact 47 is held by a holding spring 50 on a rod 49 which slidably penetrates through the central portion of the fixed core 31 and faces the movable core 32.

The solenoid 30 is connected to a power source via a starting switch (not shown), and the starting motor 4 is connected to a power source via a starting switch 44.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

The movable core 32 is moved by closing a start switch (not shown) and energizing the solenoid 30 of the electromagnetic actuator 28.
Is attracted to the fixed core 31, and the lever 33 is swung counterclockwise in FIG. 1 around the pivot shaft 41 against the return spring 43, and the lever 33 moves the advance sleeve 40 forward. Along with this, the pinion shaft 13 moves to the forward drive position B regulated by the pinion stopper 26 to mesh the pinion 13a with the ring gear 27 of the engine.

When the pinion 13a meshes with the ring gear 27, the movable core 32 presses the actuating rod 32a to bring the movable contact 47 of the starting switch 44 into contact with both fixed contacts 46 and 46, so that the starting switch 44 is closed and the starting motor is closed. 4 is activated.

When the starting motor 4 operates, the rotor shaft 6 decelerates and drives the drive shaft 8 via the speed reducer 10, and further the advance sleeve 40 and the overrunning clutch 1 are operated.
Since the pinion shaft 13 is driven via 7, the pinion 1
The ring gear 27 meshing with 3a rotates, the engine is cranked, and the engine can be started.

When the pinion shaft 13 is rotated at a high speed from the ring gear 27 side with this start, the overrunning clutch 17 is in a free state, so that transmission of reverse load to the drive shaft 8 is prevented.

After the start, when the start switch is turned off and the solenoid 28 is deenergized, the return action of the return spring 43 causes the movable core 32 and the advance sleeve 40 to return to their original positions, so that the pinion shaft 13 retreats and the ring gear moves. Leave from 27. On the other hand, in the start switch 44, the movable contact 47 moves the fixed contacts 46, 4 due to the action of the opening spring 48.
Since it is separated from 6, the starting motor 4 is stopped.

By the way, since the pinion shaft 13 is slidably fitted to the inner race 15i of the ball bearing 15 mounted on the front wall 1a of the casing 1 through the spline 53, the pinion shaft 13 is axially movable. When moving,
Smooth sliding can be generated between the pinion shaft 13 and the inner race 15i, and when the pinion shaft 13 rotates, the pinion shaft 13 rotates the inner race 15i via the spline 53 to cause a slip therebetween. It is possible to operate the ball bearing 15 without fail. This improves the wear resistance of the ball bearing 15 as well as the pinion shaft 13.

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
The configuration is similar to that of the previous embodiment except that the collar 54 to which the pinion shaft 13 is slidably fitted via the spline 53 is press-fitted and coupled to the inner race 15i of the ball bearing 15. The parts corresponding to the examples are denoted by the same reference numerals. According to this embodiment, as the ball bearing 15, there is an advantage that a general type having no spline on the inner race can be used.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the pinion shaft is slidably fitted to the inner race of the ball bearing mounted on the front wall of the casing via the spline, the axial movement of the pinion shaft is achieved. Therefore, it is possible to ensure the integral rotation of the pinion shaft and the inner race of the ball bearing. Therefore, it is possible to prevent rotational slippage and improve the wear resistance of the pinion shaft and the bearing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view in which a main part of an engine starting device according to a first embodiment of the present invention is longitudinally cut.

2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 2, showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Casing 1a ... Front wall 4 ... Starting motor 8 ... Drive shaft 13 ... Pinion shaft 13a ... Pinion 15 ... Ball bearing 15i・ ・ ・ Inner race 27 ・ ・ ・ Ring gear 28 ・ ・ ・ Electromagnetic actuator 40 ・ ・ ・ ・ Advance sleeve 53 ・ ・ ・ ・ Spline A ・ ・ ・ Reverse position B ・ ・ ・ Advance position

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A casing () having a front end portion of a drive shaft (8) driven by a starter motor (4) via a pinion shaft (13) slidably and rotatably fitted on the drive shaft (8). It is supported on the front wall (1a) of 1), and this pinion shaft (1
An advance sleeve (40) slidably fitted to the drive shaft (8) is connected to 3), and the advance sleeve (40) is axially shifted by an electromagnetic actuator (28), whereby a pinion is provided. The pinion (13a) formed at the front end of the shaft (13) is moved between a retracted position (A) disengaged from the ring gear (27) of the engine and an advanced position (B) that meshes with the ring gear (27). In the engine starting device thus configured, the pinion shaft (13) can be slid on the inner race (15i) of the ball bearing (15) mounted on the front wall (1a) of the casing (1) via the spline (53). An engine starter characterized by being fitted together.