Lever-assisted pinion in a starter motor
AssigneeMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAkira Morishita, Kyohei Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A starter motor in which the plunger of a solenoid switch supplying power to the starter motor also drives a lever through a return spring. The lever is connected on its other end to a pinion which moves along the output shaft of the starter motor to connect it to a ring gear of an engine to be started. The return spring biases the pinion away from the ring gear. The return spring and a drive rod acting on the lever are contained in a hollow of the solenoid plunger.
Claims6
A starter comprising:
- a motor comprising an armature and a field coil;
- an output shaft connected to said armature;
- a pinion coupled to said output shaft and movable therealong to selectively rotatably engage a ring gear, thereby transmitting rotational power of said output shaft to said ring gear;
- an electromagnetic switch mounted on said motor and including a solenoid plunger;
- a drive lever pivotally mounted on said motor and having one end coupled to said pinion in a direction of an axis of said output shaft;
- a drive rod for driving the other end of said drive lever and being slidably accommodated in said plunger and being magnetically attractable to said plunger;
- and
- a return spring for biasing said drive rod to thereby bias said pinion away from said ring gear and being accommodated in said plunger.
A starter as recited in claim 11, wherein said plunger includes a hollow and said return spring and at least part of said drive rod are contained in said hollow.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.