Starter — general description

The internal combustion engine drives a small electric motor called a starter. In order to be able to start the engine at all, the starter must be accelerated to a speed of at least 300 rpm. This can only be done if the starter is working properly and the battery is sufficiently charged.

The starter consists of a drive housing, a pole housing and a collector housing. An armature and a commutator, as well as a carbon brush holder, are mounted on bearings in the pole housing and the collector housing. The brush holder contains carbon brushes, which wear out slowly but constantly. With high wear of the carbon brushes, the starter can no longer work normally.

A gear drive is installed in the front drive housing. When, after turning on the ignition, the starter receives voltage, with the help of a traction relay mounted on the starter housing, the gear is shifted along a steep thread to the gear rim of the engine flywheel. As soon as the gear reaches the limiter on the lead screw, it is force-locked to the flywheel. The engine starter can now be set to the required starting speed. If the car engine accelerates, the gear is accelerated by the engine, therefore, it rotates faster than the starter motor for a while and disengages, thereby eliminating the connection between the gear and the internal combustion engine. Since a high current consumption is required to start the engine, a perfect connection of the wires must be paid attention to during maintenance. Clean correlated wire connections and lubricate with anti-acid pole grease.